Was anyone else told that reception year is all about play and "just like pre-school" and finding that to be a big fat LIE?

[LeavesLeavesEverywhere]

DS, a young four, is half a term into school and frankly, I'm bewildered by how hardcore it has become so early on.

Lots of people said before he went: ah, reception is all about play and settling in - it's like pre-school. But it really, truly is not.

DS has six reading books a week, will have covered all the phonics sounds by Christmas, and now has a word tin of words to learn. Maybe I'm being naive but, where kids didn't even used to start school until age five, I really thought reception would be a lightweight, play-orientated year with a bit of structure and formal learning thrown in.

Today, DS's teacher told me that "his pen control is non-existent". So what?! It's not great, I realise that, but why the heck is it of importance yet? He's FOUR. It'll come. But already it seems to matter and - well, I suppose I'm having a bit of a foot-stamping tantrum: I. Don't. Like. It.

Research has shown that boys are less ready for school at four and that their fine motor skills mean that holding a pen is trickier at this age - so I say take the emphasis off this and wait until he's ready. And research has also shown such an early start to reading and writing to be of little value and possibly detrimental longterm to literacy and interest in reading and writing - so, again, why not hold off?

I know - I'm having a tired rant. What do the rest of you think?

this is my biggest fear for DS1 who starts reception next september. i totally agree with you but have no advice as i have no experience of it yet.

Six reading books a week? DD has 1 a week still and shes now yr 2, her year are still doing phonic work blends etc, her reception year was very play orientated.
Theres no way DDs teacher could listen to the whole class read every day to enable 6 books to be sent out.It does sound an awful lot.

The school your son attends sounds very pressured, the one my dds go to is not like that at all. Even in yr1 & 2 they keep their "reading" books for as long as it takes to get through them. Mine were still not off the first level of "reading" books at the end of reception and the school weren't concerned. I think they took nearly the whole year to go through the phonics too.

dd1 has just started reception and I think they are aiming to learn all the phonic sounds by the end of the academic year.

6 books a week is lot (we get 2). The homework we get in is mostly colouring in stuff.

Not sure what you can do though, apart from requesting a meeting with his teacher to discuss your concerns.

Leavesleaveseverywhere I am sorry to hear that your sons teacher has been commenting on penmanship that is ridiculous! My ds (aug bday)is in reception class. He brings a book home everyday but there s no presure to read or write yet just encouragement to read with him iyswim. His teacher says they are doing phonics etc. and every week they concentrate on a different letter but as far as I can judge (by the fact ds is covered in mud every day after class!) - must of the tme the kids are running around and playing so I have been very happy with his school.

I think you need to raise your concerns with the teacher as they are valid.

Ah, I'm not imagining it then. It seems excessive to me. And the youngest in the year was born at the end of August.

It's not a private, particularly high-achieving school - just a regular, small, state-with-Church-support village primary.

When the teacher said about DS's pen control today, I must confess to having a private little blub at home actually. It just seemed so ridiculous to me. DS is a bright, articulate child who loves learning. I don't want a mere developmental thing like this to become an issue for him at school - seeing others writing neatly and drawing carefully when he can't yet and the teacher making a thing of this - when at home it doesn't matter a jot.

DS's teacher actually said to me today that, in all honesty, she didn't believe any of the reception children should be at school so early, but she's a teacher, so she has to follow the system, as do we. Sigh. Bloody system needs changing I say.

Ah, thanks for indulging my rant.

He. Is. Four.

His penmanship may be nonexistent but I suspect his penverylittleboyindeedship is right on target. Sigh...

If you do want to do anything at home, steer clear o anything involving actual pen skills and do fun things like squishing things or threading beads -- all good for fine motor control and far more age-appropriate IMO.

Well indeed, PortAndLemon. FOUR!

Something which makes the school's full-on approach all the more inappropriate is that they have more than two thirds boys in this year's intake, and most of those are summer-born. Shouldn't this dictate an altogether different emphasis for this year?

This morning, we did some of that making-pictures-out-of-tiny-beads-and-ironing-them-to-stick-them-together thing. DS did almost a whole shape without any help, which I think is fine. We get play dough out fairly regularly too. So fingers crossed he'll be OK and get a tick in the relevant box eventually.

