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)?

It's not at all mad if you want to be working out, early on, which children have got severe developmental disabilities. Especially if those disabilities involve learning, language, or socialising (such as, for example, ASD).

Don't worry.

It's really common for kids to suddenly make massive leaps in progress. My son (when he was 6) made 3 years of reading progress in a year because things suddenly clicked.

Think about what a profile on you would say. Most people would have strong and weaker areas. I wouldn't be surprised that a child strong in STEM would be weaker in imagination. While a child of her age might be thinking about princesses, a child like your dd might be thinking about where the water goes when you flush the toilet instead. Neither is wrong- it's personality. If she's STEM inclined, does she prefer information books over fairy tales?

It really doesn't matter what her report says when it's sent to school. Whether she's outstanding all round or struggling in every area, the school will educate her. It's not like a job reference so chill out.

My children started pre-school with weak social skills but they became popular and confident very quickly. Please don't forget that she's 2 years old!!!!!

Unfortunately this is a fairly common problem in early years. A skilled practitioner should be able to make assessments based on observations of the child. You should know what each child can do based on watching them play and small group or circle time. There should be no need for testing as observations should happen organically. Obviously you can steer the children towards what you are hoping to observe by the activities you set up but that doesn’t mean they are going to play with it in the way you thought they might or talk about the things you were expecting!

Sadly many key workers are not able to do this and so will call children out of play and ask them to count to 10, draw a circle, select 6 objects from a group etc and often the children will not perform (and why should they).

We had one girl start working for us who wouldn’t write anything down unless it was exactly as worded in the eyfs. If one of us told her we’d observed one of her key children doing something she’d look at her document and say “but that’s not on here”. She was brilliant with the children but simply unable to use the eyfs as a guideline. It seems fairly common for people to use it as a literal checklist rather than a guide of the sorts of things to observe.

The three times idea is one that was suggested by our LA, as a response to whether or not a child can do something consistently or not. I don’t necessarily agree with it but maybe for those practitioners who find it difficult to make assessments based on their observations it’s a good starting point.

I worked in a brilliant preschool where three out of four staff members were degree educated (but still on minimum wage ). Our learning diaries were highly praised because they were a really personal record of the individual child’s time at preschool. We were also highly commended for our ability to tailor activities to the individual and for the progresss children made- all of this through play rather than formal learning.

Unfortunately we had to close as the poor funding meant it wasn’t sustainable.

OP it is fairly common for learning diaries etc to be kept offsite somewhere secure but they should be able to produce it for you when you ask. We would never have given you an assessment without also letting you see the observations we were basing it on.

I think sometimes (especially in nurseries) a keyperson can have such a high number of key children that it is impossible for them to build a proper relationship with them, and they can also fall behind on their observations meaning that their assessment is largely based on guesswork. It’s not great.

Just remember that if your child isn’t down as being able to do something it doesn’t mean that they can’t, just that they haven’t been observed doing it consistently within the setting (or that their key person isn’t great at either paperwork or making assessments).

Also the next steps tend to be something that the child is close to achieving, so for example if we have heard them counting to 20 correctly a few times but they often miss out a couple of numbers or say them in the wrong order then it’s a pretty achievable target to get them able to do it correctly all the time.

She is 2, she is a baby. My son wasn't even in nursery untill he as 3 any report I got at that age was binned. At you child's age my son had a handful of words, had some knowledge of numbers and colours but mostly got on with being a baby. He is in year 5, he is ahead of the class n most subjects, very sociable and talented musically. Don't worry, my son is a completely different child to what he was at 2 years old, and how he was at 2 is insignificant to how he has developed in school. Best advice I can give is bin the report and allow your baby/toddler to be a baby/toddler and play.

Sorry I didn’t realise I’d written such an essay!

Sorry, I don't mean to sound rude OP, but please try and use your common sense, this is madness, you know your child, have confidence in that. Your daughter is only two and a half.

One thing I’ve learned from my completely different line of work is to take a ‘no surprises’ approach to communication, particularly around problems. So if I’ve got difficult feedback to give to a colleague I make sure they hear it from me ASAP rather than put it in writing later.

A strong nursery would take that approach and never send home a report raising issues without having spoken to the parents first. And I’d expect to have the manager or room leader in that conversation and fully aware of what was being communicated so that they could double check that there was actually an issue.

It does sound like there has been a mistake of some kind so please don't let it stress you.

I am a firm believer that any kind of report from a school and especially from a pre-school should not contain information that would be a shock to parents, there is a duty for professionals to discuss concerns with parents before it gets to that stage. I get annoyed when other professionals don't do this as it makes us all look bad and it is such a worry to parents.

Having observation records off site sounds very wrong to me, what is the point of them being there? Observation is meant to be an ongoing thing, it doesn't have to be written down but if it is then that needs to be accessible. If it were my child I would want to know what system they have in place for their OAP (Observation, Assessment and Planning).

If they are assessing her as low in one or more of the characteristics of effective learning (under which 'creating and thinking critically' falls) then they need to be talking about how they are supporting her.

If you wanted to assess your child against anything I would say the best document to look at is this one that is designed for parents to work alongside the EYFS. I think from what you have said about your dd and what she can do that you will find it reassuring, if not it does give practical advice about what you can do.

2ndSopranos

This definately happens in some places.

My DS's nursery had him working within expected range for his age in most areas.

He has ASD and receptive and expressive language delay. He was still in nappies, still couldn't dress or undress himself, couldn't put his coat on, couldnt use cutlery. He didn't play with other children and couldn't share or take turns. But yes he knew all his numbers and letters

I still have no idea why they did this.

We had the assessment from a private therapist. DD is absolutely in line and in some areas ahead of her chronological age.
The therapist was surprised that with the first report, no referral was made to the corresponding services, as the scores were indicative of a serious delay. She explained to me that early years settings are assessed on how much progress the children make in the two pre-school years where funding is available (2 to 3 and 3 to 4), and it is not unheard of for the children to be artificially rated very low at entry and then transformed into little geniuses at the exit.
She also pointed out that DD's file (which I had to request through the Freedom of Information act from the nursery) specifies that she comes from a disadvantaged family (hidden behind an acronym). Not sure what is disadvantaged about me, and I intend to discuss it with the manager. DD is not returning to this nursery.
I feel really weird about the whole story, and very disappointed with the approach.

That was quick!
Glad you got some answers and that your mind is at rest with regards to your DD’s development.

Actually quite quick, and not overly expensive (I was expecting £'000s, but was much more affordable). Were seen in two days.
The sad thing is that the NHS waiting list to see the same expert (or someone from her team) seems to be around several months, I just cannot understand how it works here :(

That sounds like good news, @craxmum, but may I gently ask why you felt it so necessary to see a private therapist? After the overwhelming amount of advice to the contrary?

@SharpLily
Good question. I guess I am just psychotic a bit. I already have DS (4) with (mild) special needs, DD also having a problem in this area would mean a lot of further difficulties for me. From my own family who blame me for choosing a less educated father for my children, to the custody court where the father blames DS's issues on poor parenting from my side.

What you need to do is stuff the report in the folder you keep such stuff on then unearth it when she is age 21 and graduating from uni. You will smile wryly and wonder why you were so bothered about a report done when she was basically a baby.

Ouch! Psychotic? That sounds excessive but you do seem to have panicked a bit. I can see why after your explanation but maybe it's time to explore ignoring these people's unkind opinions for a while and concentrate on what you know is right. You are clearly a good parent.