Repeating reception

[Wobblypig]

Dd is really struggling in reception. She is only just managing easier yellow band ort books , she is scoring really poorly in her spelling tests and the teacher is always pointing out the things she can't do. Yesterday it was that she can't distinguish between a cube and a cuboid.
She is only 4 , 5 next week, our whole after school time is spent doing spellings, reading and other work set by the school. She is in 2 SEN classes at school. It is really worrying me that we are spending so much time and getting so little improvement. I really think she just isn't ready for this and will struggle even more in yr 1.
I would really like to hold her back to improve her confidence. It is an independent school, so theoretically it is possible.

Any advice, anyone done similar? Did it turn out well?

[Geraldthegiraffe]

How can the failing school be worse than this?

[mrz]

Of course it's your choice but why repeat such a negative experience?
Have you read the many many threads on Steiner education on MN?

[lougle]

I think it's a seriously bad idea to repeat a year at this stage for those reasons.

And steiner?? If you're serious, at least read about the philosophy behind it -know what you're signing up to. I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.

[Petrasmumma]

Wobbly Sounds like the school has got to you. At age 4, imposing these expectations is silly and the school should know better. Maybe the school sees you as an easy mark: keeping your child in for an extra year means extra cash for them. (Yes, I have met schools like this...).

In other countries like Norway and Germany, children don't start formal education until later because they recognise the need to let children be children (and the fact that they know that once ready, children learn fast so by 11 are doing better than UK children...). She'll get there.

I'd speak to the Year 1 teacher for reassurance that this school is going to provide a positive supportive environment for your daughter at this stage. I hope that it's just the reception teacher letting the side down.

[LIZS]

If you go down this route of repeating the year then Steiner it will be very tricky later on if she has to transfer back into the regular system - academically, socially and be reinstated with peer group so potentially missing out a year group or more . Is the Steiner ethos something you personally buy into ?

[Petrasmumma]

And - repeating the year? Same teacher? If the teacher thinks it's constructive to constantly tell you what your DD can't do, I would be concerned about how she speaks to your DD. It sounds miserable.

Doing the same thing and expecting different results - allegedly Einstein's definition of insanity.

[mrz]

Petrasmumma did you know that Finnish children are already 6 months ahead in maths before they start compulsory education?

[LIZS]

I'm somewhat bemused everytime we get a "but in x children don't start school until 6/7". Almost without exception there is a compulsory (culturally if not legally) element of "education" before then, sometimes even earlier than our 4/5 . Just because it occurs on separate premises, with a different name, does not mean it is any more informal than EYFS.

[onetiredmummy]

My DS was 5 this month and he has spelling tests in reception. I don't know about halving but he's multiplying thousands (eg 2000 and 2000 make 4000) and he's done 3d shapes as well. He's in a year 1 phonics group but this is not unusual and some reception children are in the year 2 phonics group with the year 2 children. He's reading the Biff Chip and Kipper books at the moment but no idea of the band.

For info -This is at a bog standard state school in Coventry, (OFSTED- Requires Improvement) the teacher is an NQT but last time I spoke to her she said there would be a big push this year into getting all the children up to standard for Yr 1, so I had the impression there was a lot of work to still be done. There was a concern about my boy's writing at Christmas and if he continued to be so far behind ' he would need special work" but that appears to have resolved itself, last parents evening we were told his writing is OK.

We are moving to another school next week, nothing to do with reception, so will be interesting to see what his new teacher thinks.

All I was expecting at reception is that my boy enjoyed himself, got used to a classroom routine and being part of a class and started learning to read and write.

[onetiredmummy]

OP before you make the decision to repeat reception, go & have a chat with the year 1 teacher to gain a second opinion. The year 1 teacher may be wholly different to the reception teacher & may think your DD would be alright.

If you don't feel comfortable doing that then go to the Head & talk through repeating reception with them. You seem to be quickly grasping the idea of everybody else going onto a new class & your daughter being left behind, which may be difficult for her socially. Also another year in reception is another year with this teacher! It sounds as though the reception teacher is quite negative & this would demotivate any parent. Surely keeping a child back a year is a decision that must be made with the teachers involved. Unless you are a qualified reception teacher yourself then you just cannot make the call by yourself, as its a huge thing to repeat a year, even in reception. Have you considered the non educational aspects of it, your DD may be labelled by her peers as 'too stupid' to go into year 1 with everyone else, everyone in her new & old classes may ask her at playtime why she is staying behind & it will become something for your DD to be ashamed of yet known for. Plus if your dd even gets the hint of your being disappointed with her or that you think she is not clever enough, then her self esteem may suffer.

Your DD may get into Year 1 with another teacher & just fly!

School is about more than educational subjects.

[Guitargirl]

Please don't make your DD repeat Reception, I know she's only little but think about how left out she will feel when her friends move on and she doesn't. That is far more important than bloody cuboids for a 5 year old. The school are being completely ridiculous.

