What should they be able to do when the enter reception?

[witherhills]

is this a question for the school or for the nursery?

Went to visit a school today and the reception class were doing their numbers, year 1 were doing an exercise that DS has already done at nursery, and yr 2 were reading books that I read at 5
My niece is an advanced reader, but at 9 is reading books I read at 6.
Teaching methods have changed so much since I was at school, how can I find out what DS should be doing?
Do I start to teach hm to read? I have no clue about the phonics system
Maybe I should do a pgce to get up to date!

If they can get dressed, put shoes and coat on, go to the loo independantly, eat with knife and fork and sit still for 5 minutes then the teacher will be happy. Identifying their own name and maybe writing it is a bonus.

They should be doing what they're capable of. There are no limits.

What COMT said. Personal skills - sharing, sitting still, listening, toileting, eating properly, saying please and thank you - are far more important than being able to read or write. DS couldn't read or write when he started reception, he is doing fine now (five weeks in).

I'm really happy to leave the teaching up to the teachers, they are qualified and know what they are doing. I'm happy to take it at their pace. His nursery is absolutely fantastic and my concern is that they will have covered a lot of the stuff already.
Tbh, from looking at the class today, I'm a bit worried he might be a bit bored, and he gets really restless then, but they can manage that, right?
Pfb, can you tell?!

tbh id be unhappy if nursery were involved in formal teaching - thats whats schools for - dd2's nursery has a trampoline, 3 play houses, veg patch, rabbits, ducks, sandpit, climbing frames in addition to indoor stuff -i'd be gutted if she weren't spending that precious time having fun! Plenty of time for learning - social skills are the only thing i want her learning now!

He will still enjoy reception as its all taught through play but from dd1 experience of reception last year they cover everything from scratch as a group anyway.

They don't spend a lot of time sitting formally at desks in reception. supposed to be a lot of learning through play

My DS's nursery do a lot of learning through play and he's come on leaps and bounds since he turned 3 - he's fab with numbers (I get a running tally of bus numbers all the way to nursery & back EVERYDAY [yawn]) and he's mastered left and right (I think because everybody goes on about him being a leftie) and can read his name (helps it's only 3 letters) and write his initials but they never 'sit down for lessons'
I'm personally just relieved that he's finally started to wipe his own bum

At nursery they did letter, shapes and numbers but nothing formal. If a child was interested ok, they did more but didn't press.

The school, on the first parent evening before starting, they asked to help the child to be independent. Dressing, going to the toilet, eating with cutlery, being aware of their own property (bags, coats etc).

DD is now 6 weeks into school and we are now asked to practice letters and sounds and reading a book each day.

Your DS is expected to do very little academically in many schools. Reception classes vary widely in what they do - look around to see which school will suit your DS and you. Maybe you won't have a choice if you are going state and the schools are oversubscribed.

Some reception kids have done nothing but play so far. Which is fine for some kids but not for others.

If you want to teach your child to read you need to use phonics, I didn't learn by phonics but DC was reading before she started reception.

Choose a pre-school carefully is my recommendation. I really don't expect my DS to do as much as my DD could do before she started school boys do tend to be later in pencil control and often at reading but they are all so different.

"I'm worried he might be a bit bored"

If I had a pound for every time I had read that on MN I would be a very rich woman.

See that's the thing, I'm not sure whether the activities he is doing at nursery are advanced or whether they do similar things for first 2 years of school.
E.g year 1 were doing a measuring exercise, finding things that were bigger/smaller
DS has done that and could do it easily. Now I don't know if he would get bored doing it again.
He is really active and needs a lot of stimulation
In the reception class they were doing numbers1-20. He already knows those
There's no formal learning in his nursery, not learning to read, he can write his name and numbers and recognises letters, but that's it. It's a lot of play
I guess my question is, is reception and year 1 very similar to pre-school?
They all follow early years foundation but I would have thought it was a progression rather than doing similar activities for 3 years

I think when you visited Y1, you may have either seen them doing a basic activity to lead up to something more complex or some reinforcement.

At the moment, Y1 do things like spellings. eg chest, shed etc - they write them with no help.

Year 2 will be reading books of hugely varying levels. Some year 2's will still be on the first few levels of the oxford reading tree and some will be free readers. Each child will get an appropriate book.

In reception, they absolutely have to reinforce numbers - over and over. It will be done in a fun/play sort of way so even if he knows the numbers, he will probably enjoy the activity.

You don't need to worry about it. There will be loads of friends at school and most children have a great time in reception, regardless of what they can and can't do when they start.

Thanks spottypancake
I'm not that worried, he'll be fine. I just want to understand it a bit more
Will have to work on his getting dressed, although I did spot a boy in year1 with his trousers on back to front!

I would love it if children could come into Reception:
Able to toilet independently (if possible)
Put own coat on, hang it up and preferably recognise it!
In a decent routine- enough sleep, not having bottles of milk at night, not had to have all their teeth taken out because they rotted etc
Some social skills- with children and adults
Lots of imagination and able to chat to adults and children!

And as an added extra- able to write and recognise own name.

Anything else is a bonus!

Don't worry about it. I think DS is doing stuff now that his sister (nearly 3) can do and has done for a while and he has "been doing" since 2 or sometimes before! However, he is not "bored", as it is always presented in different ways. Also- big ALSO, a lot of the time is spent doing Child Initiated Play which DS loves.

The targets for Reception can seem low if your kid has done it since 2 but there seems to be plenty to keep him stimulated and developing in other ways (personal and social for example).

Oh yes, an example with numbers was DS brought home a print out from a computer game they had been doing where he had to put the numbers in order from 1 to 20. I was quite impressed that he could do this on the computer .

By the you are right that what they do in Reception and Year 1 does overlap with nursery and it is designed to. It is now widely recognized that children from 3-6 develop at different paces and some are ready for formal learning early and some aren't. It's partly to do with brain development- some parts of the brain don't kick in properly until about 6- which is why in Sweden or Finland they don't start school properly until 6 or 7 (but then they go for it rather than all the play!).

I agree that there is no need to repeat things a child knows well already, when considering schools asking them what they do to extend bright children may well result in eye-rolling and vague answers (as it does on here) this is because you need to be sure your child is bright, and for that you need evidence rather than parental observations.
A Gutheri Assessment is comprehensive, and independent. It be arranged through Health Visitor on the NHS or paid for privately.

Teacher will want all the life skills, dressing, toileting, following instruction as other posters have said and not reading and writing. Useful to have pen control from colouring or similar and obviously a love of books.

In my experience they have been far more impressed with great general knowledge and advanced verbal skills and an interest in everything than having been taught reading and writing especially if letter formation is incorrect or using capitals etc. A very bright child with a love of books and no dyslexia etc will be reading fluently by age 6 as you were. I would not worry now just concentrate on the dressing as that will annoy them and may upset him if he is last to get changed for PE.