Expectations for writing in Reception?

[ladybirdsarelovely33]

Dd is in Reception and has said that they practise writing the letters (that the teacher illustrates on the board) either on the carpet or in the air.
I used to teach in Year 1 and had children coming up to me (state school) being able to write in full sentences with capitals and full stops. Even the middle ability children were able to write a couple of sentences about themselves.

DD brings home some cursive writing letter sheets but they didn't actually write them out at all. She is pretty accurate as to what goes on workwise at school.

Have expectations changed as to what Reception children do? I haven't taught Year 1 for about 7 years.

Mine started off reception with having to copy one letter every night cursively for homework. Now she has moved on to writing sentences.

brain Is she in Reception now?

Yes

I imagine it probably depends on the school. It sounds like you were probably in a much more competitive environment. Standards have actually increased in recent years. In our school, the reception children do what they would have been expected to do by end of Year 1 only a few years ago. Mine practices writing and reading (she's in reception). It's not quite so much handwriting per se, but phonics and reading. They do some sessions a week with forming letters (it's like messy play, they do it in sand, shaving foam, paint, etc., not like so much just repetitively on sheets of paper). She does occasionally get home some sheets to practice a few letters, but mostly the writing is done as part of learning phonics. Mine does now, half way through the year, write a sentence every now and then. It's not part of her homework or anything formal, but she draws and writes out letters and words on her own at home. And sometimes she does write a sentence about what it is she has drawn, like "This is a cat." The other day she made me a card and wrote, "This card is for mum" on the front. So that seems realistic that by the start of year 1 she'd be writing sentences more regularly (for now, it's just sort of self-directed, not pushed by the school though). I don't know if that would be the case for all the children in her class though. She's in a fairly typical small village (state) school.

My reception child regularly writes sentences in school- more than once a week. And they are working on writing a couple of sentences at a time. State village school not at all pushy.

What age do they do reception?

Age 4-5

A couple of mornings a week parents are invited in to my child's reception class for 10 minutes at drop off. We have different activities to do with them (practice writing their name, count the windows and doors etc) At least 5 times it had been to practise writing certain phonemes. It is differentiated (well, my kid's list was different to the next kid's list). They tend to do writing with a purpose, labels, cards, one time it was a letter to Santa. Older sibling now in y 1 went up able to do whole sentences with full stops, capital letters and finger spaces, but started school as one of the more able ones. DC2 started as distinctly average but has come on leaps and bounds and I'm really impressed by both the school and the child. Amazing progress, and the setting is very play based, with lots of singing time, outdoor activities etc. They do seem to have a lot more staff then where dc1 started reception so lots of targeted small group work.
They are writing on real paper with real pencils although I think in most schools they much that up with 'sensory' writing (on your friends back, in sand etc).

My children didn't meet the expected standard but could write a sentence with capital letters and a full stop at the start of year 1.
When they practiced writing, it was often on whiteboards while sat on the carpet. (I know this because my youngest's white polo was always dotted with whiteboard marker)

My dd is in reception. She has SN so is a little bit behind the others. She is writing words but not yet sentences she is doing a lot of work on phonics and blending.
I think some of the other children are writing sentences from work I've seen on the walls.

DS's school seemed to start very slowly with a few letters each week but this term he is suddenly writing loads, making books, drawing speech bubbles on pictures etc. They seem to have approached it very well so the children are genuinely enthusiastic and excited about writing.

Mmmm.....I want to say something but I am not sure how to broach the subject without being a pita.

DS started reception unable to write his name.
He’s now in year 1 and can write in sentences, joined up cursive with capital letters and full stops. He still finds writing much more difficult than reading.
He’s summer born at a small non selective independent school if that’s relevant.

It definitely starts slow and then they explode - I wouldn't worry about it.

I'd expect most children to be having a go at writing labels and captions at this point in the year. Most would be able to write a couple of short, phonetic sentences by the end of the year. They will still be practising letter formation regularly though.

Start by asking what writing they are doing. It’s quite common to do air writing for letter formation/phonics as a completely different activity to writing a story/label/caption. You don’t want to end up complaining about something that isn’t what you think it is.

I don’t think that not doing lots of writing at this stage means they won’t be writing a decent amount by the end of the year. Sometimes you need to go slow to go fast. Building the foundations well is better than pushing too much early.

Nearly 2 terms is a long time in reception.

My dd is in reception and can't even write her name consistently (usually has a letter in the middle backwards if not all backwards) she gets pre writing tracing as homework. We do a lot of practice at home with her but she just doesn't seem ready. However, on Tapestry I've noticed most of the other children are writing sentences, and she often gets other children to write sentences for her on the pictures she brings home.

Ds2 in reception at village primary. He is not expected to write his own name nevermind a sentence....

How many schools are using tapestry? We get sharing assembly once a week and 2 patents evenings a year and that's it in terms of finding out what the children are doing...

Patents = parents

The writing expectations at the end of the Reception year are national, it doesn't matter what kind of school it is Sally.

I asked the teacher recently at a parents' meeting and she said that they look at the structure of a sentence. DD can write some sentences by herself e.g DD went to the shop. But they aren't practising any writing on paper nor are we given any h.w as such.
It seems to be as pp said, letters for fun. Shouldn't they be properly practising letters by now?

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachmentdata/file/360534/ELG100_Writing.pdf

Dd is currently in reception. Lots of encouragement to write.

Her homework each week is to draw a picture about her weekend and write a sentence

The other week they wrote letters and posted them home. Dds had 3 short sentences. She will also write short sentences just because she wants to