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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Bemused by reception education

20 replies

fifitot · 24/03/2011 21:40

Attended DDs parent's evening this week. I am amazed at the feedback the teacher gave me. I wanted to know about how she socialised, her interests and behaviour............all of this took second place behind how many of the 38 high frequency words she can recognise, what 3d shapes she knows and how long it takes her to count out on her fingers. She's only 4.

I am so naive, did not realise just how target driven education is, even at this age. Why? I

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MerylStrop · 24/03/2011 21:50

Yep. It's daft.

Though I have found if you tell the teacher that you don't really give a stuff about the academic targets, they relax, smile and tell you about the things you do care about.

LOTS of parents do (only) care about the target stuff though.

MigratingCoconuts · 24/03/2011 21:53

totally agree!

coppertop · 24/03/2011 21:56

It's not like that in all schools. Dd's parents evenings are about how she's settled in, how she behaves, how she gets on with others, and any particular interests she has.

MerryMarigold · 24/03/2011 21:56

Depends on school and poss even teacher. We spent 20mins with teacher at ds1's parents evening (he's also Reception) and purely talked about his behaviour, his confidence, his friendships. Didn't touch on anything academic. But now parents are moaning that the kids in our school are behind. (Ds1 certainly wouldn't recognise any of the 38 target words, but he is figuring out how to spell things out )!

MerryMarigold · 24/03/2011 21:56

ps. we are in a mixed area. Lots of non english speaking families, so maybe they are less 'target driven' in general.

GoldenGreen · 24/03/2011 21:57

Just has parents' evening for ds and had exactly the opposite experience - lots about socialisation and v little about targets - must vary a lot from school to school.

PoppetUK · 24/03/2011 22:09

DS's teacher spoke about both academic and social side and gave examples. The only thing that was slightly off was a couple of targets but then not every task is completed with the teacher so it's just evidence based from his folder of work (4 and 5 year olds are certainly not going to perform to their best on every single task)

mrz · 25/03/2011 06:37

Doesn't sound typical
why are they even teaching high frequency words? they were replaced about 5 years ago!

captainbarnacle · 25/03/2011 19:18

how she socialised, her interests and behaviour

Absolutely. This is what we talked about as DSs parents' evening this week. This is the only thing which was written down. I have no idea what High Frequency Words are - we don't do those. The teacher was pleased that DS is keen at reading and is blending his words. I live in a rural area.

Your experience sounds quite odd to me!

Original poster

fifitot · 25/03/2011 21:13

Not sure it's odd. Seems the norm for the area we live I think. High Frequency Words -think they are from the National Literacy Strategy and are linked to what has to be achieved by Key Stage 1. Apparently.

Seems like it depends where you are from influences what you get in terms of feedback. Am happy with the school in general, just suprised at how technical the feedback was for the stage DD is at.

OP posts:

cory · 26/03/2011 09:55

Perhaps yours is a more competitive area than ours and the teacher has got the impression that this is what most parents want to hear about?

Goblinchild · 26/03/2011 09:57

What words are they learning in reception now mrz?

MerryMarigold · 26/03/2011 10:07

goblin, I don't know about mrs z's school, but in ds1's school they are starting with phonics and learning to read that way, they don't know 'the', 'I','a' etc. (which I do think is a bit strange) but they start with sad, mad, bad, cat, hat, fish, shop, in, on, up etc. They practise being able to read 'phonetic' words - by sounding out - quickly (so even, for example, dragon), and maybe introduce some of the high frequency non-phonetic words like 'the' on the way through, but they don't start with those.

coccyx · 26/03/2011 10:42

Completely agree with you OP, but believe me the parents get worse, never mind the poor teachers

mrz · 26/03/2011 10:56

At my school we teach children to decode words using phonics and "tricky" words such as the and was and said are introduced and the "tricky" phoneme is pointed out along with words that contain the same "tricky"part, so was with what and want
The DfE (well DCSF as it was) produced a list of 100 words and highlighted the tricky ones to read - 32 in reception

MerryMarigold · 26/03/2011 10:58

That sounds like it, mrs z! (But ds1 not got as far as the tricky ones yet)

mrz · 26/03/2011 11:12

I would start the tricky ones straight away as children need these for even simple sentences.

MerryMarigold · 26/03/2011 11:14

They are doing ruth miskin. I don't know what order they teach it, but he hasn't brought home any tricky ones. I do agree with you though.

Goblinchild · 26/03/2011 11:34

'The DfE (well DCSF as it was) produced a list of 100 words and highlighted the tricky ones to read - 32 in reception'

Are those the ones in Letters and Sounds mrz, phase 2?
(Y6 teacher bewilderment)
I ought to go and have a look see in my PPA time really, to see what the Land of the Littlies are doing now.

mrz · 26/03/2011 11:41

There are 6 words in phase 2
12 in phase 3
14 in phase 4
by the end of reception it is expected that most children will read these and be able to spell the 18 words in phase 2 & 3

a further 9 are introduced in phase 5 (Y1)

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