Should I tell the reception teacher this?

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My daughter starts school this Sept, and will be one of the oldest in her year. Just to be clear she is in no way a genius, just a normal kid who loves running around with her little friends.

However she can read, really quite well. It started on a visit to her cousin who is currently in reception and was learning phonics and she loved it. So since then she's read one book a night, and has picked up loads from there and is now reading books that her cousin can't.

She can't write at all, and has no interest so it's not something I've pushed with her. In fact she can barely colour between the lines 😂😂 (hence not a genius!)

For her school we get a visit from her teacher and TA. Should I mention the reading? I've not told a soul in real life as I don't want to seem like a pushy parent. Or should I just leave them to find out for themselves?

Year 2 teacher here
You could definitely mention it to the teacher and TA when they visit. They’re likely to ask you what she enjoys as the aim is to get to know you and your child better so it would be in context to mention it, they wouldn’t think you’re pushy or bragging. It’s great that she loves reading already!

Yes you definitely should. She's very young still but if she's just reading and not wanting to do anything else, it can be a sign of a problem.
I'm not saying it is at all, I'm sure she's absolutely fine but it's good for them to know, not just because it's impressive. There is no more G&T register so those more able kids are often having to be looked after under SEN. They will need to make adjustments for her just like any other SEN child, this includes keeping an eye out for possible hyperlexia which can be a symptom of other things.

Yes of course, it's the teacher's job to tailor your child's learning. She might not believe you though. A lot of parents think their children can read but they're reciting favourite books. I'm sure this isn't you! Unfortunately the curriculum is what it is and there will be a bit of repetition ahead for your daughter.

Thanks all, I will tell them then!

In answer to a couple of questions / comments...

We probably read for 30 mins a day, just before bed. 10 mins is her reading to me, followed by 20 mins of me reading to her. There's no way on earth she would read in the day, she's on the go too much!

I don't actually think repetition at school would be a bad thing at all, as hopefully it will just make sure all the bases have been covered which I'm sure we haven't at home. Especially as she doesn't have a clue about letter formation etc. I'm definitely no teacher!

Comprehension is also very important not just reading the words.
If you are in England your school will be doing a phonics scheme so they will pick up quite clearly what phonics she knows, but she will need to be confident with her writing of them too

The only problem you may find is that phonics schemes tend to teach writing and reading at the same time. Some schemes don't let you move up until your writing is as good as your reading. This is obviously up to the discretion of the teacher but it's a whole literacy scheme, not just reading. When they read a book, they also work on the writing book.l equivalent. That'll cover handwriting, comprehension and spelling and she won't be able to access that for the harder books so it's unlikely she'll be able to skip levels and will probably find it a bit boring for a while.

My nephew is in reception and also started being able to read well, however his school didn't actually test their phonics till after the first half term. That gave him lots of time to improve writing, when he was in nursery he hated it but seemed more keen to do writing work at home once in reception. By the time they did the test, his writing was quite good and he got moved to y1 for phonics and is now on yellow band in RWI. If his writing wasn't up to scratch he wouldn't have been allowed to though. I suggest you maybe try to work on writing over the summer as otherwise she may be a bit bored in phonics.

You can, however school will do their own assessment anyway and will put her on the appropriate reading band.
In terms of writing can she write her name?
Is she in nursery at the moment?

If she’s one of the oldest in the year I don’t think this is surprising. Yes tell them - if anything they can spot ways in which she has learnt differently to their phonics scheme. If she can read easily they will still work on her comprehension, expression and inference skills. My DS in reception and writing is a big focus since it’s the hardest skill for many so they might choose to focus on this more for her.

Great advice thanks everyone.
Yes she can write her own name very legibly, but isn't interested in writing if that makes sense so it's not something I'm pushing.

Oh and yes she's she's in nursery @mummyh2016 but it's a very small one and all but three children are 3 rather than 4

School will likely fill in the gaps of phonics and writing and keep your child on a suitable book band level until they catch up to their reading level. This is fine and doesn't stop you from continuing reading at home at a higher level. My DS is October born and was also ahead of most with reading and similarly, no interest in writing. At the school nursery he used to gather up some 2yr olds and read books to them. His nursery teacher told me this. Now in yr 6, he's not a genius but is working at greater depth in all subjects.

My DD (also September born) got very bored in the first lockdown so I ended up teaching her phonics with the help of some videos. I mentioned it to the teacher and while she still had to do phase 2 and 3 again ( she needed the refresher anyway) they did start her on level 2 books and she moved up quickly. This may not work if your school links books to the sounds they're learning though.

