Reception - foundation stage profile report

[lozster]

I just got a reception report. My DS seems ok, no emerging, mainly expected and some exceeding. We have a summary sheet for the whole class showing percentage achievement then a break down for boys and for girls. I would like to see a similar breakdown for age - I think I read on here once that schools normally report this?

My interest stems from my DS being 4 still (5 in the summer holidays). The report contains lots of comments from the teacher and head about him taking a long time to settle down and getting ‘less silly now’. I have spoken to the school twice about him being young for year and have had my concerns dismissed including being told that there are lots of other children his age in his class that cope better. I found out as we got to the end of the year that he is actually the youngest in a class of 30. Unbelievably, 14 were 5 September to December. 14 were 5 January to March and just 2 reach 5 between April to August. I admit I am irked at the lack of support and empathy from the school on the age issue however I genuinely want to see the age distribution for these levels so am interested in whether this information is normally offered?

No that is not standard. What would they do differently with this information? Comparison is the thief of joy.

im not sure it is normally offered

I don't think I even got a break down of class overall and boys v girls

Ok thanks for letting me know that it is standard structure for information.

I think if comparison is the thief of joy then best not to get any comparison figures to either the rest of the class or boy vs girl!

What I would like the school to do with the information relating to age is to use it to understand the context for attainment and behaviour. What I would do with the information is to see how well my DS is doing compared to children who are older than him.

It's definitely not normal to get the information you have already received, never mind more.

I understand your point but unfortunately at the end of EYFS, teacher have to report against the early learning goals and there is no allowance for age as there has been through the rest of EYFS. There also won't be any allowance made when he's being assessed against national curriculum so you need to let the comparisons go. If you're concerned about something specific to him or his learning, of course go and speak to the teacher but it's going to be a long journey if you try and bring his age into it every time.

Unfortunately the school year is Sept-Aug so somebody is always oldest and somebody is always youngest.

Of course it's not normally offered, it's quite astonishing that the offer the other breakdown, even that will probably get you close to identifying individual attainment of other kids if it's a class of only 30. Not least because it's meaningless, you have no idea how that cohort breaks down among a full population, it could be a class of really low achievers.

The emerging / exceeding etc. is designed so you can identify how he's progressing against a general standard, which he's likely doing well at. Although year 1 is not a statutory reporting method so no-one knows what your school is actually measuring.

I was given a reading age for my child which I interpreted compared to his actual age (he's just 6 so young for the year). I think some schools tend to ignore the huge age difference between summer and Autumn borns despite the wealth of evidence to support it's significance. (Summer borns are massively more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD for example). A boy born on 31 August is supposed to display the maturity of a child a year older but born on the 1st of September.

It's not usual to get any information that refers to the achievement of the rest of the class, so your school has already given you more than most.

As you know when the other children's birthdays are, any information relating to age would also make it relatively easy to work out an individual child's results.

I've never been given information for the rest of the class, just for my own DC.

And yes, some schools aren't that great at taking into account age. DS2 is coming to the end of Y12 but is still 5. If he'd been born a couple of weeks later I imagine the reception teachers would be saying his behaviour was great for reception age. But instead I've had to remind them all year that he's the youngest in his class so his emotional maturity doesn't always match up to his academic ability. Mind you, this is the school who fobbed me off about DS1 for years, saying his inability to sit still was just because he was a boy (he has ADHD)

Our school has an 'outcomes' section on the homepage where the exact data you mentioned is also given. (Same for Y1 phonics screening, Y2 and Y6 SATS). They don't send it home though, or even mention it, you have to be interested enough to go looking for it.

The statistics you are looking for (EYFS results by age) do exist, on a national level.
See here for last year's. (You need the table 'additional tables by pupil characteristics' and within that, table 1 and table 3. Table one shows that around 80% Autumn born children achieved expected in all 'subjects' vs. around 60% Summer born. Table 3 breaks it down by the 17 learning goals - the biggest difference between %AutumBorn vs. %SummerBorn that achieve at least expected seems to be in writing, then reading.)

I doubt 2018 results are published yet.
Also there is no cross section SB boys vs Autum born boys, or SB boys vs SB girls.
And remember that SB includes 5 months of birth, so August will likely be at the lower end (on average!) within the range.

So the level of info is in excess, that much is clear!

