Setting in reception.

[cedoren]

DS has just gone into a phonics group. The groups have names like turtles, sharks etc. These are clearly sets, but the teacher has given no sign at all of the set levels. Why? I understand why you wouldn't tell children, but I think it's natural for parents to be curious about the levels, even if they are pretty meaningless

Are they letting you know what sounds he’s working on and sending books/sounds home to practise? I think that’s all you need to know, there’s no need to know all the levels of the groups and the other children.

Never told about groups at our school. I was more interested in progress than pecking order. Is your child in the “bottom” group or are you satisfied that he is a top performer! Why do you need to be told? Children don’t learn at the same pace so the groups can change markedly over time.

Go in to letters and sounds for phonics phases and games

It helps if you're worried

Most kids will do well in short bursts and help at home

How does that post answer the op’s question Green? It’s about sets.

It’s so you don’t get parents pressurising children to move sets, discussing levels with other parents etc

I've genuinely got no idea whether he's top or bottom. I'd like to know though - not for any particular reason, I'm just naturally curious.

Yes I know - sera are fairly fluid and change as the child takes interest and 'gets' phonics

If OP wants to help her child this is the program a lot of schools use

Your child would get more from 10 mins at home than a 20 mins session with another 6 kids

We don't know the OPs aim here - either a child who should be top? Worried about a kids lower down? No idea - but there are ways to help any child at any stage at home

And yes, he gets books home and has targets etc.

The best thing is to talk to the teacher about whether your son is making progress as expected or not. It really doesn’t matter which group he’s in.

Well you can be 'interested' all you like, but where were you and phonics at 4/5 years of age? Where were your fiends? Does it matter as long as they progress and learn to read fluently?

Well look at it from another perspective how would you feel if they did tell you and it turned out the set you DC was in was the lowest set? I appreciate you are curious but it really doesn't serve any purpose to let parents know which sets are which, it's not like they determine how they will do in year 6, they are 4 the brightest child in reception might end up struggling later on and vice versa. You cannot do anything with the information anyway, unless it is to boast he is doing better that his peers or to know which parents have children who are struggling but that's just pure nosiness. Just concentrate on how your child is doing and if the teacher has any concerns about how he is doing I am sure she will personally let you know.

I didn't do phonics, we did look and say.

I'm just interested. The are all working on completely different things, but it's not obvious to me whether they are based on current ability (I.e. Setting!) or more random groupings. I'm not explaining it very well.

I'm just interested. The are all working on completely different things, but it's not obvious to me whether they are based on current ability (I.e. Setting!) or more random groupings. I'm not explaining it very well.

Do you know what he’s working on and whether he’s making good progress? That’s really all that matters.

I’m fairly certain in reception the winter babies who are already 5 will be doing much better than the summer babies who are not long 4. It could be that they have sorted it this way?

Ask your child, your child will know most of their peers targets, but it's completely irrelevant and tells you no useful information to compare with the other random group of kids in his class.

Get him interested in knowing his targets.