Reception DD is bored silly with school already

[whomovedmychocolate]

DD (5.3) has come home from her first week back really upset and saying she's fed up with school because the rest of the kids are so far behind her and they are just learning their letters and numbers.

I don't know what to do for the best; I was accelerated through school as was DH so I guess we sort of expect her to do well academically but we didn't think she'd get bored this early. She's at an excellent state school and we were thinking about moving her to the independent sector (if we can work out the finances) when she's eight or nine.

I can do extension work with her at home but actually, that's just alienating her at school because all her peers are just on such a radically different level. Should I talk to the teacher - I don't want to be an overbearing parent only ten weeks into the year but she's starting to lose the joy of going to school already :( And she was so happy about going to start with and so exciting about starting to learn formally. :(

Sorry I should have said, to give some indication, all her peers are on 1A or 1B books, she's on level 5-7 depending on type. She can already do maths above the level of the reception lessons etc.

Why is she bored? Reception should be busy and full of activities does she struggle to work independently?

I agree with mrz that in a well run reception class she shouldn't be bored. DD is a fairly high achiever who could read on entry to reception etc and has never yet been bored at school I don't think (now in Y1).

It could be there are specific times of the day when they are doing things she can already do, but it shouldn't be a large amount (although it may feel that way to your DD).

Did you tell her she was going to start to learn formally? Perhaps that is why she is finding things difficult.
Reception is about learning through play and has a big focus on social and emotional skills. Learning to Learn independently not what she was expecting.

Reception is about so much more than academic learning.I just don't see how a 4 year old can possibly be bored in Reception.

My children often used "bored" to mean loads of other feelings. Are you sure it's "bored" she really is, not lonely or not in the friendship group she wants to be in? My dd used to say hat fame's were boring when what she meant was that th others didn't want to play them her way!

I would have a word with the teacher- when they do formal learning she should be given properly differentiated work. Make sure that's happening. And find out how she's settling in in other ways.

Maybe she could work on her social skills :)

If she has friends there maybe it won't matter if she's learning her alphabet or algebra.

Certainly my kids care far more about their friends than what they're learning.

But anyway, I'd talk to her teacher nd find out more about a typical day is like. i think you'll find it's very different to what your DD says.

It probably contains lots of playing, lots of stories, lots of singing, lots of following school rules, and a tiny bit of phonics.

Is she "bored"? Like, really bored all day long?

Or is she just complaining that there is a short time when she has to sit with her friends and learn stuff she already knows? And you're extrapolating that into "the whole day is boring" because you have an underlying anxiety about whether they will cater for her?

Agree with others that there should be plenty going on in Reception that is fun and stimulating, even if there is a certain amount of learning letters etc that she already knows. My daughter knew all her letters when she started school and her close friend could read fluently (I'm talking about full length paperbacks, not reading scheme books). Neither of them every seemed bored because there was so much interesting stuff going on. They spent all day playing, discovering new things and soaking up the whole school experience.

my daughter (age five in reception ) is exactly the same level if not higher (!!) than yours .
She is on level 7 ORT reading and her maths was described by the teacher as what they would expect at the mid point of KS1.
However - it would never dawn on her to suggest she was fed up because her " peers were so far behind her. "
When she says she is on higher reading books than them we always talk about how lots of people are different at different things so she understands that just because she is good at reading doesnt make her the best at everything.
She is being given some different work to do occasionally but is never bored - she just loves her new friends, playing sports , singing and even though she has a better grasp of basic knowledge than the rest of the class she is always learning new things every day about the world, and how you do things.

I'm afraid my prep reception son is on level 1b so moving her to private isn't going to surround her with children on her level.

Everyone gets there in the end. DS1 now at Secondary and it made no difference whether they were 'ahead' or 'behind' in Reception eight years ago.

Why is it only 10 weeks into the academic year? Are you in the UK, OP?
I'd be afraid of extension work making her even more alienated from her peers.
In DC school the amount of time sitting and doing formal learning (reception) is very small, maybe a total of 30 minutes of the day. The rest of the time is play-based, so shouldn't be boring as long as a child enjoys playing.