Unbelievable. This kind of pressure makes me so cross.
If the teacher thinks that they shouldn't be in reception this early, then why is she wittering on about pen control, she should be cutting him some slack!

blimey
ds started reception in sept and has not had a reading book yet!! They dont get any until after christmas. He does get homework which is called a learning story and will be around soemthing he has shown interest in. This is about every 2weeks and we have to follow it up at home by discussing it or using computer to look up stuff or drawing pictures/finding things to back up what he has been discussing.

Definitely being a bit excessive Leaves. DD has just started looking at phonics this week, and just started bringing 'reading books' (the ones with pictures, but no words) home. Not all the children in the class are doing it yet either - DD is one of the oldest, she was 5 last week, and wants to do the whole reading/writing thing, some of the younger children aren't quite there yet and they're not being pressured to be ready.

I have to say though the the Dcs school used to do stuff earlier (I actually feel quite pushy with DD as I'm used to them doing more work) When the DSs were this age (same school) they started doing letters/reading/writing in the Nursery. It's only been in the last couple of years that they've toned it down in response to NC guidelines I believe.

Also lego good for fine motor skills and suitable for 4yo boys!

why don't you take him out for a term or two. Its not compulosry till the term after he turns 5 anyway.
DD's school does reading book a week and she brings home pictures of letter sounds. Obviously penmanship isn't an issue with dd but judging by the scarwls the other kids do for dd neither is it for them.

school adhere to a strict curriculum - even for 4 year olds. My son was a late 4 - end of August, and I was reluctant to send him in reception. Only thing is - in hinesight - if he hadnt have done reception he would have been so behind!
Looking at the standard of reading ect . in year 2 - he wouldve struggled.

so in a way you are damned either way. On one hand I think that reception is waaaayyyy to pressured - but on the other hand if they skip reception and start in year 1 - they are behind the rest!
I think that the answer is to raise the age to 5 - much more appropriate.

In addition leaves - my sons reception teacher told me "he has an unconventional pencil grip and that his lack of pencil control will hold him back! He is year two and I can honesly say he is flourishing and his writing (although not great!) is not holding him back.
dont take it to heart - they do have too high expectations and if I knew then what I know now - I would've worried less.

in my first paragraph - I meant looking at the standards in year 1!

port and lemon has a good approach

my experience of this with my home educated august birthday boy was

at 4-nowhere near ready to do phonics, writing, etc.

at just 5-he started showing vague signs of readiness, and we started introducing some phonics quite gently. He has taken to it very quickly.

This "earlier is better" stuff is just so daft. IME kids just won't take it in until they are ready. Which means that they are wasting all that time sat in a classroom doing reading, with, bascially, this going on as far as reading is concerned.

agree don't do "penmanship". Things I found helpful with ds were first off fine motor stuff like knitting, threading beads, meccanno (sp? god knows) etc. Also, if he is interested, get him drawing. Draw with him. My two both developed a pen hold that works for them, just through a lot of drawing and me occasionally saying stuff like "why don't you just try holding the pen a little lower down to see if it feels better?" (and leaving it at that if they said no-they are the ones holding the pen!). Also exposing them to the idea of writing as an art-calligraphy and so forth.

But I do think that the biggest single thing that helped reading skills was reading to them for hours. They both have excellent vocabularies, which means that if they've learnt the phonic rules, they will probably know pretty much any word they care to sound out.

Is this teacher very young LLE? She sounds very like DS2'sm teacher. Apparently, he has 15 key words - 'yay' I thought, but no he is not performing as well as others in his class where the average is 20.

I am assuming that some of these children would have started school being able to read but DS has shown no interest so started school knowing nothing so I am pretty pleased with him.

He also has pen control issues and gets 5 books a week - he reads to the teacher or TA at least 3 times a week.

Admittedly he was 5 at the beginning of the year so one of the oldest but even so, I don't like the focus on meeting targets she seems to have. It is her first year of teaching and I am sure she is feeling the pressure but I don't think she should be passing it on to the children at this stage.

