Reception age - parents’ evening

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DS is in reception and was 5 at the end of 2020. Today we had a 10 minutes virtual parents' evening, the second we've had this academic year.

The teacher mentioned plenty of positives, DS' progress with reading, writing, maths etc, and making friends, and that he's a friendly boy who we should be proud of.

However she said that when it's time to sit on the mat, he's often very distracted and also shouts silly words/noises out, out of context. She tells him off, he stops, but then will do it again later. This has been more so since returning to school post lockdown apparently (which was end of February as we are in Wales).

I was fully expecting her to say he's often distracted as I have noticed this, day to day and also at football club. He will be distracted by a person walking past, it doesn't have to be anything exciting. He is a daydreamer.

However I cringed at the shouting silly things out because that's disruptive, and as we've not been told anything about his behaviour once before today, I had assumed he was well behaved overall.

Am I being naive to hope that this probably isn't a big deal seeing as we haven't been told before now?

I have spoken to DS about it, and we plan to remind him before going into school that he needs to listen quietly on the mat, and that we'll be asking his teacher if he has been.

The distraction is another matter, DH is exactly like this, even now at almost 40, and I have wondered if he has underlying ADD.

Am I being naive to hope that this probably isn't a big deal seeing as we haven't been told before now?

No, you're not. If the teacher thought it was a problem beyond normal level, they'd have been in touch to discuss it as an issue in itself.

You needn't do anything, teachers will sort out school behaviour in school. But if he starts doing it in other circumstances, knowing how school manage it can help you take a consistent approach (or at least one that's not directly counter). But as he stops when reminded, I doubt there's a big issue here.

Over the years your DC will do loads of stuff in school that will either delight or mortifying you. The first time you hear that they've been naughty probably does hit a bit harder, but it really isn't a big deal.

Thank you for your reply! I’m hopeful that you’re 100% on the money I know teachers have spoken to other parents (well one set at least) about a child’s bad behaviour on certain days, so although it’s trickier because of covid, I’m hoping if it was a big problem, they would’ve mentioned it before parents’ evening!

Yes mortifying haha. Especially as everything else she said I was expecting it, but I wasn’t expecting the shouting out/silly noises. He can be very silly at home, but that’s at home, and overall he’s pretty well behaved (other than being a constant whinge bag at the moment) so I was surprised that he takes the silliness in to carpet time!

It's a fairly common thing in reception aged children, especially boys. I've taught reception for 7 years and it comes up every year and is usually manageable with positive reinforcement, and if necessary, a bit of support during learning time.

Lockdowns have had a negative impact on the listening and attention skills of many children this year. Unfortunately, a significant portion of the learning at this age needs to be done in person and children have missed out on that.

Thank you inthewest that’s helpful. I’m hoping that reminding/talking to DS about it will help stop it, but we’ll see - I’m going to ask his teacher at pick up in about a week or so to see if us having a word has made any difference. She said she puts him at the front nearer to her when he does it, and he was complaining that he wasn’t allowed to sit by his friend, so perhaps that might combat it (if he’s trying to make his friend laugh, for example). We shall see!

This is very common at that age. They're still very young for formal education. Especially boys aren't quite mature enough yet and carpet time is usually where the silly behaviour comes out (you'll also get kids invading other kids' space, refusing to sit down, wandering about , fiddling with whatever is within their grasp). It sounds like a very positive parents evening. I would breath a sigh of relief that after a difficult year your child seems to be settling into school well.

Thank you @JackANackAnoreeee it’s very reassuring to read that it seems very normal at this age! I can totally imagine the silliness coming out at that time to be fair, the temptation to mess about when a child is sat on the floor with nothing to “do” except pay attention, rather than when they’re writing/building/painting etc, must be huge. I was really pleased with the rest of the feedback