I think it is the age thing that gets to me. On summer born threads responses seem to fall in to ‘suck it up as nothing is going to change’ and ‘remind the school as month of birth has been shown to have huge effects’. I think my annoyance stems from the lack of context applied. I think he is actually doing ok for his birth age both academically and behaviourally. Teachers present it as him being behind. The extremely skewed age distribution in his class does him no favours either as it accentuates the difference. It may sound far fetched but I suspect these pregnancies were planned to avoid summer babies.

Sorry brilliotic - I just cross posted with you. I just need to do bedtime and then I will study the info you shared. Thanks

Lozter

it is really hard - I have an august boy and he has been 'behind' for his whole schooling. But here's the difficult bit, the government has a framework that doesn't take account of age and that is what teacher assess against and reports on. They can't say he is meeting the expected level - which is fantastic for an august child. It the expected level for an August child and a September child.

The behaviour/maturity thing is less clear as some things will be harder for younger children but not all of it will be maturity related. eg my august child was really good at sitting and listening, lining up, taking turns and those kind of things. Just couldn't read until year 2

My son is August 16, so usually the youngest in the year group ( and he has Asperger's too, so an added complication!) There were always going to be things he struggled with more than older peers/neurotypical children. But, whether it was EYFS profile, KS1 SATS, KS2 SATs, GCSE's A-levels or his degree, he was always judged against the "standard" rather than against an age-related level. In fact, the only judgment which was age-weighted was the 11+! You just get used to it!

lozster I assume most schools will study their data quite closely (and they have more data available than what they share with parents obviously). They need to ensure that all categories of children make good progress and noone falls behind/stagnates. E.g. FSM, EAL, SB, girls/boys, very able, SEN, ...

So they will be doing something with the data. It doesn't mean that they regard your child's outcomes/behaviour in the context of his age.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter to the school if it is really great for your DS, given his age, that he achieved just as much as a child a year older than him. To you it indicates that your child is more 'able' than the Autumn born child (as they can do the same thing a year younger) - but the school has to teach both according to their ability, which is the same.

Regarding behaviour I think schools definitely should take the age into account, especially when they are considering what to do to help the child behave better. A child who is 5 but behaves like 4 might need a different approach than a child who is 4 and behaves like 4. Methods to help the child who is 5 to behave like 5 might well be successful, but the same methods won't make the child who is 4 behave like 5 IYSWIM.

The reception teacher will be well aware of who is the youngest in the class and treat each child according to their needs. However, the Eyfsp is a government document that has to be completed in a certain way. I knew perfectly well that there was almost a year of development and experience between the oldest and youngest children but when it came to the end of year data there was nothing I could do about it.

Can’t even find that on government stats

tomorrow, see my link above (18:55). You need to scroll down to the 'additional tables by pupil characteristics'.

The level of support your child will need with no emerging may well be a lot less than a September born with Sen though.

tomorrow For sure - sept SEN will need more support and I would hope they would get it (though lots of posts suggest not)

@brilliotic - your comment on behaviour ‘a child who is 5 and behaves like 4 might need a different approach to a child who is 4 and behaves like 4’ sums up exactly what concerns me

@glamorousgrandmother - sadly the teachers are either not aware of his age or are aware and simply don’t care. I know this because they breezily told me at Easter about ‘all the other children his age or younger’ who sit still, concentrate and are ‘motivated’ I now know that there are NO children younger than my DS and only 1 other summer born.

I'm surprised at that. I was always very aware and treated them according to their needs. Perhaps the teacher isn't Early Years trained.

My point that the Profile at the end of Reception takes no account of this stands though, I hated it as a year makes so much difference at this age.

@brilliotic - that is such a useful link thank you. So much useful information I can see my area is in the top achieving bracket in the country, that DS is above the national average and that he is some way past the average for summer born. That’s reassuring. I was so sure pre children that all this was a nonsense and I would pay no heed of any of it ...

Clearly you are a fellow number cruncher and enjoy a good data file ;)

We would never publish information like that. For one thing if only two children are summer-borns it would be far too identifying who they were in the data.

@lozster. You thought you'd pay no heed to it before you had children and as your child moves on in his education I'm sure that you will start paying it no heed.

These things seem important when children are very small, but as time goes on and they all even out, you come to realise that it matters very little. By the time they are in the last couple of years of ks2, and certainly in secondary, no one could ever tell who is autumn and who is summer born.