My DS was like this (May born so not one of the oldest). He’s in reception atm. I wasn’t planning on mentioning to his teacher as I assumed she would quickly find out for herself but when we met her just before school he volunteered it himself so I told her the kind of stuff he’d been reading at home.

It has been quite surprising in some ways because the school insist that he follows the phonics scheme with the rest of the class and there has been no differentiation in terms of reading books as far as I can tell - he comes home with cat sat on the mat type books from school but is reading fluently now. But on the other hand his writing isn’t ahead at all so I hope they are working on that with him more. It’s also easy for us to read together outside of school and the main thing is he is really happy and loves school. No sense at all that he is bored even though a lot of it must be easy for him.

As long as he’s happy tbh I don’t really care what he’s up to!

I’d mention it. I do think teachers aren’t always great at keeping on top of reading levels. Dtd jumped up 4 levels towards the end of p1. I think the teacher hadn’t heard her read for ages and kept sending home really simple books. She does hold her pencil awkwardly so perhaps they were holding her back whilst writing improved.

My youngest son is hyperlexical, he had a reading age of 8.4 at 3years old, the nursery wrote it in the package to the school but school have done nothing to give my son extra activities to challenge him. You can and should mention it but don’t expect anything to happen, they seem to spend time and resources on the children who are falling behind rather than pushing other children.

A friend's little boy has SEN. He's incredibly bright, and could read at 1!! But struggles with other things I.e. writing and other motor skills.

Not saying this is the case here, as they are all different and will catch up eventually but just an alternative. Yes to definitely telling the teacher. It's good that they know their strengths and can react accordingly.

I’d say this is true but they do differentiate a lot more in later years. I know by p.3 my more able reader was shifted off the Oxford reading tree scheme and onto more challenging books. Just do what you want at home in terms of practice.

DD couldn't read and at the show round in the year before she started the head was fine she couldn't read yet when we mentioned it as she said it can sometimes mean they need to re-teach children who have t been taught 'correctly' IYSWIM, so we didn't teach her or DS til they started school

This is really outdated advice and really not true. There is no wrong way to learn to read. The only problem is when a child is very ahead in reading and the school uses the phonics scheme for all literacy. The reading book covered that week will have a writing worksheet that goes along with it. If your childs reading is not in balance with their writing, they will have a problem. They'll either be reading things that are too easy, or trying to write things that are too hard. There's not enough hands on deck for that kind of differentiation.

I kind of agree but I can also see that there needs to be commitment to the phonics system for it to be implemented successfully as things get trickier. So if a child has learnt a bunch of words (not exception words) by sight without explicitly learning associations between phonemes and graphemes they are going to have to plateau and 'relearn' what was happening there to keep progressing. But if they're that talented at reading they will probably fill in the gaps themselves in no time, probably while the younger/slower readers are still finding their feet, albeit possibly finding spelling families a little more difficult to remember.

@Markasread Hm yes and no. I think there is a wrong assumption that phonics works on all kids when that's not the case. It is very successful, reading English is so difficult to teach. It has enabled lots of kids to receive excellent quality literacy education but it does not work on all. Schools need a model that works for as many as possible and this is one that ticks that box.
The idea that reading and writing is a concept that can be taught at the same level, at the same time is also ridiculous. Esp when said skill is being taught age 4 but the bones in your hands aren't really ready to hold a pencil until age 6.

Slightly off topic but DCs school don’t even teach letter formation in reception. So they are expected to write but they don’t eg teach them to form the letter “o” by drawing a circle anti-clockwise. Means that despite being a fluent free reader DC still writes lots of letter backwards. I really don’t want to do extra work with him outside school at this age but it seems so crazy to me I’m going to have to address it. When I raised it at parents evening I was told that they learn handwriting in year 1.

I'm surprised to read some of these responses. There doesn't seem much point surely in getting kids who can read really well to re start with the cat sat on the mat just to tick a box. My eldest was out in the year above for phonics and that was despite the fact that he could hardly write a letter when he started reception. My youngest is about to start in September and is reading well so I'm wondering what will happen with him (different school). Surely schools should also push the ones who are more able.

@Newuser82 Completely depends on phonics scheme. RWI for example teaches the reading and writing of a sound at the same time. It's hard to move up if the writing isn't up to scratch as they won't be able to access the writing part of the lesson. Lots of parents moan about this on here. There was a thread the other day, a mum asking why on earth her child is still on band X when she's reading big books at home.

Apologies for detailing slightly but with writing, I always tried to make it relevant. So they wrote birthday cards and shopping lists for example. Not just writing for the sake of it.

I generally wrote the words and they copied them in the card/ onto the list. Maybe not the best way but it made sense to me!