Snotty note in homework diary....

[snackattack]

My dd(4) is in her first term in reception - a lovely school but very academic and they do tend to push them rather early (my opinion - dh thinks it's fine!). Anyway, she gets 6 reading books a week, flashcards every night bar one and writing practice three times a week. In reality it only takes 10-15 mins a night but it's still quite a bit for a 4 year old. Anyway REALLY peed off to read in dd's homework diary the following "X is STILL getting some of her numbers 1-10 the wrong way round, she needs to practice more at home. Please make sure she does this". Am I right to be fuming about this?? She's only 4 ffs and she's doing bloody homework every night as it is and now they are WHINGING about her getting her numbers mixed round the wrong way. I've just tested her and she did them all except the 5 and the 9 which she did mix up... but isn't that totally normal at this age??

Help me out please. Am I being over-sensitive? Thanks.

actually, not sure how that would make you feel better - what I wanted to say was they are being a bit excessive and that seems far too much to expect !

Schools like this really annoy me. I know your dd can cope but not all chn will be able to. It's all for the league tables and ofsted.

Same here MAS. In fact I am beginning to realise that my yr5 DD is doing twice as much as my Yr 7 DS#1

Your not being over sensitive at all.
That's an awful lot of pressure to give a 4 year old.

Did they actually write the word still in caps like that?? How rude!

I'd think twice about that note back, tbh.

If you are at an academic private prep school, this is the norm. They like to get a lot of parental involvement in what is going on in the classroom and they will want to see you supporting classroom efforts at home.

I'm not reading the note as snotty - just matter of fact (unless the CAPS for the word "still" was the teacher's emphasis, in which case a bit rude). All they are telling you what the problem is and asking you for your support at home to fix it.

Don't take it personally.

My dd2 is reception and can as it happens read freakishly well (not that the school are really bothered just yet). She is left-handed and tends to write backwards, or in various combinations of backwards and forwards. The teacher assures me it's not a problem, lefthanders do sort themselves out it just takes a bit longer. DD2 also has very bizarre letter formation, which nobody seems to be concerned about either, thankfully. No idea whether she can write the numbers 1-10 or not, but my money would be on not.

Intensive early reading/writing and number practice is like potty training a 1-year old -- they'll get it when they're ready, and the earlier you start before that, the longer you drag out the agony.

However, if you've signed up for an academically-pushy school, this is what you'll get, I'm afraid.

You can hardly complain your dd is getting too much homework if you yourselves have chosen a school that is "highly academic".

You cant change the school, but you can change what school your dd attends.

cannot believe this teacher's note, or the amount of homework given on a daily basis. How many hours does she do at school each day?

Poor little dot is probably exhausted when she gets in, then has to have all these books and flashcards and numbers - its madness.

I feel very sorry for her, and you if this is the sort of thing you are getting in reception, imagine what it will be progressing into

Well if this is an example of a very academic school thank f* my DC don't go to one. DD might have coped with this short-term as she's an anxious people-pleaser, my DS's wouldn't. If that is just the way it is at that school and you can't expect any change or compromise, I'd move asap.

I wouldn't expect anything else. An academic school doesn't start the hard stuff in year 2 when it's too late to top the league tables, they school them when they're new and fresh.

Not like that here thank goodness. Some of our R children have only just learnt to hold a pen.

my 4 yr old is in reception and today came home with some words to sound out - sat, dog etc
I attempted dog - he went 'd' 'o' 'g' and then when I asked him what word it was he said hat!! How on earth am I meant to do this with him is beyond me when all he wants to do is play

This is a private school surely?

It would worry me personally. Not an ethos I would want to buy into for a 4 year old. They seem to have a very strange idea of normality.

Grief, my DD1 is 6yrs old and she still gets her numbers and some letter especially b and d mixed up.
Reception, is for preparing for school, NOT doing loads of homework. They will end up putting the kids off!
And 6 books a week! . Our school only expected at least one a week.

my ds is in a private, highly academic prep school, but no way did he have anything like that to do in reception.

But if this school does, surely you either go along with it or move. They clearly didn't make any secret of it.

(We are state sector, btw)

Do not be tempted to respond to the note with another note. Talk to the teacher. Both of you are likely to misinterpret the tone of the other if you deal with this in writing (as a veteran of many storms in the homework diary myself!).

I think you're being oversensitive, surely you knew when you sent her there that the school was expecting this level of work at home? Just practice as advised, or ignore (and think about moving schools), but don't get angry about it, either way.

DS is also in reception, only homework he's had so far is practising his letter sounds and a bit of blending sounds together to make into words. But we are at a school in the Ofsted sector rated merely 'satisfactory'.

"Ofsted sector", f*k me, what a day it's been, I meant state sector, of course.

And I don't feel it was a "snotty" note at all, tbh (as my final bit of almost trivial blather! ).

Unfair to say OP should have expected this - DD started Reception in September, at an Ofsted 'outstanding', academically inclined church school which prides itself on excellent SATS and children getting into the local grammar school ... but homework? No. She's just had a reading journal home for the first time, so maybe I'm being naive and it's about to ramp up to six books a week, but I suspect not.

Crikey, all that at 4 years old???? Way too much, imo.
Did they tell you all about the amount of homework they would be expected to do when you looked round?

DCMB - agree.

Education shouldn't be this full on for any Reception aged child, state or independent imo.

My dd is in reception at a private prep school.
Since the beginning of October we have had phonic sounds coming home with little actions to learn to help reinforce the sounds.

This week she now has 5 five words that she needs to learn by sight and that are not to be broken down letter by letter. She has, I, can, we, it and is. This homework came home with a note from the school saying that if we as her parents felt that she was too tired etc we can choose whether to do it or not.

There is no pressure in reception class at all. However as they progress through the school the prep (homework) does increase but nothing quite so pushy in the first few years as 6 books!!!

My ds is in year 5 of school now and receives 2 subjects for prep each night, but each piece should only take 10mins per subject, I think my dc's school has the ratio just right. We signed up for an academic school and have no complaints

If you signed up to a school for its reputation you need to uphold it's reputation IMO. Why don't you break it up into reading books in bed before her bedtime story, and spellings etc over breakfast? I would really enjoy doing that with dd, but I am in the minority, and dd is at state, not private, so we get two very mish mash reading books a week, which I then supplement.

The school sounds horrible