do 'low' reports at end of nursery matter?

[ButteryPie]

DD1 has just finished nursery, and they gave me a folder with little ticks next to what she can do - ie 'can count to five independently', and I know for a fact that they are lower than reality - ie she counts to twenty easily when playing games etc, and to 100 with prompting, but they have her as only counting to five when prompted. She loved the nursery, dd2 is still there, and I don't see nursery as a formal learning environment anyway, so am inclined to just smile and nod.

However, it has just occured to me that they pass the reports on to school - does it matter at all? I suppose either way, all children of this age will change hugely over the summer anyway, right?

By count to 5 it means counting 5 objects not reciting numbers

Chill

I've never worked in Foundation stage but AFSIK they can only 'tick' something if they've observed her doing it completely independently of her own volition. 'Adult led' observations don't count I believe (although I could be wrong). So some things you know she can do may just not have arisen through her child led play.

The 'Foundation Stage Goals' are not completed until the end of Reception anyway and her Reception teacher will make her own judgements of your daughter's progress and next steps. Don't worry!

It upsets me that this box-ticking and formal assessment already starts in nursery. Parents start stressing about the achievement of their 3/4 year old, but at the same time they are told that they are all developing at their own pace and that it's not a race! If its not a race then we shouldn't need EYFS goals/assessment and even KS1 assessment.

Why can't they just encourage what these small children are interested in and watch them grow and learn, as they do in Sweden or Norway.

As previously said they need to be independent observed. My DD had completed the reception Maths syllabus by the time she ended nursery, but yet had not been observed counting to 10 independently and in fact was never observed doing this - as she didn't see the point in counting out loud when she can do it perfectly well in her head.
So yes I would smile and nod, if she can change her own clothes, do up her shoes, wipe her own bottom, sit quietly on the carpet and play nicely with other children the reception class teacher will love her .

Assessment in the foundation stage is based on 80% from child initiated learning and 20% from adult initiated in both cases the child needs to be doing it independently with no adult prompting or support

Yes it is bad
Your child will be put in the bottom stream for all her GCSEs and as for A levels? Forget it!

Seriouslythough what do you think?l

Don't worry!
I thought my ds1 a genius after his nursery report. He is doing fine [6 now] but ain't no genius....

:) I thought it didn't matter, but I wanted to check. She uses buttons to work out sums at home, so she can definitely count objects, she can use money in relatively simple situations, she can do all that dressing herself malarkey, although she's still not 100% on getting to the toilet (not through lack of trying, but stuff in her life has made her regress a bit in that area)

Sorry, I'm more nervous about school than she is!

Our LEA had templates for the nursery reports which gave a child a maximum of 3 on the EYFS chart thingy. So even if your child was Einstein, you'd still just get the tick for counting to five.

Similarly in Reception, DS1's teacher told me at the summer parents evening that he was secure in counting to twenty. I nearly fell off my seat as he often wanders around saying "did you know, three sixteens are forty eight" etc. Teacher spotted this and said, I know he can do more, it's just this is the scale we have to assess him on.

So the problem could be the assessment not the bad report reflecting the child's ability