Old in class and still emerging in some areas

[Quicksilver15]

My son who is autumn born just got his school report back for reception year. Academically he has made great progress and is marked as expected at level in the main learning areas like reading, maths etc. Obviously I can tell he’s very much of average ability but that’s fine given he’s not falling behind & I am obviously relieved he’s not young for his year group as I suspect that’s why he’s kept up.

However his personal and social skills are still marked as emerging. I don’t know how often autumn borns end up with this classification but equally because he’s not currently falling behind in work there’s been no follow up discussion. Do we just keep hoping that he’s slow to develop in this area and that this is eventually going to even out? Anyone else get this kind of rating at the end of reception on an older in class child for managing self but eventually the child overcame them and caught up in all areas?

No personal experience as a parent, but as a Reception teacher I have given Emerging in PSED plenty of times to children who don't necessarily go on to have problems throughout the rest of their schooling. It can just be immaturity (which isn't age dependent, they all mature at different rates).

Were you given any indication at parents evening that he struggles to share/regulate emotions/be independent/whatever it is he's struggling with? I wouldn't be overly concerned if he's only Emerging in PSED. I'd be surprised if they hadn't mentioned he was lower in this area, to pre-warn you he was not going to make GLD (good level of development), but if they didn't warn you I guess at least that suggests they don't have big concerns. Immaturity is the most likely explanation, if they haven't raised it before now.

What does his report say about his PSED? If it doesn't mention issues, I would query it with the teacher to ask what he needs to work on.

Our school don't mark them as expected/GD in reception. He's 5 years old, it's mostly a year of playing and having fun with a little bit of phonics, literacy and Maths in between. See how he goes in year one....

How do they not mark them in reception? Surely it's a statutory requirement?

Your school don't follow the legal requirements?

OP Reports should never come as a shock so I would want a discussion with his teacher. You can look up the early learning goals and see what was expected and where he might need support.

Apologies, I could have my facts wrong, immediately post covid they definitely didn't.

My younger daughter is in reception now. I'll update when I get her report on Friday.

They absolutely will do now, it's a statutory requirement. Parents need to officially be informed of their child's attainment in each area (only Emerging or Expected, there is no Greater Depth in Reception anymore - it use to be called Exceeding, but isn't a term which is used in Early Years anymore).

All official assessments and judgements were on hold during COVID, as it wasn't possible to form an accurate judgement based on half a year. It's been back to normal for years now though.

My kid was still rated in 2021 so the reception that started 2020.
She got met in everything.

Op i wouldnt pay much attention at this point as hes what nearly 6?

my eldest still got meeting in reception despite awful behsviour lack of concentration an d sent out of class loads. So looking back i really dont think she should have met semh etc targets. As later looking at asd/adhd diagnosis. So basically i dont think teachers necessarily spend ages considering these judgements.

i would be looking at

• Has he got friends

is he invited to parties playdates 1-2-1 Is his communication good Attention/concentration? if he were young in year he would be going into y2 in 6 weeks.

bascially keep an eye and maybe raise it if you have a PE early next year.

do yoi think he is ready for y1 and sitting more etc

Thanks everyone this is definitely reassuring that we shouldn’t panic yet.

States that his concentration has been improving along with his ability to listen to other people’s ideas, still has issues with independent toileting and asking for help. He will play with everyone was also mentioned but if I’m honest he’s only had 1 birthday invite and no play dates, I’m thinking this is more the tiny village class scenario, parent situations rather this being indicative but who knows maybe his peers are saying things about him to their parents.

We also haven’t really pushed the play date thing as he gets quite obsessive over people and in my head at least for now it feels like there’s almost a boundary of this is school and with his concentration I don’t want him getting too attached to anyone. He does however have plenty of play dates with same aged friends from previous childcare settings or activities so it’s not like he’s not having practice.

This might sound odd but with small school situation I’m doing my best to broaden and maintain friendship groups outside of school because it’s much harder to find your people in a handful of children only and I’d rather friendships at school happened organically with zero parent intervention or suggestion as there isn’t a lot of choice and there’s plenty of time to get very familiar with such a small group of children 😂.

So basically i dont think teachers necessarily spend ages considering these judgements.

You can't speak for all teachers' judgements just because you didn't agree with your daughter's assessment! On the contrary, hours of work goes into moderating and finalising data. However, 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 were internal assessments only, due to the pandemic. Therefore the validity was never checked and the fact the children's learning was severely disrupted was taken into account. Most schools didn't assess at all at the end of 2020, as so many children hadn't been in school since March. Most would have done an internal judgement in 2021, to inform the Year 1 teacher's planning, but it wouldn't have been moderated and it was entirely up to schools whether they shared this with parents or not. It wasn't submitted or published by the DFE, as children's education was still severely disrupted that year. It was also under the old EYFS curriculum. The most likely explanation for your daughter's possible inaccurate assessment was that the teacher was making allowances for a disrupted year (and a disrupted nursery year previous to that). The data was never going to be checked for validity.

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-early-years-foundation-stage-profile

That's absolutely not the case now. In fact, an Emerging judgement is all the more likely to be trusted as it affects the school's GLD data. A teacher would never put a child down as emerging on a whim.

That doesn't sound odd at all, it sounds very sensible.

I wouldn't worry too much about a lack of party invites as, in some areas, whole class parties really aren't a thing anymore. Obviously they couldn't happen at all during COVID. Now many parents have realised they can get away without doing the whole shebang. We've only had to put party invites in drawers 5 or 6 times all year at my school, and even then most people have only invited 4 or 5 closer friends to something small, such as bowling followed by Pizza Hut, rather than a whole class party. Many don't have a party at all these days (cost of living crisis).

Tbh, from what you've said I'd be fairly certain it's hus difficulties managing independent toileting which caused the 'Emerging' judgement.

Yes I’m still awaiting him to improve his toileting habits, despite being out of daytime nappies for 4 years to this week and being out of them at night for 3.5 years it feels like we’ve made barely any progress regardless of all the laxatives I keep giving him. Clearly the pampers argument isn’t valid here either as we only used cloth, school is a much more complex issue than just when they were toilet trained or what you put them in.

There is literally nothing we can do on this front having tried everything other than hope whatever anxiety he gets about it he grows out of very soon, and I know the school have been trying their best to help him too.

My 5 year old daughter is autistic - she works above expected levels across the curriculum academically and had reached the expected level for reception halfway through the year but received ‘emerging’ for social skills because she finds it hard to see things from another’s point of view.

My DS didn’t meet expected levels in the communication section and therefore failed to meet expected level of development overall. I was concerned although he did meet expected levels in all the academic subjects. There was a comment about his ability to ‘access the curriculum’. Now at end of year 2 he’s still not the best communicator but GD in 2/3 subjects. So accessed quite a lot of the curriculum successfully. Has friends etc.