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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Starting school...

3 replies

Nadalsballs · 07/08/2013 17:58

My DS doesn't start for a year but I'm interested to know if schools have any expectation of what try should be able to do when they start in reception? Eg recognising numbers, letters etc?

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Xihha · 07/08/2013 19:49

The only expectations DS's school had was that they were able to use the loo by themselves and could put their own coat and shoes on, anything else was a bonus. They didn't seem to have any expectations at all school work wise,or at least didn't tell us any if they did. DS was starting to read and write, knew the alphabet, could count and do simple sums before starting. average for his class was count to 20, read/write their own name and starting to recognise numbers and letters but there were a few who were still working out how to hold a pencil and couldn't count or recognise any letters or numbers at all,
DSs best friend was one of the children who couldn't hold a pencil at the start of reception and now going into year 5 is one of the smarter children and has far better handwriting than DS.

IMO the most important thing is to teach him to recognise his name, and encourage counting and recognising numbers and letters but don't push too hard or get stressed if he isn't interested, id worry more about the practical side of things like going to the toilet, putting a coat on, getting changed for PE etc.

BabiesAreLikeBuses · 07/08/2013 23:24

Aside from the loo and getting dressed i'd make sure their skills in sharing and playing nicely with others are up to scratch as they spend a lot of reception doing this

ChilliJo · 09/08/2013 11:54

All my DS's school asked for was for them to be able to use the toilet independently, dress themselves (including their coat if possible, although they were helped) and it would be nice if they could recognise their name written down. That's it.

DS started in September unable to read and write (although he could count) and as he heads in to Y1 he can read fluently and is writing perfectly joined up cursive.

They teach from scratch in Reception so there's no benefit to be gained by being able to read/write before they start, imo.

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