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)?

My child didn't speak at nursery but spoke loads at home. She didn't really like it there.

Please look at changing childcare. This place sounds badly run. I have had my DC in a daycare with minimal turnover. My sons teacher is my DD2s teacher and has been there 9 years. She has had DC of her own as have the other employees. The lady in the baby room has been there 19 years. When DS started they called me that afternoon to tell me they were super concerned about his development and helped me with getting him assessed ASAP.

Its seems there is a lack of supervision of staff at this nursery.

I had a friend whose child was assessed as below level consistently up to age 6 plus. He didn't enjoy school, and started to consider himself a failure. At this stage she moved to a country where children go to school later. Once he re-entered the education system he quickly shot to gifted and talented , and remained so to adulthood. Even in a new language.

Focus on developing your child's social, speaking and playing skills and ignore the rest. And consider alternative providers.

My dgd was in a nursery that personally I didn't like. I never saw the children playing together or expressing an interest in each other. When she turned 3 she was moved to another school and the change was immediate and huge.

The anti-extremism stuff is due to the ‘Prevent’ anti-terrorism government requirements. While it does cover nurseries, I haven’t been asked to sign anything for the one we use.

in the first instance, rather than pay out for an independent assessment, see if you can book in with your health visitor, and explain the situation with the nursery report, and ask if she can do a Griffiths questionnaire - it's the basic developmental screening questionnaire that paediatricians etc use.

Nurseries are a bit hit and miss. Staff are often paid very poorly so you get good people and some who are less knowledgeable.

From the comments this girl made, it is clear she hasn’t got a clue. Comparing your DD’s lack of achievements to her own, implying she’s not academic at two etc ...show she clearly hasn’t much experience. She was just trying to fill the air with banalities. I’d dismiss the report but also look at other settings.

We went to a private school (pre-prep) for the year before reception and were glad we did.

I am so glad that we escaped this madness when we emigrated. Can people not see that assessing kids this young is insane? Where we live, kindergarten is all about free play with zero pressure. No reports, assessments, nothing. And guess what? They do just fine.

"Please right about you're experience's with the nursery bear".
That is so hilarious, I nearly wet myself.

Assessment in early years seems pretty important to me. It helps to flag children who have additional needs so that they can have early intervention. It helps providers to focus their provision on the needs of the individual children in their care.

PandaPie, I agree with that. I think the EY framework is actually pretty good.

But as with any tool, put it into the hands of an under-qualified, underpaid, and potentially undermotivated person and the results can be awful.

It does then not serve for early identification of potential SN. And for other children and their families, it is at best neutral, but at worst can cause significant worries, as seen in this thread.

Perhaps we should pay nursery staff more?

Of course flagging genuine issues is important (your child is showing signs of autism, your child may need a hearing test, your child is having difficulties with social skills). But having piles of paperwork for each child, assessing a 2yo for bullshit like "creative thinking...." and giving them a mark? Following children around trying to "catch" them doing particular things, and giving them a fail mark if you didn't succeed? It's just madness. And it reduces the time and energy that workers have for actually engaging with the children.

This sounds mental tbh. This is the problem with targets.

At two and a half, my DC had only just started to talk properly. When he went into reception he couldn't (and wouldn't) hold a pen let alone draw, write or do ANYTHING craft based or creative. He's coming to the end of reception year now and teacher says he's actually very bright and "exceeding" learning goals in every area. He's a summer born boy and is in the top reading group with only one other girl. No-one was more surprised that DH and I at parents eve.

In my experience, (and I know friends and family who have had similar experiences) children do things in their own time. If there are no health concerns, the important thing is her emotional well-being, everything else will follow. As a single parent you must be doing a fab job, I take my hat off to you.

The problem is that a lot of the time they will meet your child based on what they have observed. If they haven't had time to do proper observations then she won't progress up the Bands necessarily. I think it's more likely to be Nurseries fault than your daughters. You can go and work through the criteria which they are assessing against and point out where she can do the things that they are not observing. Giving her rage though maybe just don't bother as it's not going to go to the school is it.? What if she is going into the preschool then they will do their own assessment before she hits reception.

brill or if they are going to copy America copy them in full. It's the paediatrician who does the assessment at the 9, 12, 18 and 24 month appointments. Kids in the U.K. Aren't even seen by a paediatrician. Let's start there and set up the infrastructure to support the health and wellbeing properly.

Of course it takes money but it can be done a whole lot better. Expecting a GP to have such depth of knowledge when much of the care of young children has been taken away from them is also an oxymoron. The HV should be there to support the family but the child should still be seen by a doctor regularly if early intervention is going to be successful.

I wonder if the US actually has that as universal provision or it depends on whether your family has adequate health cover.

panda Nope its universal and was before Obamacare too. Children have always been seen by paediatricians and uninsured children whose parents fall below a certain income have been covered at no cost since the 80s for preventative care.

Just want to raise my hand as another parent from a country where the idea of pre-schools issuing reports on 2/3/4 year olds would be regarded as laughable.

Children have an annual health assessment with a nurse, who will do simple cognitive tests. Pre-school teachers write 'learning stories' about the children throughout the year that comment on (but don't rate) areas where they have made positive progress (ie a shy child makes a friend, a child is seen to write their name unassisted, etc, a child tells an interesting or complex story to the teacher, a child attempts a physical task they haven't attempted before).

Report cards that evaluate the child against level standards don't start till they are around 6 here.

Your child sounds completely normal and even advanced in the general academic areas you mention. As her parent I imagine you know best how her social skills are and whether she needs help with making friends or if she's just independent.

I would throw the report in the fire and not give it a second thought.

Children have an annual health assessment with a nurse, who will do simple cognitive tests.
Given that the nurse doesn't know the child and doesn't have hours a day to observe, and the child may not feel like cooperating when they see the nurse (and may not like the nurse!) I think I'd rather the nursery worker, who knows my child, made some notes on them (or possibly "also" made some notes on them).

She's 2. She shouldn't even have a report. She is a baby xx

@drspouse When I say simple I mean really simple. “Can you draw a circle? Which one is the animal?” etc. In the presence of the parent/s, very relaxed and friendly, and parent are welcome to chip in.

It’s really just an aide to help the parents recognize if there’s anything they might want to keep an eye on or follow up on. They’re very familiar with kids “going shy” or being in an uncooperative mood. It’s not a formal assessment, and the parents certainly aren’t given a written report with “scores”.

Still, some children come over all shy, and the preschool teachers will have seen the child do those things many times if they can do them - they have a lot more to go on.
It's particularly the case with children with disabilities that include some behavioural problems. They could be not responding to any language because they are massively overwhelmed with the situation, or because they really don't respond to language. The preschool staff who see them every day will know the difference. The child health nurse won't.

IMO it's quite mad to be assessing such young children like this. 'People and communities' - FGS, what on earth is that, and how on earth would it be assessed?

Please just ignore it, OP, and don't give it another thought. It's just another sign of the obsessive box-ticking culture that has sprouted like weeds in recent years.

What sort of fucked up society do we live in, when we grade and report on a 2 year old? This is one of the saddest things I’ve read on here in ages. I’m glad this nonsense didn’t happen when my DS was young.