Groups within foundation stage class

[StrongestMummyInTheWorld]

Since starting school, my child seems to spend most of the day with the same child, who is very bossy, often taking over the role of teacher. I told my child to play with 3 different children every day but she finds it hard to tell her one friend to go and find someone else to play with.

At pre-school the children were in groups of about 7, and they did specific activities within these groups every day. It seemed to give them a chance to build up working relationships without the stress of who is friends with who.

At school now the children have completely free association or else whole class teaching. It's rare that they are directed into groups, maybe only once or twice a week. Does any school do differently? I'd like to suggest something to the teachers but really do not want to criticise, as they are already working really hard with my child on her assertiveness.

Alternatively, what could I say or do with my child that would help? I'm seeing my childhood all over again and hindsight isn't giving me any great wisdom as all I know is the feeling of total panic on being faced with a classroom full of kids.

Is she happy playing with this child?

If she is then leave her be. Her telling the other child to go and find someone else could come across as being nasty.

If she isn't then talk to the teacher, say she's having problems with this child always wants only to play with her and she wants to play with others.

They have to have free association at some point don't they?

DeWe, thanks for taking the time to reply.

No, she's not happy playing with this child all day every day. And neither me nor the teacher is either. The child is very bossy and tells her how to do her work, and what to do.

It might seem unkind to tell the other child to go play with someone else, but it's also unkind of the other child to monopolise my child the whole day.

I don't see why free association has to be all day. I thought that was what playtime was for. I don't see why the teachers can't specify groups like at pre-school and I wondered if any other schools do this in reception/foundation classes. Is it an idea that is talked about at all by teachers?

DS2 is currently in reception. They have some work that is done as a whole class. They have some work done with a talking partner - the partner I think is changed weekly (possibly daily?). They have some group work where different groups are guided to different areas on different days. These groups seem quite static. This is where our school is not implementing the foundation phase 'correctly' as they are ensuring that children will access all areas at least once a week. Technically they should be given completely free rein and if they want to spend their time in one place all the time with one particular person they can...

It is hard to tell what goes on in DD1s reception class (This is the child who claims there are no books in the classroom...or windows) but we hear mention of "family groups" with a teacher assigned to each one where they share news each day, and "animal groups" where they do different types of work (presumably based on ability?)

Pretty sure most of the day is spent pottering about being bizarre though. Or at least it is for DD1.

Thank you for these ideas, LittleMissGreen and SenseOfEntitlement. That's just what I need for my chat with the teacher tomorrow.

DD is in a colour group for something or other, she also sits on a table named after a ?superhero (I think), does reading in another group, and I think there's another thing I've forgotton too.

Frankly I have no idea what she does or how it works! Bloody school hasn't let parents in the classroom since the end of their first week in September, and getting information out of a 4 year old is excrutiating.

If she doesn't like it then it is perfectly reasonable to mention to the teacher that your dd is being intimidated by this child and could she encourage them apart for some/most of the day.

Ime they have groups they will do writing/science/maths in and a lot of the rest of the time is free play. If they're similar ability then they might be in the same groups for those.

It is also possible that the teachers have them marked down as inseparatable friends and so deliberately ask them to do things together.

Might be too late to help: My Ds has a phonics group that is a group of 30 but not his own class, has a reading group with 6 kids and a different numeracy group with 6 in too and they do a small activity each day, I don't think these are ability streamed but may be wrong, the phonics is abilty streamed.

They also do activities as a class and as a year group (of 90) where there is free flow.

There is one child who is in every activity with him, from what I can tell it is because her birthday is a few days from his and their surnames are next to each other in the register!

HTH.

Thanks PinkAppleby, not too late as meeting is today. Free flow of 90 sounds terrifying! Although I think for my child anything over about 6 is too many to navigate - we had an interesting chat this morning. I asked her to say hallo to someone in a cheerful voice and she said she couldn't because "all the children are going different ways and I don't know who to look at".

Our school is another one with lots of groups - for literacy, numeracy and some other things. This means some tasks are carried out in a known group, with 5-6 children so they know who they're working with, but as they are in 3 or 4 different groups they work with a large proportion of the class at some point.

There is less of this, and more free association, in reception than Y1 but it does help with the transition through the school imho.

Hope your talk with the teacher goes well.

Good luck with the meeting!

I picked a school with lots of kids on purpose - my DS is a bit of an 'individual' and I thought with more kids there would be more chance he would find some like minded kids to hang out with :)