Well thank you all for replying. :)

She's got a lot of friends and she enjoys playing with them. We've had the everyone works at their own level and it doesn't matter but it does matter when the only former work they do is at such a basic level. I've seen her books, I see what they've been doing. She's had two years of preschool playing and it is HER wish (not mine, I'd prefer she buggered about for another year and wasn't stressed out about learning things at all frankly) that she learn more.

Socially she has a lot of friends, and a best friend too (although she seems to switch between three of them), part of the problem may be that her best friend is in year one and at lunchtime she prefers to hang out with the year one kids to her own group. But I don't see what I can do about that other than organise playdates for kids from her own year (which we do).

I think speaking to the teacher to see that I'm getting a balanced view is a good idea, five year olds do seem prone to flights of fancy however I do genuinely believe she is bored. She complains her books are not swapped often enough (which we've fixed now by me asking for a new book every few days for her because she's fluent in the previous one).

I'm probably projecting my worries about education on her. I spent two years at the end of school being bored myself because I finished everything and the state system did not cater for kids that did that then. I just don't know whether that has changed.

I am in the UK lljkk. They start in September.

Well I was state educated and was put into the year ahead in primary, so it's far from universal that the state system fails to cater. Proper talk with teacher/ head needed I think.

I think a child saying she is bored because everyone else is so far behind her perhaps need sto work on her social skills. DS1 is oficially on gifted and talented but would never say something like that - sounds a bit....precious for want of a better word. Perhaps she needs yours and the teachers help to enjoy the activities on offer

It's changed :)

You can now sit a level 6 test in year 6 - which is the 'expected' level for year 9.

And you can certainly sit and resit GCSEs early.....

Your daughter is probably finding school a bit of an anti climax. She probably expected it to be different. I hope she settles soon.

And I'm sure a chat with the teacher both about what's done in school, and about how your DD feels will help.

I thought zammo would be in my class when I started reception.

You mention doing extension work with her at home - I wonder if you could look at doing something that wouldn't be covered by the reception curriculum, so she wouldn't have the issue of getting further ahead. I'm thinking of something like learning the recorder, and making the first steps on learning to read music, or maybe looking at some french reception level books - I'm not expressing it well, but I mean books for reception age english children that make a start on teaching some french words/songs etc. Might that help with the boredom?

zest01 she wouldn't DREAM of saying anything to her peers about it.

SDTG - we do science and music already. I hadn't thought of languages (mainly because I'm not good at them so I'd find it hard to teach her!) but it's something to think about.

Why does she see it important that her school books are swapped more often? I would imagine she has plenty of books at home.

It's perfectly possible for a good school (and you said in your OP it is an excellent school) to accommodate children working at higher levels ... and level 7 is well within the normal range for a child in reception, without fast tracking into another year group which is rarely a good idea socially and emotionally.

She has tons of books at home, but I think she wants to do the school books because she's excited about school reading rather than home reading.

She's very keen to please the teacher (she'll grow out of that no doubt! ) and wants to be praised for her progress.

I don't even understand how these book bands work, she's on three different levels with different types of books.

All my DC say they are bored at school , two are on their second school and the youngest has just started- she isn't reading yet or confident in her numbers - some days she loves it other days she'd rather still be at home with me - in fact like school or not she'd still rather be at home with me so she's very good at coming up with all sorts of ways to get to me so I might ( I don't ) keep her at home. Your DD is clearly very bright and therefore is probably very astute a tapping into your anxieties and it might not be nearly as bad as she makes out but if she tells you that she is so far ahead of her peers it might make you decide to keep her at home. Have you had conversations about your concerns to other people that she has overheard - a 5 year old complaining that school is boring because the other children are so far behind is possibly picking up on adult attitudes.
Also its very common at this stage the novelty has worn off, tired because of busy end of last term and Christmas - I didn't want to go back to school either !

That's a good point clutteredup. I might just sit on it a couple of weeks and see if she settles a bit. I haven't talked about it in front of her, although she knows we're getting her books changed regularly because she is fluent in them.

I'm not sure she is terribly bright, she's just very, very keen.

It woldn't have had to be in front of her I'm always astounded at how much my DC know about stuff when i think I've had a conversation in private - my DC have very flappy ears !

It seems her boredom may be due to reality not meeting her expectations.

Each publisher used their own method of "levelling" their schemes, which caused a "problem" for schools that used more than one scheme so the coloured book banding system was created to match the level of reading difficulty from different publishers.