Reception teachers - what do YOU think is important for a child to know when they start school .

[Themis]

I work at a playgroup and I have two children myself YrR & Yr1 . I was going to write a small piece for some of the 'first ' time school parents about what they & their children should know before starting school.

Eg - social skills for the child , being able to dress & go to the toilet etc.

As a Reception teacher what do YOU ( not your school or governement) want a new child to be able to do and how do you want the parents to behave on first day.

this will also be good evidence for me for my NVQ.

many thanks

Kittensocks, DS1's school has an Early Years Unit where he's just completing his nursery year. I think it's an excellent idea as he did his settling-in last Sept, and the only differences will be wearing uniform and going all day and having lunch. The children are divided into groups to do different things. The only drawback is losing slightly older friends into Yr 1 (DS1 will be 5 in Sept. His best friend will be 5 soon, in late July, but has been FT since January). It was a big adventure for DS1 to go to the school hall for example to practice for and take part in the nativity play, and to run in a race at sports day.

Sorry, have gone off the subject here but have found this thread most interesting.

School sent a letter with a list of skills they hope children will have learnt: the ones already mentioned, plus have a respect for books and not scribble on them, be able to put toys away in the correct place, be able to use a handkerchief (yikes! when DS1 had a cold I put a tissue in his pocket and told him to take it out to blow his nose, but he needs to be reminded otherwise he wipes his nose on his sleeve (yuk!).

Haven't read entire thread but just a question.

What classes as reception. DD has just finished F1 and starts F2 in September. F2 is full time education where F1 was only half a day.

Reception class in England is full-time school, when they are aged 4-5.

Ok. Then she starts reception in September. Has been able to do many of the things that everyone has stated for a while.

Her birthday is in December and has been in F1 for 5 terms. She has had a few problems with temper tantrums the past term but her teacher says that she is basically bored. She is a bright child and some of the other children in the class are only just three where as she is nearly 5. She feels she is ready for full time education and when she is being stimulated more she wil calm down

She can:

Go to toilet independently
Dress and undress herself
Do her shoes - velcro not laces
Understands need to share.etc

on that stepping stones thing she was most of the first three columns underlined in colours and a few in the fourth and fifth.

She is typical of the children in the class. Well the ones that have been there for nearly two years.

An easy way for them to put on their shoes - is to draw an arrow in each of their shoes - pointing to each other iykwim. Then they just have to have the arrows pointing to each other to know right and left.

Another way of teaching your child how to put on their shoes correctly is to put the shoes next to each other correctly then with a black marker in the shoe at the heels draw a face ie one eye in the left shoe one eye in the right one then a smily face accross both shoes half a smile on the left and the other half on the right. So it forms like a puzzel. The child needs then to put the shoes correctly next to each other so he can see the face as if he is building a puzzel. He then had the shoes correctly and can then put them on correctly. Hope my babbling made sense.

I think reception classes start children in the term during which they have their 5th birthday.
Chubley, interested to read your observations. It must be nicer for the children to have a more gradual integration into school life. Some of the youngest must find it hard to cope with a new classroom, new uniform, new teacher, and a new routine, for a full day. A least they can take it a little more slowly. A child may be physically and intellectually ready for school, but are they emotionally?
Am I right in thinking that schools in Europe have a longer kindergarten stage than G.B.?

Not in France, Kittensocks. DD will be starting 'school' in September but she won't even be 3 yet (mid-september birthday!). I keep telling myself it's only nursery really but the word 'school' just makes my stomach churn. She's too likkel.
They can stay all day at that age but as I'm a SAHM she'll just stay for 2 full days to start with and see how she gets on.
Would be interested to know what the situation is in other European countries though...

I think the majority of European schools start formal teaching later and their numeracy and literacy standards in juniors and onwards are usually much better than ours in the uk. Being a teacher and having ds start school this sept this has been very interesting thread. Being a 'sad' person who watches too much teacher's tv i saw a program about education in hungary (i think) where they basically learn through play till about 7 or 8 and then start the formal stuff. They are at higher levels thsn the equivalent kids here very quickly which makes me question whether we push our children too early to reach goals that the government think they should reach!!!! Sorry to rant just something i feel strongly about - what does anyone else think?

