Exceeding in all areas in reception?

[HTK]

My son is just finishing reception, he is my oldest so no experience of this. Now obviously, to me my DS is the brightest and most special boy on G-ds green Earth but with my realistic head on he seems an on-the-bright-side of average 5 year old. He is reading at level 5, has a great vocab but seems atrocious at Maths. Lots of friends etc.

We have been to two parents evening and at both have been given the impression he is a lovely bright boy, but no comments made on him being in anyway outstanding.

Anyway, his report has come in and he is Exceeding in all areas. I was surprised because I would have thought we would have known in some way if he was above average in every area. Like maybe we would have to DO some unspecified something. Is this common? Or could it be our NQT class teacher being a bit over enthusiastic? And do I need to do anything with him now?

Is it acceptable to ask the teacher if it's unusual to exceed in all areas? Or if lots of children in the class also 'scored' the same.

I don't think they will tell you

smog, as Teen has explained, it isn't unusual, as in extraordinary.
But I don't think lots of children in the class scored the same. Maybe one or two or none, depend on cohort.
Experienced teacher might have seen many, and newer teacher may have seen less. It's 2 %, 2 in 100 children, not one in a million extraordinary.

Mine has a good memory however very selective, her Yr4 teacher did try the whole year for her with the poem writings as she thinks people with photographic memory progresses well with poetry however mine still isnt interested. She does ok with both English and maths and was quite above all her forms before however now it seems everyone else has catched up so fast as parents start gunning for 11+ with either home or tutor tutoring or mostly both( I consider home tutoring is more intensive, people pay 1 hour a week for tutors and thought its done. They cant compete with parents who could do much more hours in any convenient time and know the children better). We dont even know if we could get to any selective secondary school now as they are different set of exams and well tutored children(meaning they work harder) will win the places(which I think its fair).

Is exceeding in all areas very unusual though?

Knicker
Upthread, statistics have been quoted saying 2%.
So 1 in 50. So not very unusual, no.

1 in 50 sounds quite unusual to me but this is coming from a parent with an average son but a daughter exceeding in all areas.

I think then we are debating the definition of 'quite unusual'.
In a two form entry school you'd expect there to be on average 1 child a year getting all exceeds expectations. That's quite a regular occurrence in my book. So not common/normal/average, but nothing so unusual as to have teachers raving in the staffroom about a child.

Are you a teacher? I still think 1 out of a whole 2 classes sounds quite unusual! But don't work in the sector at all!
In fact I just started my own thread as my daughter got exceeding in all areas as did her best friend who is now joining a tutor group to " push her further " which I thought was crazy, but maybe it's the norm!

Not a teacher, a mathematician.
'Quite unusual' is a woolly term, feel free to define it differently from how I've defined it!

Turning it around, if it is 2% as stated upthread, then in a two form entry school, the school would expect to have at one child a year getting exceeding in all areas. So having child reaching that wouldn't be unusual for them, it would be expected.

Ah I see what you mean now! I think it's more so I'm not used to having the child exceeding as my son was always very average throughout primary and is now in secondary!

I think it is normal for a school to have 1 or 2 children exceeding, it's not a cause for fanfare and calling Mensa that us parents see it as!!
Of course an exceeding child is great and there are extra things both the school and parents can do to nurture thier ability but in my experience the school won't make a big deal out of it unless the child is exceptionally extraordinary.

The exceeding category is very broad - on our national tests the expected results are 85-115 so anything above 115 is exceeding so you are going to get quite a few children in the 115-120 range who are exceeding but nothing to shout about, then you get kids like my DS who are above the 140 cut off for scoring and so the tests are unable to test the full limit of his abilities.

Brie - I think scoring very high on all the Y2 or Y6 SATs is easier than all exceeding in reception, or greater depth on any of the teacher assessment standards as to get that they have to have met every single descriptor. Also SATs tests are only on academic skills, EYFS is much broader.

DS got full marks (which is 115 for year 2) for SATs last year. He didn't even get met all the standards for the teacher assessment.

