reception class issues - is this the norm - ie are my expectations unreasonable?

[northerngoldilocks]

DS has just started reception. He is my eldest and therefore I am new to this. However, he has been to private nursery since he was 14 months. There are a variety of things I am unhappy about with the school but am trying to give it a chance and see how things go but my main 2 bugbears are:

1- Reading books. Children are only allowed to change their books every other day. You might think that this is from a cutting down admin perspective but given they have to put their books in either a 'keep' or 'change' box that can't be it (presumably so that some children can read to the teacher / TA even if they are keeping the book). As we are in the realms of books with about 5 pages and no words / limited words, 2 nights seems a long time. We've been living with it and I've been countering any 'I don't want to do that again' with things like 'there's lots to talk about - what do you think x is doing here - what might you like to do' etc etc. Last night he got a book that he's really familiar with (he was already doing ORT at nursery and we have a box too - school said not to do the reading scheme outside school at the open day at the end of the summer term pre starting, but it was a bit late by then!) We looked at it together - it has words and he read it all easily on his own with no errors. We chatted about the story but then he said he didn't want it again the next day. I wrote in his reading record it was a story he was very familiar with and therefore we would like to change it and added it to the books to change box. Tonight it has come back in his book bag. I'm cross about this as I feel that it is not adapting the education to differing children's needs, rather applying a policy in a blanket way but wondering if asking the teacher why it wasn't changed isn't appropriate (DH seems to think we should leave it!)

2 - Handwriting. All children have a book in which they write their own names. They are given a laminated card with small arrows on to show the direction of letter formation. Every morning we go in and they have to find their books and write their names. There are 60 children in the class and there aren't enough chairs / tables for them all to sit down. Over half the books are therefore on the floor in different parts of the classroom. I'm not ecstatic about writing on the floor as I don't think its an ideal way to learn to write, but my bigger issue is that no one is watching how they're forming letters. My son's writing looks fine, but he's left handed and forms lots of letters backwards, so I feel that this approach just reinforces the error for him and will ultimately make it harder to correct. In addition, trying to find books whilst 60 kids plus parents are arriving just increases the total chaos.

Basically would be interesting to find out if this is pretty standard / normal and my expectations are just unreasonable or whether I'd be justified in asking the teacher what the learning objectives of the handwriting are? Apologies for the epic post too!

YABVU. Do you have any idea how long it takes to change 60 reading books? They all have to be put back on shelves and a note made of which books a child has read. Why not get some picture books from the library and talk about them with your child? I'm sure it would make a welcome change from the scheme books. As for the writing, it sounds like a short activity to settle the children when they come into class.

Thanks all - will accept that the reading books thing is normal in terms of frequency of change (although why then they don't just leave all books in bookbags and just get the ones they're going to read with rather than collecting every book in at the beginning of the day and re issuing later is baffling) . I wasn't really looking for suggestions re reading with him ourselves, we always have and continue to read stories every night and in the daytime when he's at home so all fine there.

Re comments as to whether its a small thing overall I think that's probably my main issue in that I have no idea what he does for the rest of the day or whether I'm happy otherwise. Its very early days and so far he seems ok and happy which is clearly the main thing, but I couldn't say anything further as I have no idea what he does all day as he doesn't tell me! Therefore the only thing I see is what happens at drop off (pipbin this was the source of my point re letting them out of the door at the end of the day once they see parents - not that I think it should be anything else, more that drop off is the only time we go in the classroom!).

I will try to chat to him this weekend about why its important to form letters in the way he's been shown and see if that helps and if not speak to the teacher for advice on how we should work on it! I'd be much happier if they could just chose to play / look at books on a morning at drop off as really have no desire to be 'working on handwriting' with a 4 year old - he'd much prefer to be drawing diggers!

I think you are being a little bit pfb and I wouldn't worry about any "little chat" about letter formation.

Obviously different schools do things different ways but it seems to me that this school is going with the philosophy that it's best to start kids getting used to doing xyz at all, before trying to get them to do it well. The letter formation just isn't important at the moment - what is important is getting them happy with holding pens/pencils and using them confidently (my pfb took till early year 1 to achieve that) and having a small task to write their name each morning whether at a table or on the floor will boost that confidence and normalise writing for them. Stressing about correct letter formation at this stage is counterproductive and could put a sensitive child off, so they won't be worrying about that now, there are many weeks of teaching left to go - they will also not worry about spelling for a long time for the same reason.

Meanwhile the book issue (which I know you've posted that you'll accept now) seems useful to me to get children into the habit of persevering with each reading book and doing it several times over more than one evening before swapping - this habit will be beneficial further along the learning to read journey and I think it sounds sensible to have the rule in place from the very start. (Though I agree they are being silly making unnecessary work for themselves collecting them in every day)

I'm afraid I think you are being a bit ridiculous about knowing what is going on. There will be a reason why they have them writing first thing and equally you don't NEED to know what they are doing. You need to trust the school that they know what to do with a reception class more than you do. Trust me, what you see at drop off does not resemble what's going on the rest of the day. In all likelihood you will wonder what they are doing then at some point in a few months your child will read something unprompted, start writing something or will astound you with a fact and it will become clear that all that seemingly doing things you think are wrong are actually serving a really important purpose.

northern same thing here - DH and I are both right handed and hadn't really thought about the challenges that a left handed child would face!! DD was taught to hold the paper at an angle and some of the letters are more natural to form with strokes in the opposite direction to a right hander. So your DC may well find if they have to follow the right handed way that it is more awkward. As I say, I would raise with teacher- it was also interesting to me as a parent as I'd genuinely not thought about it. The other thing that was awkward is if your school does spellings by the look, cover, write, check method as the "covering"/words is on the wrong side for a lefthander. In the end we used to cut up the sheets to make it easier!

