What's your child in reception private or state doing?

[runningpram]

I"m trying to figure out if DD is roughly in the right place and being set the right level of work.
I think she's fairly bright but not sure how bright.
Right now she's doing number bonds to 10 and 20 and simple addition and subtraction. We do a bit of reading practice at home - but she doesn't seem to have ever come home with a reading book to read to me, only story books for me to read to her. I bought one of the red Oxford reading tree books and she can read that with a bit of prompting on some words. She can write letters and sentences - like: Money is important to people (!!!) (Not something I've instilled in her!) But phonetic spelling on some words and some letters written backwards.
School has sent some flashcards back over half term with words like: Quack and duck and she has a chart to try to practise letters
Is this normal - should I be doing more with her? Should the school be sending more? How does it match what kids in a prep school reception would be doing right now? She has a friend in prep school seems to have write whole letters in beautiful handwriting so I'm a bit worried she is being left behind! I know I'm being crazy.I do want to make sure she gets the basics secure so she's got as much choice in schools as possible later on...

My DD is in year 1 but at this point in reception school was sending two books a week home for her to read. She was in the correct stage of the oxford owl books (you can google the chart). I didn’t think two books was enough we got her to read the books twice (lots of research supports this) and read other books of the same level we had at home.

Phonetic spellings and reverse letters is normal at this age. She won’t know all the phonic sounds until next year.

How much school should be sending depends on her ability. Have you had parentings evening yet? We’ve had two already. If you have concerns you should raise them with the teacher.

The work being done will depends on how selective the prep school is and how able to child is. I'd probably focus on the national curriculum benchmarks if you are concerned about what she's learning but it all sounds on track relative to that at first glance.

My DD is in reception at selective indie. The kids are meant to read with us 10 minutes everyday and getting reading books changed as soon as they are finished which for most children is daily. They read with an adult at school 2-3 times a week. We also get sent home books to read to the kids daily. The reading level varies considerably across the class. However, based on the national curriculum by the end of reception an average child would be on blue books. Red at this stage doesn't sound far off from that. Practicing reading at home if your DD enjoys it is always beneficial. Comprehension and discussing vocabulary is just as important as phonics.

For writing, the kids in her class are in general sequencing short narratives at the minute with varying ability to use punctuation / capitalisation etc correctly and phonetically plausible spelling with certain high frequency words mastered. I think they are working in general though towards Year 1 standard though. Again as it's a selective school they can accelerate. There is no homework on this at all though- its 100% during school hours. The most able are accelerated beyond what I've outlined though writing longer pieces with more complex vocabulary and sentence structure.

For maths, they are adding and subtracting within 100 using 100 squares for support, telling the time to the half hour / quarter hour, etc which again is the Year 1 curriculum. The most able get extension tasks again within the topic.

If you want her to go to a selective independent school you will need to do additional work outside of school as there is a gap between the national curriculum and the expected level at selective indies. However, there is plenty of time for that if you are thinking of the 11+. I wouldn't do anything intensive outside of school when they are still so little.

State school here, in a very play based EYFS unit. Deffo very different to a posh private 😂 but we do live in an affluent area. In Yorkshire, so not like Home Counties affluent!

DD: Working with numbers to 20, adding, subtracting, doubles, odd & even numbers, 3D shapes. We were told she is up at the top of the class in terms of maths ability. Some kids are still working on numbers 1-5..

Phonics: She’s on Level 2 Oxford Reading Tree (green) She’s middling. Some kids are on Level 3 (blue) and some still not really reading at all. She’s on phase 4 tricky words. She gets 2x reading books a week. We choose to read for 10 minutes a day at home. We have a reading chart & school give certificates for 10 days of 10 minutes reading a day!

Her spelling is pretty good, phonetically correct. Her letter formation is good but pretty big, it’s def not very neat! Some kids write much smaller & neater but her teachers say not to worry at all so long as she’s getting the formation right. The neatness will come, what’s important is she enjoys writing & isn’t bogged down with keeping it tidy aged 4..

As a state parent here, my reception son is nowhere near as academically advanced as the above poster (definitely no addition above a total of 20). He’s happy doing addition/subtraction up to twenty and knows various concepts and plan solve wordy problems.

I also believe that the expected standard for the end of reception in terms of reading is red or yellow for the normal book bands (but our school uses Little Wandle and expects phase 4). He’s comfortably reading yellow books, but there’s no option to go to blue. reception without undermining the Little Wandle setup so he will end on yellow.

In terms of writing, he can write short sentences but using phonetic spelling (“hapee birthdai” as an example) in line with the phonics he knows. Punctuation, capitals, letter formation is all hit and miss but getting better.

Really, I’m just happy that he’s happy. I lost certainly would not be happy if he was not learning in a fun way at this point as he’s only 4. I’d be gutted if I thought he was having to sit and learn theoretically (like traditional methods of adding large numbers) as reception is really a bridge to the years and years of more formal learning coming. Learning to be a good person, make friends and be inquisitive is so much more important to me!