Having now got DD's EYFS scores along with a load of commentary from teacher about how ahead she is and how they're "not allowed" to give exceeding (though they did allow some, mostly the academic ones), and various "very strong expected"s ...

Obviously they want parents to feel good about their kids so will want to make it sound difficult, but given I can also make a direct comparison to what DS was up to and the scores he got at a different school - I can be pretty sure that they're applying a hugely tougher standard. I'm getting a distinct impression her school don't ever give all exceedings on the current set of standards.

its nice, its a good start, its not unusual, as has been stated, but a very good start to school.

It depends on many things. If this child is being educated in their first language, if this is a child who gets bedtimes stories read to them, and has conversations with adults daily, If this is a child who has a stable home life, and a permanent address, then they are in the top 5-10% or so, overall.

so 2-3 per class,

if this is a child who does NOT fit into the categories above, then you are looking at something a little bit more exceptional.

Reward him for his EFFORT, not his achievement. If you have given him a head start in literacy at home, etc, then he is likely score lower in the future, as peers catch up, and the last thing you want is to set him up to feel that he has never met expectations.

To describe the other end of the scale, DS got "emerging" for 15/17, and "meets" for two categories (self care was one).

He is one of the youngest in class, he also fits all of these: "being educated in their first language, if this is a child who gets bedtimes stories read to them, and has conversations with adults daily, If this is a child who has a stable home life, and a permanent address" and has no diagnosed SEN.

He is sociable, kind, and chatty, quite resilient and content to keep trying at things that don't work out initially. He started the year quite behind in his speech but with work from school and us has come along well and can now explain himself reasonably albeit with some childish speech patterns. He's reading at level 3 and has got the hang of sounding out and blending but tends to memorise books very quickly. He has found it more challenging to stay focused and pay attention though this has improved as he's got older.

We're happy that he's progressed well (considering starting point) through the year.

Also I wonder what bearing these reception reports have long term?
My son was average and emerging in reception, doing OK in year 1 but by year 2 was ahead in all areas!

slightly, sounds like your ds is doing really well. It's a great achievement, and every child is different. Well done to your ds.

Thanks irvine. He's been towards the bottom of his peer group through nursery, so our hopes for this year were mainly about improving speech and getting him feeling settled socially/emotionally so that he can just enjoy learning.

Lots of Gifted children are asynchronous too so won't necessarily get all exceeding or will be 2e (with special needs) so these tests aren't really the best indication anyhow for gifted.

My Sept born son got 3 exceedings. Imagination, Using materials, and Understanding the world

I'm assuming every child got those 3!

I'm just overjoyed he got expected for self care as until recently he was still having poo accidents several times a day!

Addict - not at all a given they all get those, my son got exceeding for all except being imaginative!

DS5 didn't get material but got twelve others

That really isn't a bad thing tomorrow. If exceeding in Using Materials means one has to be even a smidge like my son, it's effing relentless!!
He's made whole costumes out of paper (including gloves), endless junk modelling, mask making, paper mache caves before I've even woken up. Of course he never tidies properly and I have to be super vigilant with the toddler around.

The upside is he already knows what he wants to do for a living, designing aircraft or furniture and my engineer husband has started showing him CAD.

My dd (July born, she turned 5 last week) got exceeding in all areas. I'm proud of her and she is bright but she's no prodigy. She's just chatty, confident, has had a good start in life and 'gets' school. I'm extra proud because she's so young in the year and I did question whether we were doing the right thing starting her this year. But she's still just a (imo - am a teacher) normal 'bright' kid with engaged (pushy!) parents.

I know she was not the only child in her class to get exceeding in all areas.

And as we said to her, it doesn't matter, we'd be just as proud if she'd got 1s in every area not 3s because we know she works hard & tries her best, and enjoys school. I can't get hung up on figures and results at this age & stage.

Gplan we bounce between specialists with ds due to his many conditions. He didn't get using materials due to his motor issues tbh.