Starting Year One

[kiwidreamer]

We had a very lovely reassuring start to Reception last September, DS has had a lovely year in a fab school but in a few weeks he starts Year One and I don't have the foggiest what to expect. I trust the school to have the education side of things under control, it will most likely be a fair adjustment for DS but such is life and he'll get there eventually, my immediate questions revolve around the mundane things such as school bag, pencil case, books for writing in etc.

When I went to school parents got a book list and had to buy a huge supply of stationary for the beginning of the school year, we were told school provided all of those needs for Reception but surely not for Y1?

Any insider info on the mysteries of Y1 would be greatly appreciated :)

I know a few schools doing just that simpson, very proud and impressed parents and very worried Y1 teachers.
If children haven't been taught the curriculum they can't even be at the expected level, so they certainly aren't exceeding yet some schools seem to missing out huge chunks judging by PSBD's list and my own experience.

This is why I was annoyed at DD's school as she had not been taught money or time (was taught time after her report came out).

However no kids in her class got exceeding for numeracy.

Yes, DD1's school is doing exactly that. She is apparently exceeding in almost everything. In numeracy she has been taught counting in 2s (but not 5s or 10s) but certainly isn't confident at it. I don't think she can work beyond single digit addition and subtraction, yet apparently she is exceeding. Yet this is a school that Ofsted judged as 'good' around the May half term.

My DC school got a "good" rating for the first time ever since DS (going into yr4 has been there).

They seem to be doing things the other way round (IMO) and not teaching to exceeding for the most able kids.

For example the only reason DD did not get exceeding in writing is because she does not write non fiction. However, she has had quite formal (for reception) literacy lessons on how to structure a story, so why couldn't they (her teachers) give her a non fiction writing task and see how she got on?

DD is also not exceeding in numeracy but can do everything mentioned further up the thread (although not 100% reliable at counting in 5s). However I don't think she is exceeding in numeracy anyway.

PSBD - DS1 has covered all of that in reception. His school has no nursery, so perhaps that alters things? They did an awful lot of playing in YR, but I wouldn't say that the day was structured like a preschool day, it was much more structured/formal than his preschool.

His school (very good good on an Ofsted 3 months ago) have told us that they will stick to the YR format for the day for the first week, and then gradually ease across to their Y1 format, with the plan that they be on a full Y1 timetable by half-term or possibly a little before depending on how the children cope.
I know that we get a curriculum overview at a meeting sometime end of September/beginning of October so I think things will be clearer then.