I don't have a problem with the teaching of literacy etc, I really don't, but I do have a problem with them not letting the children go at their own pace when they are all so young. And they do fit in plenty of playing too.

However, having had DS1, a late July baby, go through the system before, it is all water off a duck's back to me. DS1 left YR R with 27 key words but knew them whole 400 and was reading fluently 2 terms later. I know from experience, probably better than the teacher, that you have to wait for it to click.

I know DS2 will get it when he is ready and I am not going to get stressed out about or do more than play a couple of words games, when the fancy takes me and go through his reading books once.

Besides, I think DS2 has an apptitude for numbers but they barely touch nos. in the first term so I am hoping he will come into his own and have his chance to shine when they do.

I started ds1 (aug birthday) after Xmas cos he wasn't ready and he had no probs catching up.
Mind you, we didn't have these 'key word' things. I have no idea what they are despite dd2 being in reception now.

They have changed the curriculum since my DD started 5 years ago, I am noticing a difference with DS who has just started. He made some grand pronouncement about measuring capacity the other day, at which point I looked at him as if he had just sprouted two heads .

He also gets 6 books a week but loves reading so is fine with it. However it has been emphasised that we mustn't push them , homework shouldn't be a chore, if they are tired leave it. They have been doing two phonic sounds a week and will be stepping up to 4 after half term so I guess they will be through the lot by Christmas.

Reception did use to be very much all about play and in some ways it is as there is all this stuff about them being able to chose what they want to do, but I think that is combined with a new pushier curriculum in other ways this year.

I would competely ignore what she has said about pen control, only do as much reading with him as you feel is appropriate. FWIW, I totally agree with you and I'm not sure why the emphasis on this early reading and writing, but figure we're stuck with it.

This week dd2 (4.10) has:

Made an African necklace and done some african dancing;
Learnt some Italian words (not sure why) and an Italian song;
Done PE and got a sticker for getting changed nicely;
Done some letters and numbers and colouring in;
played in the home corner;
Gone to the park to collect autumn leaves, made a collage and learnt about compost (school is big on gardening).

no homework in dd's school thank goodness.

Haven't got a DC of school age BUT

When I was in reception class myself back in the late 70's we had reading books and tins of words from the start

I could read many words as had done flashcards so reading wasn't too much of a problem nor was the concept of learning new words

Could also write quite a few of them too

I'm no wonder child but if your child is capable of reading and writing and isn't made unhappy with it then why is four automatically too young? It is possible for many a 4yo to read and write without being "hothoused" as such - I wasn't we had piles of books from being babies so I don't remember ever learning to read as such apart from the flashcards.

TBH I would be GLAD of a teacher who notices/cares about pen control in my child - shows she is paying attention to detail and also would give me areas to focus on at home. I wouldn't be cross. Why should reception year be all about play anyway?

The teacher makes all the difference. There are targets that have to be met but a good teacher can make it feel like playing.
We are lucky to have an exceptional reception teacher at our local school who makes school such a positive experience, with incidental learning.
If you are not happy with the approach at youir s's school, are you able to consider home educating?

Six books a week is excessive IME.

I help in an FS2 class and very few of the children have more than one book a week (a few of the more able ones have 2).

Some can write quite well, but most can barely write their name. We are doing a bit of writing (in a typical day maybe about 10 mins) with the more able ones. Also they do do some phonics work each day but only a couple of 10-min bursts.

They do do things like lining up, sitting still, standing still when the bell goes, but otherwise it is very play-based, with a lot of choosing. Some choose to do writing and letter work, but plenty of the boys seem to spend most of the day in the construction area - which of course is excellent for their motor skills anyway!

Have you asked the teacher about this? Is it a very high-achievement focused school? (ours is not).

at homework for FS2! (unless you count flashcard words and readign books, which I don't really)

Our schools don't give any homework beyond spellings and reading until yr 3.

I was taken by surprise too, DS went to reception this September at the same school where he had been in pre-school. I've just had to withdraw him because he was so unhappy (ranting thread here), I was shocked at how much he was expected to do and how little allowance was made for his lack of attention span and fine motor skills.