It's really good for development of shoulder muscles to write on the floor and ultimately helps with the muscles required to write well (neatly) when older I'm a primary school teacher and used to use this method as 'tummy time', especially for my kids with less controlled mark making (lack of either fine motor skills). Even more so with kids that didn't crawl (a question i asked every parent)

Changing books sounds very frequent compared with our experience of 2 primary schools. DS1 changed his book once a week and they were very easy. We moved house and DS2 started at a new school last year. He changed his book twice a week. He's now in year 1 and can change it when he wants to but they recommend that he reads each book at least twice. We've changed a couple after one reading when he has read them fluently.

I wouldn't worry about the name writing thing either. It's chaos dropping off whatever the kids are doing. I expect the teachers are taking note of which kids are struggling with letter formation even if you don't see them doing it.

Just read your follow up post - trust me on this one - it's far far easier to empty book bags with reception kids. Listening to 30 kids read takes ages and wouldn't get done if it included book bag faffing.

I would raise the subject of left handed letter formation when you have your parents evening ask them for tips about how to hold the paper, etc.
I am a leftie and it is true that it is more awkward and some letters in particular don't feel natural. However, in reception I wouldn't worry too much about it as they will spend a lot of time on handwriting and their letters during their time at school and they will help with this.

As for the reading books don't worry too much - just keep reading other books with your child. Mine went right off reading the reading books in reception so for a while we weren't doing anything with the books from school. I wouldn't pressure your child either - as others have said just pick another book off the shelf from home and read with them. Then I used to every now and again ask her what a particular word was (sometimes she'd tell me other times she'd make a huge huge fuss about it). She's a confident and fluent reader now.

Schools do this differently - at our school we were allowed to change books daily. At a neighbouring school children didn't have any books with words in them until after the first half term because they wanted the children to be clear that they could describe the story from the pictures. It's just different approaches to the same overall goal.

OP I found Reception infuriating in terms of organisation, chaos, communication. After private nursery and my very corporate work place it was a big culture shock. You may be experiencing that. I read our own books with PFB (school readers were changed once a week only), let the teacher do her job, bit my lip, and at the end of Reception had a happy confident reader who flew through primary and is loving his very academic secondary. Reception is a mystery to me still and I have experienced it 3 times. Reception teachers have magic skills. They know what they are doing. Support the teacher, trust him/her and be positive. It is hard to get used to a new style. I have found it hard to adjust to secondary where it is different again. But you can't judge on less then half a term. Good luck, chill enjoy. At parents evening you will see what goes on.

Regarding books: this is the norm for state schools and you can't compare it with top private schools academically as they have more resources and less children to deal with; if you can't send him private for whatever reason you need to supplement at home; nothing stop you from buying books; taking him to the library to get books and get him to read more advance stories

Learning to read is a marathon not a sprint. You don't need to race through the reading scheme sometimes it's better to consolidate what has been learnt rather than move on before learning is secure.

I'm unconvinced by the educational validity of the writing their own names every morning thing.

What if my Summer born is called Hermione-Blossom and your September born is called Max- too much for her and not enough for him. Settling tasks, yes, letter formation practice, yes, but I'm not sure that daily routine is a great use of time.

It all sounds pretty standard to me - I think morning drop offs in a reception class are chaotic however they happen.

They were not chaotic at our state primary because no parent was allowed on the premises. The children walked into reception class on their own! Books changed every other day by the child. The book boxes were colour coded and the books numbered. A parent helped out in the book cottage! Class of 60 too. They did not all sit down at the same time but had allocated sitting times, at their own table, and times to do other things: measuring, weighing, science, PE etc. It was a hen and chickens classroom and it worked very well. I would not expect my DC to have sat on the floor to write. The children wrote at differing times during the day sitting at a table. If classrooms are chaotic, the school is doing something wrong in my view.

Our reception children are collected in the playground by their teacher and nursery nurse all very calm.

There is no value in unsupervised writing practice whether writing own name or individual letters.

What Citykat said.

I am in the same boat with my eldest just started in reception. 60 children at drop off here too, all trying to hang up coats, put book bags in drawers and find their names to slot into the register. Total chaos, but I honesty wouldn't dream of suggesting anything to the teacher, being as I am (like you) a novice primary parent without the faintest idea of what's involved in running a large reception class.

Reading books are changed weekly here, but we don't read the scheme book every day, and we always read books from home at bedtime anyway. We look at the scheme book, 2 perhaps 3 times. This is in addition to, not instead of our usual reading.

I think you need to adjust your expectations a bit and I've no doubt it's a bit of a culture shock after a day nursery.

The only thing I would want to mention to the teacher, probably at parents evening, is how to support a left handed child to learn to write properly.

My ds is left handed and his school has policy/practice specifically to support left handed writing ie tilting page, ensuring they have enough elbow room etc.

Reading books 1x week at our high performing very mixed huge primary. Practice and repetition is good mixed with home reading of anything you have. Lots of work done on the floor / outside as well as at tables in YrR. We did 'write you name' or if no time just write what you can. At the end of YrR my DC could read very well so it works.
We went into classroom for 1st term only.