Pre-school end of year report - mortified

[craxmum]

DD is 2.7 and I just received her end of year report today. She's been attending since September. It's a disaster.
She scores "emerging" for her age band or even in the age band below in pretty much all areas apart from "numbers", "shape, space and measure" and "technology" where she has scored "confident".

She also has the lowest possible score for "creating and thinking critically" (1 out of 5).

For "making relationships" and "people and communities" she is not even assessed to be at the level of 16 months! Some children don't even walk at this age :(

I don't know what to think. To me, she is quite a bright child for her age - knows numbers up to 20, can do basic sums up to 10, knows all the letters, can write a few too, can draw some recognisable shapes (faces, cars, dogs), playing some elaborate pretend games.

Can I ask for a second opinion from another professional? They state that this report will be shared with her future school, is there any way I can gently challenge it?

I feel really guilty, I am a single mother and have to work full time, and her older brother has SEN and takes almost all of my free time (and finances) - I feel now like I failed her. Can I find a teacher to tutor her over the holidays to bring her up to speed (I am not sure how it works in the UK - should I ask if someone in the nursery is tutoring privately or is there is anyone they can recommend)?

Thank you for your comments. I am seeing her key person in 15 min, will try to find out why they scored her like they did.

At her age I'd expect her to mostly be secure in the 22-36 month band.

Not all nurseries understand how the developmental age bands should be used to make a 'best fit' judgement and think they need to see every descriptor x amounts of times with photographic evidence before they can 'tick it off' - despite the materials actually stating in black and white "must not be used as a checklist".
If they are doing that then they are probably just assessing her lower than they should be.

A tutor, at 2.7?!!!!!!! That's absolute madness. Consider it for GCSE, if absolutely necessary, at the very very earliest. You have a while...

She sounds very normal to me - doing well in some areas and not so well in others. Like all of us really

Having a chat to find out more is a great idea though as it may reassure you
Other factors to consider are your daughters personality and how long she has been there. My DD is an introvert so would never do well on social skills assessment

Hope they can give you some more insight

crax - don't worry about future implications of a "bad" pre-school report - schools carry out their own assessments of a child's ability on entry to a school - so schools are not going to be interested in a child's performance at two, but on the child in front of them.

I agree with wanttobesupermum - either they are scoring wrongly, or they are implying that your daughter is behind with communication skills and you need to find out which.

If you did want private input at this stage, a speech therapist would probably be the relevant professional, not an academic tutor (as speech therapists specialise in all aspects of communication.

She sounds like a lovely bright toddler.
I’ve never even properly read the pre school assessments . I know mine are doing perfectly well for their age, and if I (or they) had any specific concerns then I would expect to discuss them face to face.

After the meeting, I am none the wiser. Was told that the rating was given according to the entries in the observation log, but the log is a paper book stored off site for audit purposes, and is not available to parents.
I asked a direct question on why her social interaction skills were rated to be at the level of a non-verbal and non-mobile child, and the answer was that she often reads a book by herself in the book corner, ignoring group time / circle time. Why her reading skills are then marked below her age band? According to the methodology. Can you explain the methodology you have used? It is the official EYFS methodology, you can google it.
At the got a remark that all parents naturally think their child is the brightest, but there is a wide range of abilities that the teachers see and academic success is not necessarily important in life. Also a lecture that a child's success may be dependent not on their abilities, but on their background.

Oh God, are they really assessing children this young against such a specific range of criteria?
Yes, as they need to demonstrate each child making progress for the Ofsted bullshit.

I was amused when my 9mo's maths skills were assessed.

Nothing to worry about OP. her levels will go up which will give the nursery evidence for Ofsted and if they had any real concerns they'd tell you face to face

As others have said they are probably trying to look for too much evidence for each area.
All early years settings have to use this framework.
You should be speaking your own language to her, though, she will learn English at nursery and from her friends. Being bilingual is a huge advantage in life!

My Y6 high academic achiever who quietly makes good friendships and strikes out on her own loads barely spoke to anyone at that age.
It was a red letter day in nursery when she spoke to a teacher.
Don't sweat it. Have fun this summer.

@Mindchilder
For the majority of parameters, she is either "emerging" at 22-36, or "expected" in the band below.

Try not to worry.

If she can do sums, write letters etc at 2 then she is quite bright indeed.

The preschool assessment is a box ticking exercise and they have to observe something a set number of times. It means little.