I totally agree with you harro39! My ds has just completed his reception year and has had a ball but he's way behind some of his peers. Knows his letter sounds but can't put them together or write anything more than his name. He may have dyslexia or something but I think in mnay ways he just isn't ready! He certainly wasn't mature neough to go to full time school last September. Fortunately school have been fab and haven't pushed him. I am not going to get worried till he's 7.

left and right is easy if your child sucks their thumb
dd has known left and right for yonks as she sucks her left thumb and relates everything back to that, we right L and R on her shoes.

I must admit I panic way more over the social than academic though...
DD has been at the feeder pre school and has fulfilled all they need which as far as I can tell is shag all to what is mentioned on here
Hooray!

harro39 - I entirely agree with you. Children start formal schooling too young in this country. My DS1 started Yr R at 4 yrs 6 weeks (it is his birthday tomorrow) and managed to achieve very little in Yr R. He had 9 key words at the end of that year and had barely got off the ground on the ORT. He just wasn't interested. I don't believe he was ready for school in the first place so I didn't push him.

However, he finishes YR 2 tomorrow as one of the best readers in his class. Suddenly, towards the end of term 2 of YR1 he was ready to read and off he went. There doesn't seem much point in forcing young children to learn to read before they are ready. He enjoyed Yr R so much when learning was through play and it was such a shock to him to start the more formal YR 1 that I thought we had lost his interest in school for good. He really didn't like the change of pace and didn't enjoy school at all. He has settled down now and he is loving school again but then he is nearly 7, which as you say, is when the Europeans start their formal education and when they presumably they believe children are academically ready to learn.

It is why I am not pushing the academic stuff for DS2 who is 4 in September. There is plenty of time to meet targets when he starts school next year. He should have the time to learn at his own pace and have fun. The focus should definitely be on getting his social and personal development right before school and anything else he wants to learn is a bonus.

haro39 ... I agree with you too. I lived in Holland when I was a child and didn't start formal school until 6 and a half (when my parents moved to England). I was two years behind the English children but learned to read in a term. By 7 I was reading independently (Enid Blyton et al) at bedtime and I am an avid reader as an adult.
My DS started school in New Zealand on his 5th birthday, picked up reading pretty quickly but since he turned 7 reading has become an interest he reads in bed every night ...
My niece (in the UK) started school when she was 4 years and 2 weeks. She has just finished reception. She can't read, she is a month off her 5th birthday. What has the last year been for I wonder? If she lived here, in Australia, where we live now, she would still be in kindergarten until January 2008 and would be starting at 5 and 5 months.
It is a known fact (can't find the reference right now) that children of average ability (ie, no SN of any kind) are all at the same reading level at 11 regardless of whether they learned to read at 3, 5 or 7.

Let them PLAY!!!!!!

Ohhhhh for the love of god....please teach them to sit on their bums and listen!!!

Also....

That when the teacher says that they would like them to do something....'No' is not an answer!!

Don't give them tie up shoes (the laces trail on the toilet floor.....and then they ask you to tie them...yeuch!)

Number recognition to 10 (not just counting to 10 but counting out said amount of objects e.g. give me 7 buttons)

Names on absolutely every item of clothing (if you want them back at the end of the day)

Oral sounding skills, rhyming words, words that start with the same sound etc. Playing eye spy is a good one for that!

I know of a teacher who gives her daughter all the class work in advance so that her daughter has a head start....result??? Her daughter is bored brainless in school and already has the attitude that she 'knows it all'. Mum is not helping!! Let her learn at school....honest, it's much more fun that way! If kids are having bother...step in and help them then!!

well, I know a mum who can't wait for her 3 y old to start school in sept, he is far too advanced to go to playgroup...

I think that our children are pushed into formal learning too early as well. It's amazing what children learn by life experience, my son at 5 made the observation during floating and sinking experiments at school, that "things with air inside float". Quite took his teacher aback as none of the other 26 children had suggested this! He'd seen inflatable boats at the seaside.
Surely starting reception after the 5th birthday would be an improvement...

Re shoes: dd is 3.5 and doesn't know her left from right, but for some reason does know which side her heart is in.

So I tell her the shoe with a heart drawn in it goes on that side. She does get that, and can do it. She also takes great delight in doing it the wrong way round, of course

Please tell parents to label jumpers, gym shoes,pencil cases, lunchboxes etc etc. Unbelievable the amount of lost property accumulated in an infant cloakroom, all more or less identical and none of it with any names on.

Wow- brilliant ideas for getting shoes on the right feet- thanks guys!