Reception table colour

[Fourunderfourx]

DD just stared reception and has told me she's at the red table, there are 3 different colours. Does the colour of the table have anything to do with the child's ability or is it just random? She attended the nursery attached to the school and they did an assessment and report for the transfer to the school so was thinking it was maybe based on that?

@AvengedQuince lol yeah. Tbf DS figured out what it meant to be on the back row of the carpet quickly too.

Wouldn’t mean anything at my school. Especially not at this point in the year. They’ve been in reception for a couple of days at most? Any decent school will NOT have ability grouped them 2 days into their very first year at school. How would they have made the judgement about their ability? They barely know them!
They may have working groups but it will be nothing to do with ability right now. Or at least it shouldn’t have!

At this point in reception it won't be ability, the class teacher has no idea on ability of the child until the baseline assessment is done and observations within the classroom are happening

They did a report in nursery attached to the school and the staff in nursery and p.1 work together to decide which class each child goes into. DD came home on the first day with a drawing she'd done and written her name on which she said she had done with the teacher so id wondered if they were seeing which children could write their names etc

Meant nothing at the last two schools I worked at.

At my school it wouldn’t mean a thing.

I agree with a PP that it isn't necessarily the case that children don't catch on. In my DD's school the teachers are completely direct about it all. They obviously won't name names of other children on the table, so they won't be saying 'red table is where Jacob, Martha, Esme and Sam sit, and they're all much slower than green table'. But IME they will tell you quite directly whether your child is ahead of expectations, achieving expectations, or behind, and you can work it out from that.

Don't worry about it, though. My DD is pretty behind on reading. She gets upset she can't read the books she'd like to read; she minds that people in her class who are younger are much further ahead. But I've never once heard her be upset she's on a table with other children of similar abilities, and being with others learning at the same pace has helped her hugely, because they all do the same things at the same time. I would imagine this will also be true for the other tables right up to the ones who are really ahead.

There were five groups with different sea animals for English and shapes for Maths when DS started, though listed in ability order on the wall and shapes were in order of how many sides so it wasn't hard to work out even without a four year old explaining it to me! He was the only child in two groups for English due to the gap between his reading and writing, and nothing really changed between reception and GCSE there.

Really hope they don't have ability groups in reception! They shouldn't be sitting at set tables. I think she may have just meant for snack OP.

I'm sure you mean this nicely - but why shouldn't they have ability groups?

They will have nursery records especially if they have been in the school nursery. There is almost a year between the youngest and the oldest which is a big deal in Reception. You can't expect them all to be able to do the thing. Of course you need to flexible about this and will have a better idea after the baseline assessment.

Second this. How do you handle a four year old reading a year or two ahead together with a four year old who doesn't know which way you turn the pages?

You can usually work it out by looking at what reading books the kids are on, and there will often be an "obvious" top and bottom table....

But it means little at this age, and they can soon switch.

Yes that was my worry as DD is one of the youngest in the year but the child she is sitting beside has a January birthday and I know both had good reports, highest box marked for most areas as I had spoken to their parent previously. We have a PT meeting in October so it may be brought up then

Can I ask if you work in early years? I do one day a week in eyfs.
I just disagree with this approach entirely but that’s a matter of personal preference. I don’t think ability groups at this stage is helpful at all.
Especially if they’re being worked out on the basis of nursery records.
Ability groups for certain things perhaps (phonics, number work), when you’ve had some time to baseline and get to know your children but in the first week of their first term at school.

I am a retired Early Years teacher. I worked in Nursery and Reception for over 30 years. The children don't have to be sitting at the table, the groups may only be in your head, but there will be a range of different abilities to cater to. I would have had the children in for visits for several weeks beforehand and got a fair idea about them but I wouldn't actually have set groups after two days. Even after the baseline the groupings would be fluid. At my school we had to assess every 6 weeks and set targets based on this. I hated it but it wasn't my choice.

Really don't worry. DS had never even picked up a pen before starting Reception. Seems to have made it to being a fully functional adult.

Our red table in Reception was so called due to the red chairs around it. It had no bearing whatsoever on ability.
Children aren’t generally grouped by ability so early on in the school year, or in Reception. Also, the children don’t spend very much time sitting at their tables in Early Years.

No reception class should have children sitting at tables this early on the year.. ask the teacher for clarification.

(From a reception class teacher).

@AvengedQuince the input from the EYFS staff will be adapted based on the staff knowledge of each child, not based on what ability table they are sat on

It seems to be sitting for their break time to eat but I think it's also to help get them used to sitting at the table in groups, DD has been in full time daycare till 5 since 1 but I know for others this is relatively new

They did reading in groups when DS was in infants. Different groups had different level books.

I've never heard of ability grouping by tables in reception. Most reception classes don't even have enough seats at tables to have the whole class sat down at once, since it is supposed to be play based. Most classes have the teacher sitting at a table and they work with a very small group at a time, especially this early on in reception, calling them over to work with them and then sending them off to play again. Or the teacher is working in the provision with the children. Sounds strange to me. Could be that she was literally sat on a red coloured table.

If it is ability they will likely move around a lot. My dds reception class only had one table with 8 chairs and they went up in small groups (which varied) to do bits of work with the teacher sometimes. The year one classes are mixed ability tables with ability set groups for phonics. It will depend on the school but definitely not something I'd be worrying about.

I doubt they'd have sorted them by ability already. Even with a nursery report surely there are children who weren't in the school nursery/went to other nurseries/weren't in a nursery or pre school..

@AvengedQuince
Yes, in infants, not day three of reception when the majority of the cohort haven't begun phase 2 phonics.

There may eventually be points to here group work is done and planned for a particular ability level, but reception is about so much more than reading and writing. The early years curriculum is holistic. So yes, a child may be able to read, but they may not understand that biting others isn't generally well received. So groups like the above only work when children are able to self-regulate and understand turn taking etc.