Early Years Assessments

[TrueGrit1]

Can anyone please explain to me why my 4 year old daughter has been marked as Emerging in Numbers when at home she pipes up with things like 14 is double 7 and 88 is 8 lots of 11 etc frequently at home? She has been to a few different settings now and it is always the same. She counted to 50 in front of staff when I collected her from her previous Pre-school - they even remarked on it - and yet her report read 'starting to recognise numbers over 10'.

I appreciate that play is more important at this age etc but it makes no sense and there is very little guidance online regarding how these assessments are made. Her Pre-school is Outstanding. They say it is just the system?? Is it worth making a fuss about?

I would not make a fuss about it - you know what she is capable of, and having it on a bit of paper will not make any difference in the short or the long term.

I expect in order to reach the next band after emerging, she needs to show IN THE SETTING that she consistently and reliably does x y and z, and they have not seen the evidence of this. It does not mean she cannot do it, it means they have not seen it.

This was exactly what i said on another thread about it being a huge failing of eyfs as they often dont take parent input.
Dd2 nursery said they were working on her counting objects but she has been able to for at least a year...

Being able to regurgitate information does not necessarily mean that a child can ‘recognise’ numbers ( when written down) which was the wording in the phrase you quoted. They are probably levelling all at emerging so that over the next months they can show progress.

I completely understand your frustration with this. I would mention to them that it appears she is doing much more at home than they have been able to observe. It’s certainly important to me that anyone who is helping with my child’s development understands what they are capable of.

I had a similar issue with reading (they had her at emerging 30-50 months when she was 43 months old and already actually reading). Now I feel like the preschool is beginning to actually support her further development in this area after a number of conversations.

It does unfortunately seem to be a failure of the system - progress is so important to their metrics that starting low just makes sense to them. Also expect pushback that they can only go on what they see. I agree with that of course but sometimes you have to know what you are looking for and encourage children to show their full capabilities.

Others will certainly have the view that it’s only pre-school so who cares but I think any child’s individual interests or achievements do need to be recognised by their carers and not just put in a box that their parents can’t relate to without the ability to address that through conversation.

I agree and tbh it makes the whole thing pointless if it's not accurate.
Yes it does seem to be about showing progress.

Is she repeating facts or does she understand them? Having a real understanding is so much more important than repeating things back. For example it's more important that they can count out 3/5/10 objects from a larger group and understand that 3 is made up of 2 and 1, three ones etc than be able to rattle off number up to 50/100.

My DD is almost 4 and has spent this evening telling me that 12 is two sixes and also three fours. She's got it from numberblocks, it doesn't mean she understands it even though she's using the numbers in the right context. I'd rather she started Reception knowing everything there is to know about 1, 2, 3, maybe up to 5 than anything else.

I agree with CareerChange in terms of reciting / remembering something they've heard on a TV programme, or an older sibling or adult told them, etc., doesn't necessarily show they understand conservation of number, nor, in the example you've mentioned, that they recognise numerals.
Bit like being able to sing Frere Jaques doesn't mean you can speak French.
there is also the point that, for the Nursery to be able to record them as being secure in anything, they need to see it happening at Nursery.

How often does she go to preschool? One of my dc only went for 2 short days each week. The staff said he was very happy but quite quiet when he was with them, so they struggled to mark things as expected because they hadn’t had enough opportunity to see him doing them consistently. I was told seeing something once or twice isn’t enough.
He is 10 now, it hasn’t made the slightest difference to his schooling at all.

Oh and my youngest dc could sing their times tables before they could count to twenty properly because his siblings were learning them using an app. He hadn’t the slightest clue what it meant but he got the numbers right before his big sister!!

Don't make a fuss about it, it's really not important. My eldest is highly gifted in maths and it took until midway through reception to notice. He didn't like doing the sheets but the teacher once gave him a blank sheet and told him to make something up and he produced complicated sums involving multiplying fractions. On early years the most important thing is that they're developing social skills.

His primary school will be able to show he has made great progress after a few years with them. You will feel better then! They will be happy too.