[threepiecesuite]

I missed most of Reception through illness and still moved up with my peer group. I just did catch-up work in Year 1 and 2.
I wouldn't make her repeat the year, how demoralising.

[okiedokiejiggerypokie]

Hi, I agree with others, due to OFSTED and Gov putting pressure on schools I think the expectations of DC are ridiculous these days. My Dd's reception class only started doing more structured learning in Jan, she has only just turned 5, and apparently the school already have concerns about her written work (this hasn't been mentioned to me directly but mentioned to her speech therapist).

I wouldn't agree to repeating reception, instead ask what intervention can be put in place to support your Dd when she enters YR1.

BTW my Dd has been calling a rectangle a cubiod for the past 3 months....she will get it eventually there's a lot to take in at such a young age.

[mrz]

The OPs child's school isn't subject to OFSTED or Mr Gove

[Petrasmumma]

Mrz - I didn't have that data but I'm not surprised. :)
I like the way they let children find their feet socially first with a little bit of literacy/numeracy thrown in.

Sure, most children do participate in the kindergarten process but the hours/structure are nothing like what we do here.

[mrz]

In theory that is exactly how EYFS should work in England

[Wobblypig]

I understand the social implications of repeating but I also understand the implications of being ' bottom of the class' and the growing awareness of that fact.
As demonstrated by some of the replies many state schools have followed a similar approach in reception so it isn't just that this is a private school.

The possibility of her suddenly taking off in year 1 or 2 is reassuring but the idea that she will fall further and further behind is really worrying. If she repeats she goes into reception knowing her phonics and some words like many of the older children did in this year.
I know the school remains the same but judging by the responses on here the school is not atypical. If we move her there is social upheaval anyway, she will be forced to enter year 1 and there are no guarantees of better outcomes.

[mrz]

You are making a judgement based on a few sympathetic replies on a single thread on MN ... sorry but there are thousands of schools that don't follow a similar approach so the school does not represent most schools whether state or private.

[Guitargirl]

There isn't - or at least there shouldn't be - any such thing as 'bottom of the class' in Reception, I don't know what the teacher was thinking of, to be honest. These are 4 and 5 year olds. And it sounds as though you are going along with it all. Stop spending every day after school doing reading and spelling and let your little girl play. If you want to improve her confidence then holding her back a year - at the age of 5 ffs(!) - is not the way to go about it.

[mummytime]

The basic problem with repeating a year is: that if a child didn't learn from that approach the first time, just to repeat it is like "Shouting at a deaf person".

When I help my children with something they struggle with, I try a different approach - not just repeat the same old one (maybe louder and louder in the hope they finally get it).

[Brabra]

I would change schools, it sounds pretty horrible.

[rickinghorse]

please don't make her repeat reception.
The school sounds really grim.
The school is making her feel a failure at four. It is criminal.

Or if she will repeat reception
What will the school do differently?
Will she have a different teacher?
Have the school admitted that the problem might partly be theirs?
How are they going to address it?

Also, if your daughter is going to end up in a steiner school at six or seven I REALLY wouldn't worry about her being behind... just let her do whatever she wants till she gets there.
My friend's child just transferred out of a steiner into our school because the daughter was tired of doing CVC words at 7. She can't read or write yet, despite being bright, simply because the class are still dancing out the alphabet (a letter a week).

[LawnOrnament]

I've got a daughter the same age as yours. She's just turned 5 and is also reading yellow band books. The contrast is that her school is very pleased with her progress. She enjoys school and is having fun learning new things.

We do some light reading practice after school 4-5 times a week and then the other learning outside of school is play based or directed by her.

The problem is the school and the teacher not your daughter. Please don't make her repeat reception.

[AmberTheCat]

Wobblypig, you say that responses on here have reassured you that your dd's school isn't unusual. While I agree that some posters have said their Reception children are doing similar work, I don't think anyone has said that their teachers have a similar attitude to your dd's. That, I think, is the aspect that many of us have said we would be worried about, rather than the details of what your dd is being asked to do. Do you really want her to spend another year being made to feel stupid?

[teacherwith2kids]

The point is that, while many schools will set daily reading books, spelling, formalish maths activities etc for some of their reception children it isn't necessarily an expectation for ALL of those children, certainly not if it requires all after school hours to complete it.

DS in Recetion borrowed books from KS2, had weekly spellings with Y2 (but had his sheet phtocopied up VAST as he found writing small very hard) and did his own thing in Maths (mainly working with negative numbers and times tables, as he was obsessed with patterns). However, the school was equaklkly happy with the progress of the child who did a lot of a lot of social play, some mark making and was really working hard at their phonics.

It is the 'making your DD feel likle a failure despite her attainment beibng wwll within the normal range for Reception' that is where the school is failing.