Expectations on starting school

[Janie32]

I was just wondering what children are expected to be able to do on starting in reception. I have just had parents evening and my boy is in the bottom group (of only 4 children out of 45), working at a level below that expected. He can recognize numbers to 10 and count to 20. He didn't learn any letter sounds in nursery but neither did the rest of the class but knows the first 12. His pencil control is very poor and he is only just starting to copy his name underneath. I didn't realize he was that far behind the rest.

My youngest started school this September. I would say he is around mid level compared to others in his class. He can do basic sums up to 20, and can read basic books like ' the cat sat on the mat'. He can write short sentences but spellings all phonic ie ' I wet to the parc wif my frend' or 'I lik cak'

It sounds as if they are assessing against end of year expectations

It's very early days I wouldn't worry at all. The important thing is that he is progressing.

If it is any help some of the children in Ds year 1 class still have the target "to recognise and write numbers to 20"

Most of my Y1 class can't

I think it's really harsh to categorize children this early!
I think beginning of reception, the age difference makes so much difference in children. Some are not ready to learn yet, but it will come.

Some children may start little later than others to get something, but by end of YR2, most children's basic skills do not differ so much.
If you support your dc, I'm sure there's nothing to worry about too much.

Assessment is meant to inform but judging a child at the beginning of the year against expectations for the end is just plain stupid.

I'm not a teacher but I don't think it's reasonable to set such young children. Huge range of normal at that age.

The child isn't being set

Apologies mrz, think I misinterpreted the "bottom group" comment. I went through all my schooling (primary and secondary) in undifferentiated groups so I find talk of it confusing!

By the end of reception he needs to be able to count to twenty, order numbers and say what number is one more. The school should be using development matters age bands at the beginning of the year.

Ds is in reception. At his parent meeting it was explained that divide the kids slightly quite early.

Because some kids are ready for new sounds, letters and numbers and some kids aren't.

So if a child is struggling with the sounds or numbers they are working on, they will wait until they are comfortable before giving more. The kids that are comfortable will get more so they aren't bored.

The kids don't actually know any different as the additional work is usually in their sounds or numbers book that we do at home and in class there is a lot of 1-2-1 work. They do work in groups sometimes but the reasoning behind those groups goes over the kids heads.

Your op sounds all very normal. Ds attended this schools nursery and they didn't focus on reading, so ds is just below expectation on that. But he loves school and enjoys the work and is catching up. Numbers is his favourite so he has advanced there.

Personally at a parent/teaching meeting at this point (6 weeks after starting school) I went in with a view of more just having a general chat rather than focus sing too much on where he is, unless there were massive issues.

My ds's pencil control wasn't great on entry to reception (he could use one, but couldn't always pick up the pencil in the correct way). If they have placed him in the bottom group and claim him to be behind then it is worth asking what they will be doing extra with him so that he meets the Early Learning Goals at the end of the year.

Did he attend a nursery/pre-school setting prior to starting school? If so, what did they say about his abilities on hand over to the school?