Is there anywhere that I can get information on the NC topics likely to be covered in order to give my ds a head start?

[StarlightMcKenzie]

The class teacher promised she give us the topics and likely vocabulary 10 days in advance so we could work on it with ds at home before it is introduced at nursery, - but whilst she started with enthusiasm at the beginning of the year she takes a huge amount of chasing and I'd rather not go through that again at reception, just figure it out for myself.

Any ideas?

How old is your ds and what exactly do you mean by topics?

If the school is following EYFS principles and planning to children's interests she may not know 10 days in advance what the topic will be. I know it wouldn't be possible in our nursery and reception. Can I ask why you feel you need to have a head start?

He's 4. Like today I found out that they went for a walk around their neighbourhood looking at houses, terraced, bungalows and flats, and I found out by accident that they are learning about different building materials a la 3 little pigs.

I would have liked to have known in advance as was agreed. Even if not completely accurate, a general gist of what is likely to be taught would be helpful.

Are there any websites or guidelines or information or books?

It says it in his statement.

sorry, that last one was for mrz

Why do you need to know?

He's 4 and learning through play at the moment - why do you feel the need to coach him before school does it?

Why on earth do you want to prep your 4 year old and spoil their lesson before they've had it?

I can understand wanting to know what they have done today at nursery/school so you can chat about it and reinforce what has been learnt - but tell him everything in advance?!

I'm afraid not as there are no set topics schools are free to deliver the curriculum to suit the needs and interest of their pupils

Cross posts - sorry.

Perhaps you should have mentioned that he has SEN in your op?

If it's something that the statement says should be happening and it isn't despite continually asking his teacher perhaps you should speak to his headteacher?

Sorry but I still don't understand

Has she started retrospective planning? Lots of settings do it now.

my understanding from previous threads is that starlights DS has SEN and I can see that for some children the lesson would be so more useful if parents could prepare their DCs for what is likely to be covered.

We provide respite care for a boy with various SN and he needs oodles of prep just to be able to cope let alone access and benefit from the curriculum. If he stays with us overnight we are always told what he will be doing the next day in school so we can mention it repeatedly.

During group times and carpet time, he sits in the right place but doesn't understand that he is supposed to listen to the teacher.

If she is talking about something he is interested in (because we have made it his very favourite topic at home first) then we are hoping he'll gradually learn that sitting on the carpet is for listening to the teacher because she has something interesting to say.

We also hope that it will better enable him to make sense of the teaching etc. if he already has some of the vocabulary to hook it onto.

The way we work we wouldn't be able to tell you even the night before I'm afraid as like Panzee says we plan retrospectively.

What is retrospective planning?

At the nursery we have been to, they issue is a loose list of things to cover at the start of half term (shapes, numbers, colours) but really they are free to adapt the day to what the children are keen on.

Like others have said, I don't think NC starts until at least Y1 and even then the topics the schools will cover will differ.

But the national curriculum is based on 'something'. How can I find out what it is based on?

It will be very hard for the school to tell you what topics they are covering in advance, as much of the learning is child led. Ie, child is exposed to various things, shows an interest in something, and learning is tailored to that. Sometimes if a child shows an interest in something it can be expanded upon in lots of different ways to cover all areas of the curriculum.

Basically, they will be following the EYFS, part of which are the areas of learning and development. There are six of them, problem solving, reasoning and numeracy; physical development; creative development; personal social and emotional development; communication language and literacy; knowledge and understanding of the world.

You might find it useful to ask the nursery how they do their planning and incorporate the children's individual needs, and ask to see their evaluations.

As your child is so young, good things to concentrate on at home are things like doing puzzles, playdough and messy activities, simple board games, threading toys, anything that requires fine motor skills, doing cooking and looking at the numbers for measurements and what happens to the ingredients and talking about it. When children are so young you can teach them so much just by doing what they naturally enjoy, it's just that sometimes parents find it hard to know what a child is learning from each activity.

A lot of the NC is skills based - you are requiring vocab and concrete topics.

Our school gives us a sheet with the themes for each key area for that term. We are asked to encourage and support our dc to learn at home around those themes and topics.

Each day varies in its content as they're happy to run with whatever is taking the childrens interest at that time.

Thank you bubble. I am more interested in the topics because my ds' needs are social and communication and his general understanding of the social world.

I do understand his needs and his learning extremely well, and I do a massive amount with him at home, but I wanted to coordinate it with the school to ensure that he can benefit from the structured sessions and learn the skills that will be essential for when he enters year 1 and demands are beginning to be made of him.

I think it might be the knowledge and understanding of his world that will be the most crucial. I have no concerns about his literacy and numeracy. Whilst it is concrete he'll fly way ahead of his peers (provided he understands what the teacher is asking of him).

I find it hard to believe though, that the teacher just turns up in the morning and waits for the class to come in before deciding what todo.

I am sure they don't! But at least until Y1 the topics they will cover will be down to the class teacher or the school. And even from Y1 the knowledge and skills from the NC will not follow any big database - Key Stage 1 is a couple of years long and only the actual school will be able to tell you what is covered and when.

Yes captain. I would have loved to have known that they were doing a 'topic' on chinese new year (god only knows how they expect nt 4yr olds to know what china is, much less a 'year' ) and if my ds had known just 'something' about it in advance he might have been motivated to look at the whiteboard instead of flap his hands in front of his eyes.

I'm very new to this, so bear with me. It only occured to me yesterday that the school might have been doing something on 'Easter'. I've skipped Easter every year so far because I expect it to go over ds' head (as did Christmas) but it might have helped if we'd at least talked about it at home first.

It sounds to me like you have to hope he has the kind of teacher you can build up a good relationship with and ask him/her to give you as much advance notice of topics as possible - maybe offer your email address etc.

There are a lot of projects and topics that tend to be covered in rotation at most primaries, eg 'people who help us' (fire service, police etc), healthy eating, the Romans, the Tudors etc so I would guess most schools might be able to let you know what the main projects for the next half term or so will be, but a lot of the day to day detail will probably be more short-notice stuff.

'only the actual school will be able to tell you what is covered and when.'

Gosh this is so frustrating. Right, so is there a big database from which schools pick and choose from for KS1? From which I can break down into a more basic level and assume that this 'could' be what the nursery teacher is doing in order to begin the prep for Yr 1?