Any slower and we'll finish R year curriculum by year 10

[Schnullerbacke]

Ok, so I am slighty exaggerating BUT: DD(5) moved from her old school only three months into her schooling career to her current one. Been at the new school for 2 months.

Reading: haven't said much so far but I believe she is on a much higher band than the books she is currently given. I know kids don't always tell us everything but she said that she hardly ever reads to the teacher or TA. I had to ask for a band upgrade but we are still getting books through which she already read at her old school months ago. Fine, not overly bothered as we read other stuff at home.

But today I get a letter with suggestions what we could do over the Easter holidays. It says we could try to write simple sentences, and if we wanted to make things a little bit more difficult for the kids, we could include DIFFICULT words, such as 'was' and 'it'. I nearly fell off my chair reading this. These are words her old school would have covered in around November time.

I'm not pushy, am really not, but I do wonder what is going on with this school. I think a meeting is in order, isn't it?

If a job is worth doing it's worth doing yourself. Treat the school as free day care and teach your daughter proper things at home.

Reception is about learning through play, not rushing through reading schemes or writing ever more complicated sentences. Encouraging to write simple sentences sounds like a perfectly valid Reception activity (and one that my DS would have struggled with at this stage although he went on to do very well by the end of KS1). If you think your child can write "more complicated" sentences then there is nothing to stop you doing that with them. Incidentally I think "was" is a hard word for this stage - a child getting to grips with basic phonics would be more likely to spell it "woz".

My kids went to a private nursery. It was so long ago I can't remember the details but they had a qualified teacher who did x hours/week on literacy with them. So when they started Year R we encountered the same problem as you

When a child is ready to learn someting then they should be supported and encouraged to learn it. You can see that it's different from one school to another so you have to follow only your ds's ability.

Schnullerbacke

I'm afraid I'm in league with learnandsay on this one. If you are not happy with what the school is doing - extend learning at home.

Sure read the guided reading book 1x or 2x a week, but then read other books (library, purchased, traded, etc...) that you feel are more appropriate to her reading level. However - I would add that teaching reading isn't just about the mechanics of reading, but is also about understanding the structure of books, the different types of books (fiction, non-fiction, plays, poetry, etc...), predicting (our school is big on writing alternative endings or guessing what might happen next) and working with language - so gradually introducing discussion of use of language which in KS2 will also include more foraml discussion of grammar.

websites like oxford owl www.oxfordowl.co.uk are very useful for early stages of reading - and there's a lovely video with Julia Donaldson about reading with your child www.oxfordowl.co.uk/GetReading - although she's slightly plugging her own book series. On-line books/ phonics worksheets available through Mumsnet www.mumsnet.com/learning/learning-zone/learning-zone-introduction.

We find that rather than worry about whether we're 'too pushy'/ 'too demanding'/ PITA - we just get on with it. The school is endlessly telling us how we can't do this until Year x or column addition is too hard and can't possibly be taught before Y5, or that book recommended by the WH Smith/ Richard & Judy Children's reading list for ages 5 - 8 should really be ages 9 - 12, etc... but that kind of thing will just make you insane. Sure they're professionals - but if your Mum-alarm is going off and saying 'surely my DC could be doing a bit more' I'd trust that instinct.

You can't force the school into 'doing more' - but you can enhance learning by putting in extra effort with homework. If your DD has mastered 'it' and 'was' (which are described as 'tricky words' most likely not to upset parents who's children are barely writing yet - which can be the case for several parents in the class - and was ours with DD1) - then try and encourage her to do more. One solution for a DC in YR, like yours, is to not worry about the spelling being accurate but to encourage 'phonetic' reasonable attempts at words - (e.g. sKol - for school).

I've been getting my DDs to do 'that bit more' with all their homework from school + a bit of extra game play & on-line maths tutorials (a great weakness at our school) now for about 2 years, and it really does seem to pay benefits. We don't just look up the meaning of words, but using on-line dictionaries we can also find out where the word comes from - i.e. with 'scene' - we learned that scene in English dates back to 1530?40; < Latin scēna background (of the stage) < Greek skēnḗ booth (where actors dressed) (from www.dictionary.com). My kids (Y2 & Y4 now) think I'm mad - but actually they are starting to like that our language has influence from so many other peoples and I enjoy talking about the history of it all.

HTH

I sent a reading book back last week as the sounds covered in it my ds yr1, learnt in January! His teacher refused to exchange it saying the book contained a target word ARE, she wouldn't have it that my ds know knows this word. She said books are changed once a week (we have 30 children's book to sort blah blah) I have disagreed with a few things lately and now realise it's created a problem. She seems to like my dh so I now let him deal with her and I support my ds at home. We played word bingo with phase 4 high frequency words yesterday and he won! School still have him on phase 3. It's frustrating because he's been classed as low ability but if he was born just 5 wks later he would be in yR and be top of the class!

Those bliddy phases!!!! and those bliddy teachers who think they are set in stone!!!!

Parents support, input, observations are actively encouraged according to The EYFS - does this not apply when our dc's enter y1 and the NC?

Salskey...your yr1 teacher changes books once a week? I am in year 1 and I change books everyday! I have some children who wish to read more and so their parents asked if they can have 2 books per night - fine by me! Some will read more, some will read less and some fluctuate according to the days of the week and routines in their lives. I try to fit around them and sometimes they get given a book they have already read as a mistake when rushing and my ta or I have not noticed in their records for whatever reason. I change books at lunch if my ta has pressing issues! What is wrong with wanting them to read as much as they like and to encourage them when they are motivated!

Bloomin' heck, your old school must have been a good one! DD's R had one book a week - if lucky, hardly any writing, absolutely no spelling until Yr2.

Having gone to a nursery that did basic letter sounds and reading simple three letter words, along with some word formation stuff, dd came out of R knowing little more than she went in with!

I agree with the others, do as much as you can at home, I wasn't really switched on to all this extra stuff, in my naivety as a new parent, I thought I could leave it all to school and all schools were the same - how wrong I was!

It was Year 1 before I wised up, by Yr2, we realised we had a problem and moved her. This was an outstanding school. Oh that all the schools had the same standards and diligence as Mrz and others on here!

A good education doesn't seem to be a right, more like a lottery!

"A good education doesn't seem to be a right, more like a lottery!"

Sadly true.

Yes Slipslider just once a week, even though they were off for nearly 2 weeks Easter break they still only get one book! We have lots of books at home (Waterstones is my dc's fave shop) so we read these together. In the past 2 weeks ds3 has really started to enjoy Horrid Henry and so we share the reading. His confidence is really growing. I am confident just in the past few weeks his phonics knowledge, reading and writing skills have improved immensely, I'm just hoping his teacher will see this too!