What support can I realistically expect for Reception child who is 1-2 years ahead in maths?

[Mrscog]

DS has settled into school pretty well, but I am concerned that his thirst for learning has gone. Before reception he was at a brilliant nursery which was so well resourced that each child had genuinely well set goals tailored to them. DS is pretty much at ELG stage for everything already, and in most areas it's not a problem, but he is super ahead in maths. His nursery said that they had never had a child so young so able at maths, and I sort of brushed it off, but having done a bit of research myself he can easily do everything outlined not just for the ELG but also year 1 and in some areas year 2.

I get that reception is a play based year, and I have no problem with that, but he is expressing disappointment with learning to count to 10 etc. At home he's adding and subtracting simple fractions and asking about negative numbers.

Anyway, it's parents evening soon, and I want to know if I should mention anything with school. It is a small school and he's in a mixed Yr R/year 1 class, so there might be an opportunity to at least do some of the yr1 maths activities.

Parents - what would you do?
Teachers - how should I approach this?

[Ceara]

I would say don't expect too much, if our experience is any guide. At year R parents evening last November we were told DS's next step was learning numbers to ten and to count on or back one. I raised an eyebrow, and got a condescending spiel about the difference between reciting numbers by rote, and understanding one to one correspondence. (At home he was using money confidently, and telling the time, and asking questions about big numbers and infinity.) Turned out he'd totally tuned out of the maths activities at school, so they hadn't observed him jumping through the hoops. They've now seen he can do what the curriculum requires, but he still finds maths tedious and boring at school and does the minimum necessary - and nobody looks to see what he can do beyond the standard curriculum for his year. So we do the fun maths (and science) at home, and I know he puts his energy at school into other things - like reading, which is much harder for him, and playing with his mates.

[ritzbiscuits]

My DS is exceptionally good at maths, and we are now Year 1 in a state school.

Now I've seen the shift to a Year 1 more formal classroom environment, it has really cemented to me how Reception is solely play based, exploratory learning and an introduction to school really. Settling socially and gaining independence (looking after all your things and being able to manage the school day) are as important as any learning.

We had such a conversation with the (excellent) reception teacher and she pushed him as much as boundaries allowed. He was calculating 2 digit sums while others were doing 1, he was given the Numicon teachers resource set to play with, as the standard set was too small for him. She encouraged me to buy that set and gave us some additional activities to do at home. She said the key at this stage was to full make sure he understood what the physical values actually were, as well as being able to do the sum. I must say, I don't think I needed to have had that conversation, as he would have been identified anyway, but that's not the case with every teacher/school.

To add to this, at home I've taught him the time, play extensively with money, bought time tables flash cards which he's pretty much learnt too. No pressure, just added these in as games for him to try. Also look up the app Scratch Jr, as I've started to teach him to 'code' his own animations. Another area to explore that's mathematically related.

In Year 1, he is much happier in the more formal room setting, and is being set maths worksheets offering different levels of difficulty. At this stage he's doing +1/-1 and I think counting in 2s/5s/10s will be coming soon. He can already do all of this, but I don't really see the massive need to be pushing him excessively ahead of others in the school environment.

I'll be talking to the new teacher at parents evening about this in a couple of weeks, but most likely expect to be doing additional maths work/games at home rather than expecting the school to bump him up a year or two.

In the meantime, I've bought a Letts 6-7 maths book to do with him at home. This is as much to practice his writing of numbers, as he can do the maths but is still struggling to write certain numbers the right way around (left handed issue!)

Personally, I think the suggestion of getting a tutor at this stage is completely unnecessary. Let him enjoy his introduction to the school environment, add some additional maths play at home and also consider focusing on other areas that he may not be as strong in (reading/handwriting were two for us).

[forkfun]

My son's primary was brilliant with my son, who at reception was also very ahead in maths. The teacher brought it up with me (he was my first, so I didn't really know that he was so ahead). The school had lots of breakout areas and a TA would work with him and a few Year 1 and 2 kids. He really thrived - he was so into numbers.
Now he's in year 8, in top set but by no means ahead of anyone.
Anyway, point is, I think a good school should stretch your child. It's no good for young minds to be bored when they want to learn. I understand there's a whole class to think of, but having taught myself (not maths) it's really not that difficult to provide different activities/materials/questions to keep bright kids engaged.
For those saying your child should focus on writing numbers - well, yes, that's part of learning, but it really won't satisfy a child who is keen to explore numbers further. It's handwriting, rather than maths.