And please don't worry about the eventual school judgement. They do their own baseline assessments and won't be that interested in anything coming up from preschools.

Sounds like they are just not very skilled at using the assessment framework. They are very narrowly using their observations as a check list exercise rather than considering their overall knowledge of her and making a best fit judgement.

I would look up the document 'What to expect when' and read through it yourself to see if she is meeting expectations for her age.

I asked a direct question on why her social interaction skills were rated to be at the level of a non-verbal and non-mobile child, and the answer was that she often reads a book by herself in the book corner, ignoring group time / circle time. Why her reading skills are then marked below her age band? According to the methodology. Can you explain the methodology you have used? It is the official EYFS methodology, you can google it.

I am not familiar with the EYFS but this smells like bullshit with extra bullshit on top.

The preschool assessment is a box ticking exercise and they have to observe something a set number of times. It means little
This shouldn't be the case at all and isn't how to Early Years framework is intended to be used, but the quality of individual early years settings varies hugely.

I had the same when my son was 2 at preschool, I knew it wasn't correct but I didn't say anything as I wasn't too bothered. Low and behold the next year he was at the preschool he made a dramatic improvement on his scores.
I expect some schools score children lower when they first start so that they can show big leaps of improvement in the next year.

If it helps I had a similar experience with DD1 when I received her final report from pre-school. She wasn't able to recognise numbers written down although she could count out loud and she wasn't even able to recognise her written name. She didn't have a confident pencil grip and couldn't write any recognisable letters. I was very upset - more because I had no idea that she was being assessed again these things - I thought she was going to play and make friends with the children that she was starting school with

Her Reception class teacher reassured me that she would be reading and writing confidently by Christmas. She was right, that year she wrote her own Christmas cards.

In a couple of weeks I will be attending her fourth graduation ceremony. It hasn't held her back academically.

Came on to post but the first response said it all - forget it

Just don't give it another thought and have a lovely summer with your lovely daughter 💐

Tutoring for a three year old?!
Burn the report, forget about it and check back in when she's got a couple of years of school under her belt.

Her Reception class teacher reassured me that she would be reading and writing confidently by Christmas. She was right, that year she wrote her own Christmas cards.
Gosh, that's a bit optimistic! The vast majority of Reception kids won't do that.

@HamishTheTalkingCactus
That is a great idea, I will look at a speech / early development specialist. Maybe she just needs a little help / boost of confidence with her English.
@drspouse
I think it is too late now :) my ex was against me speaking a language he could not understand, so it just naturally happened that I use English with the children. She picks another language via cartoons and playdates.

Please don't worry. None of my children's preschool assessments looked like anything special either and definitely did not reflect the child I knew. Some of it is because they were shy, or anxious, and didn't behave at nursery the same way they did when they felt safe around us. They do indeed struggle to tick things off if a child isn't that interested in showing them what they're capable of! Or, as others have said, they may just be too strict in applying the criteria.

For what it's worth, my "unremarkable" according to nursery DD1 got nearly full marks in her mock Y6 SATS. And they completely missed that DS had autism, even though it was obvious to us and he was diagnosed quickly once he was in school.

You know your child best, and from what you say, she sounds pretty smart to me!

She’s two years old.

I live in Sweden - do you know what my two year old does at kindergarten? He runs around and plays all day. There’s no testing. They learn loads - melting ice in the winter, hunting for snails, songs, etc. The teachers look at what they enjoy doing and encourage it. Gradually they learn numbers and letters but there’s zero pressure at all. At six they go into a halfway class where they have one or two very short sit down lessons a day and the rest is playing. At seven they start school.

The thought of a two year old being assessed like this is so sad - I mean you can’t even get any sense out of a kid so small! Mine knows his colours, numbers and letters but he sure as hell won’t perform on demand and you’re as likely to get a monologue on sharks if you try to test him. He will happily sit with a book for ages and he’s a smart little guy. But how on earth do you test a two year old??
Testing a kid so small is meaningless, pointless, counterproductive and frankly daft. It doesn’t even look like they’ve tested well.

She’s two. Let her play, and brush this off. Most kids here slip into school at seven and pick it all up in a short time.

@Ihaventgottimeforthis
Tutoring is the first thing Google suggests :) there are tutors for 3 year olds, quite a few even in the neighbourhood.

www.foundationyears.org.uk/files/2015/03/4Children_ParentsGuide_2015_WEB.pdf

this is the criteria they use, they should have had a copy available to lend you.