Ds's writing - going into year 1

[Sleepswithbutterflies]

He's 5.2

He's just written the following 'story.' All letters are the right was around and not mixing upper and lower case but it isn't especially neat. Legible but still quite big.

Wuns apon a tim there was a child. He went on a train. he saw a hows. He was going to liv in the big hows. Then he sat on a wupee cushn. It maid a rood noiz!

I'm worried about this. Reception reckon he was at the expected level but IMO they were much too generous with all their levels.
He's reasonably keen to write so I'm planning to practice with him over the summer for a few minutes a day. He's moving schools to a much higher achieving school and I'm slightly worried he's going to be miles and miles behind the others.

As a Y1 teacher I would agree with the school about being at expected level.

It's great that he's writing a story in the holidays!

Another Y1 teacher here who also thinks it's 'expected'. I'd be happy with his writing if he came into my class .

Ok that's encouraging.
He's currently at a very low performing school and I kind of thought he might have been given expected level simply because a lot of the children enter the school at such a low level. Only about 40% meet expected level of development at the end of reception.
At the school he's going to in september 100% of children the last three years have reached the expected level.

My DS going into Y1 also got expected for writing and couldn't produce a story that well written, either in legibility or spelling.

Teacher too and Seems at the expected level to me. Phonetic spelling at this age is fine and will be corrected as he moves through year 1. The best thing is he enjoys writing - this will stand him in much better stead as it means he will write what he wants to say and then learn how to spell it later.... Hope that makes sense! Writing over the summer with him will be great

You inspired me to get ds who's very nearly 5 and going into yr 1 to do a story. He is saying the sounds but the writing is mostly impossible to read back. I had to scribe some of it to get him going. It's all about Skylanders He got emerging fit writing and expected for everything else.

Technology he got exceeding actually

Ds is quite keen to write and the addition of strong glasses has helped hugely with his writing - it was illegible before and not spaced either.
He's got quicker too so I'm hoping with a bit of practice each day we will see improvement.

My ds got expected for technology and wouldn't know what skylanders are. Shame there wasn't a category for dinosaurs and star wars. He'd have exceeded!

Ah, DS copies his brother who's 10, hence the technology and Skylanders obsession.

I am not a teacher but I would have said that was expected level. I know some of DD2's friends who would struggle write that now at the end of Reception.

Spelling isn't an issue at this age I don't think, the main thing is that it is understandable so the right number of syllables and sounds, that way the child is managing to get their ideas on paper, increase their confidence to try and write and the reader can understand it.

Out if interest to those who teach - do the children in reception have books for writing and numeracy?

Ds just has a 'proud book' but since February there are only two things in it. That's it. No writing or numeracy book. This strikes me as odd. I double checked with the teacher that there was nothing else and these wasn't. All the evidence from a year's work is in it apparently - it amounts to maybe 20 pages of photos and post it notes.

My DD3 is 5 and going into year 1. She's never written as much as that and got expected for writing, so don't worry.

DS1 managed to get expected for writing at the end of reception, his handwriting is still pretty messy at the end of Y1 TBH, although the spelling is improving!

I know the sentences are pretty brief, but using full stops (and an exclamation mark) and upper/lower case correctly is a really good sign, lots of children don't at this age.

Sleepswithbutterflies - in Reception (last year and this year) my 2 have had all their work in their learning journey book. So that has art, maths, writing, photos of them doing things etc in it. DD1 had 2 or 3 books (they are big A3 books with lots of things stuck in as extra pages as well) and DD2 had 3 of them. DD2's RE is in a separate book but I assume that is because it is a church school. can't remember if DD1's was in a separate book too.

My DD going to year 1 got expected for writing. Her writing is illegible with letters still not well formed.

They have a proud book at ours too. The teacher puts in photos and notes from her observations, learning goals etc. We also put in activities we've done in the holidays.

They also have writing books and they make their own books to write stories in.

Nope, having been in a reception class last school year (not a teacher) & going into yr1 this school year, I would say that would be an expected level of writing.

I like the phonetic spellings of words he doesn't yet know how to write.

Our children have books for writing maths and topic work as well as learning stories

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There are ten pages in ds's book - that's it. Nothing else. I checked because of him going to the new school. There are no other books and no other folders of work.
The pages in the book are mainly photos and a few observations.

That's not great, is it?

Have they sent everything home some schools have a policy of retaining work books/folders ... but 10 pages in a learning story (assume it's for whole year?) seems low

Sounds about right.
My child going on to year 1 struggles to write a sentence- it's like this- febbepikzhznoz
She is emerging- it's meant to be Freddie picks his nose.she does no capital letters, full stops are random and no spaces, plus lots of her letters are back to front!

Retired TA here: looks excellent to me, because every word makes some kind of phonic sense, and many are spelt correctly. And did he really manage the full stops and capital letters himself? I've seen Yr3 children not doing much better than this!

If he is keen and wants to progress, a book that he would probably enjoy is reviewed in the MN Book Reviews area, "Children's educational books and courses". The Oxford Phonics Spelling Dictionary lists words according to initial sound; there is a link to see sample pages from it, and you can also purchase from there.

Encourage him with his story writing, a holiday diary, recounts of visits or events, even adverts for events, or poems (there are Rhyming Dictionaries for that, and a children's Thesaurus helps to expand vocabulary. But, PLEASE give plenty of praise, and DON'T 'nit pick' and correct every tiny error.

I think the op son has written a lovely story. The little boy has just turned five. I think that piece of writing is better than average. Dd got exceeding for writing and her spelling is odd at times.

Year 1 teacher here and again I'd be happy with that and say it's expected level. Looking for phonetically plausible spellings and starting to use finger spaces.