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.

Yes he put his own capital letters in (missed one).

Today's writing says:

The cat has jinjor fur. He likes hide and seec. He hides in the gardn.

Its unreasonable to compare the development of a summer born reception child with an autumn born reception child. I feel that the OP is exceeding expectations of a child who has only just turned five. If he carries on being enthusastic about writing then he will catch and over take some of the older children.

It isn't unusual for summer born reception children to out perform their older peers. The most able child in my next class isn't yet five

I think his biggest problem has been his eyesight! His writing has come on loads with the addition of glasses. His left eye is currently so poor that they said he's not far off being classed as partially sighted in that eye.

We didn't know until the school eye test and follow up appointment in march. He's only had his full strength prescription for a few weeks - they worked up to it as they said it would be too big a shock going from nothing to the full prescription in one go.

So that plus him being a summer born boy and the school being not great made me concerned that he would be behind at his new school but I feel more encouraged now that he is about where he should be.

"It isn't unusual for summer born reception children to out perform their older peers. The most able child in my next class isn't yet five"

That is anecdote. Stastically summer born born children are behind autumn born children in the early years. The brightest child in dd's class is an july born boy, but again this anedote. However this boy is not showing his full potential because of physical development.

I have a reference to the bbc website

www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15490760

"It found children born in August scored substantially lower in national achievement tests and other measures of cognitive skills.

At the age of seven, they are more than three times as likely to be regarded as "below average" by their teachers in reading, writing and maths. "

Do summer born children really have a lower IQ than children with a september birthday? Or are summer born children just less mature? I feel that grades in reception should be wieghted for age.

I feel its depresssing that schools use reception data to predict SAT results and measure progress. Boys are stastically slower at development than girls, but there is no evidence to suggest that men have lower intelligence. (Other than a few rabid feminists!)

My DS isn't 5 yet and I've found it completely baffling that to get 'expected' in the ELG, he has to achieve above 40-60 months when that's the group he is in. So to be expected, he actually has to exceed his age band expectations,

It is true that if you look at the breakdown statistically summer born boys perform the worst.
Not all summer born boys will fit this just as not all autumn born girls will perform the best.

But statistically the above is true.

I could say that in my Y1 class 2 years ago FIVE of the most able children had August birthdays including a boy with 31st Aug birthday, in two decades of teaching EY often some of the youngest outshine their peers so excuse me for being sceptical

As a Year 1 teacher, I'd be quite happy if a child came into my class writing like that! Even more so if he's one of the younger ones. :) Nothing to worry about there.