Also, to be clear the Oxford reading levels are different to the “book bands” I mentioned. Google it to see as the schemes are different!

My daughter is on Little Wandle stage 2 and gets a book to read every week, and 2 story books for me to read to her.
They have just finished learning the phase 3(?) Phonics sounds - sounds she has recently done are "or", "ow", "igh"
Maths shes doing number bonds to 20

thank you all. I do feel DD has the capability of doing pretty much everything ConfusedaboutSchool mentions, so a bit concerned about the total lack of reading books to take home.
Will chase up teacher after Easter. So far the reading we've done is via the Starfall App and the reading book I bought myself.

I’d agree that “able” reception children could do what ConfusedaboutSchool says, but I think it’s unlikely in state schools that this would happen. State schools will try to keep what is meant to be taught in a year taught in the correct year, offering extensions within topic to the able children rather than teaching the next year syllabus to some which just splits a class and makes future teaching trickier.

The only thing that stands out to me about runningpram’s DC school is the lack of a reading book. It seems odd to get 2/3 of the way through reception without this. I would ask, although it’s an easy home fix anyway - just buy a set of Songbirds phonics books or similar and get DC to read them to you.

I hate to say it (and I’m a state parent here), but state schools do not have the flexibility in curriculum or staffing levels to offer bespoke teaching for each child beyond what they are meant to be learning. This isn’t a criticism, I actually think that they do great with what they have to cater for a broad range of abilities and to extend topics to allow each child to progress at their own speed. That said, we don’t have grammars here to need to be thinking towards 11+ and the private secondary schools aren’t that academically competitive so it’s easier to be laid back about progression not being as quick.

I think it depends on the state school. A really good state school with l high ability children can differentiate the curriculum to stretch the top 10% usually quite well. I think where it becomes difficult is going beyond that even in the very best state schools. With funding cuts and falling pupil rolls what used to be achievable is proving more difficult as well.

I would def question the lack of reading books, that’s odd by Easter. Even the lowest ability kids in DDs class are reading early stage 1.. blending easy CVC words. Your kiddo sounds ahead of that & school have a responsibility to provide reading books to support learning. They absolutely should have them coming home. Are you state or primary?

DD is in selective indie and very similar to ConfusedaboutSchool.

Confidently knows and manipulates numbers upto 100, confident on all bonds to 15, been working on simple column addition, done half past and quarter past on clocks. This is all in school hours, the only homework has been learning bonds to 15 gradually. I didn't know she had done the rest before parents evening!

In reading, she is on blue book band, the range in the class is red to blue. There is a huge emphasis on comprehension and inference (rightly so). They are sent 3 reading books a week to read at home and 3 library books for us to read to them. They are listed to at school by staff and older students. When dictated, she can write sentences with correct punctuation and also makes up her own sentences. Spelling is variable and phonetically plausible. They are also doing comprehension exercises where they read a passage and then answer questions (in full sentences).

It sounds very intense but her school is extremely selective which makes it much easier for the teacher - class size is small plus all children are of similar ability. They have time to have fun and learn so much when they've picked the children who had a lot of the skills before starting school and also will pick things up quickly.

The lack of reading books is unusual. You can get a subscription to Reading Chest (www.readingchest.co.uk/) and they'll send appropriately banded books to your child. I've never used it but know lots of parents who have and it worked very well for them.

thank you - I will investigate those options

DD is in a state reception. We are encouraged to ensure she reads a but every day (new reading book about once a week), topic each half term, homework once a week (only takes 10 mins).

The kids work on different tables depending on their level for reading and maths. Still plenty of free play.

I've got a little keener, very up for learning.
She's a December baby, is halfway through Oxford level 3 (I only realised we should be doing more than the one book a week with her a few weeks ago, when my NCT friend told me about Oxford owl online). She is writing mini stories using a mix of phonetic and correct spellings (although thinks "that" is spelled "at" and won't be convinced otherwise).
Not sure about the maths but she seems fine, DH is a maths teacher so will outsource that to him.

My youngest child is in Reception in state primary. During the last parent teacher meeting we were given a sheet with all the EYFS goals and which she had already met. There were just a handful marked “Almost” rather than met.
Why not look up online what government expectations are for Reception?
My DD reads simple chapter books (e.g Enid Blyton) fluently and gets 2 reading books a week from school (ORT stage 8). Where they want her to do more work is on using eg adjectives in her writing and using new encountered vocabulary in different contexts. They want her to use complicated new words well. And they want her to read non fiction books too. So she is being “accelerated” in state primary, whatever that means. She is in an excellent school with a great teacher.

Maths is very simple at this age. For example, need to know all ways to make numbers 1-10 (so for eg 9 would be 1 + 8, 2+7, 3+6). Very much focus on understanding an equation so 4+X=9, child needs to be able to input 5 readily. My DD can count in 2 and 5s to 100 and knows her 2, 5 and 10 times tables. She has older siblings who teach her stuff.
To be honest, at this age my personal belief is that Social and Emotional Development is the most important. Especially Building Relationships.