Bright child getting bored at reception

[zansi]

Hi this is my first post and really need some advice from experienced mums. My 5 year old daughter recently started reception at a local small state comununity school. She has really enjoyed it so far but is now getting bored.She is already a fluent reader and is good at basic Maths too. However, even though the teacher knows this, as a class they are learning beginner phonics which she finds very boring as she knows this already. She told me she asked the teacher to give her something new to do and her teacher says no, she has to do what the class are doing. I feel my daughter is just being ignored without being stretched further in Maths and English. I have already spoken to the teacher about this but don't want to be seen as a pushy parent.I am doing stuff at home with her but don't have much time and feel the school should be addressing my concerns. any advice on what to do please

"I wouldn't like to compare Dr. Neville Brown to Daniel Kinge."
I didn't. I said was demonstrating that awards aren't the be all and end all.

I think there are too many people who are too quick to criticise people whose children happen to cotton on very quickly to reading/maths and so on. What a mean comment about lack of imagination, OttersOnIce. I can't imagine you'd say that to her mother in real life.

I can well imagine that it's dull for a child to sit through stuff they can already do back to front. If a child can already do it, they should be given something else to do. Believe me, it is not possible (or desirable) to hold back a child who is reading fluently at the age of four. I had one (and one who is only just reading now, at nearly six. In her case, it would have been equally daft to push it before she was ready).

All I say is thank goodness for independent schools and teaching that is - can be, because of class sizes - actually geared towards the individual child.

By claig Sat 23-Jan-10 19:50:32

"It led me to do a quick search and find a "maverick" headmaster, who has quite good credentials since he was warded the "ITV Teacher of the Year award for the Midlands"
who thinks that phonics is not the way to teach dyslexics to read."

sorry claig but Dr Brown's method of teaching involves linguistic phonics (morphology)

mrz thanks
I was going by the TES headline and his son's comments about phonics. I must admit my knowledge of phonics is not good

bunny, re wanting research to show that whole language teaching of reading has damaged some people's learning (I can't comment further re damaging their lives) but California adopted whole language teaching in 1988. By 1992 their studentw were placed second to last. By 1994 they were last (Fry, 1996).

There was a claim that the large proportion of minorities was keeping the score so low but even when they just looked at the children of college educated paresnts, these children performed second from bottom overall.

claig, it does surprise me that you are so keen to comment in such an authoritative manner on many educational issues when your grasp of these issues seems so tenuous.

thanks pointy that makes two of us.
I am not being authoritative, I am just debating philosophically. As mrz pointed out I am wrong and I accept that

bruffin clearly knows what she is talking about

you're not just wrong on that issue

you as well pointy

we can't all be right like you pointy, try to suffer us fools

I haven't read all the posts so apologies if the is repeatinf info already given.
I have this problem with my daughter she is 5 in April and spends her day wandering about doing very little this is more to do with classmates than activities available, she is so ready to learn but is being held back. This is because schools cannot teach foundation/reception stage children and need to follow the new EYFS (Early years foundation stage) curriclum set out by Ofted. Foundation class is all about freedom of choice and learning through play, and as such is no longer 'school' as parents know it, but an extenstion of preschool.

I would never pretend to be right when I had little knowledge of a subject.

HeraldAngel as a teacher I would tell her mother that I was very concerned to hear a child is so easily bored.
As to the state v independent argument I'm afraid she would still be expected to take part in short whole class lessons whichever type of establishment she attended and both would use differentiated activities which perhaps a 5 year old would not recognise.
For example in my whole class phonics session I would ask less able children to identify phonemes, more able children to read words and very able children to read sentences.

Lulu EYFS isn't set out by OFSTED and it doesn't prevent teachers from teaching.

OP I would not worry too much about your daughter being bored. She is only 5 and if she is already ahead and doing well why not just let her enjoy her time playing, painting and making friends.

My daughter is one of the oldest in her class and started reception in September I nearly burst with pride last week when she recognized the word "it" on a poster so I dont have any experience of a child being ahead lol BUT I have never heard of a child feeling they are not being stretched enough. It is easy to project out own feeling onto our children sometimes and I feel liek maybe this is whats going on here.

Having said that after reading this post I AM starting to worry about my daughter being behind so maybe I will join you in your worrying!

Pet subject is the importance of synthetic phonics having followed the Cumbria Intervention Project and worked with secondary pupils in the 90s who could barely read... but I won't go there

Zansi, what I would say is that phonics revision is no bad thing for your daughter, especially if it is for a short, concentrated duration. DS knew his phonics before starting school but the first term consolidated his learning.

What should be happening now, after a term of settling in and teacher assessment, is more working in groups according to need and ability for reading and, also possibly, writing.

DS, whilst in Reception, worked with a TA in a small group consisting of him and yr 1 & 2 pupils for reading and in a small group of Reception students for writing. They will probably also use a reading scheme - maybe the Oxford reading tree - which ds made quick and rapid progress with, so now he's on chapter books. This year, Yr1, they move into differentiated maths grouping as well, so he receives a combination of whole class teaching and differentiated group work. I would be surprised if your dd's school do not do something similar, maybe worth finding out if this is the case?

let them play - the work comes soon enough in any case

ds1 is in the top set for everything. he is sad because he always has to do hard work while the others get to go in the 'workshop' play area . I feel sorry for him - he's only little, he'd be having more fun cutting and sticking if he'd kept his head down and not done so well at reading and numeracy

Pointy if you are involved in education I do hope you are not as rude and aggressive to people in your work place, let alone children, as you are here. I see little point in engaging with you except to point out I have never said phonics was a bad thing but that my son had learned without them, unprovoked by me. You then went on to say 'no one is interested in what was best for me, my dad and my dog'. This is a thread about the OP's child in school. Other individuals shared their own children's experience, as did I. All you have contributed to the debate is unbelievable rudeness. Astonishing.

mrz, as a teacher, I am aware of what goes on at school. My own experience is that there is more scope for teachers to cater for individual children's needs in the independent sector.

I, too, would be concerned about a bored five-year-old. However, I'd not see it as her problem. I'd see it as having something to do with the way she is being taught. There's nothing to stop a bright five-year-old reading books that are suitable for her level of ability whilst still playing and making friends.

at the risk of upsetting pointysaysrelax, I would like to post a further link to Dr. Neville Brown's work in helping dyslexic children read. I think it is interesting and may be of use to some parents. I don't know much about dyslexia, but some parents may find it of use in helping their children.
www.iconmethod.com/nias.htm#Icon.

Sorry HeraldAngel I disagree for the ten minutes that she will be expected to join in with whole class phonics it will be more valuable for a child new to school to be accepted as part of the group rather than viewed as "different". I'm not sure what age group you work with but this is a child just beginning their school career and the social aspects outweigh any (if there are any) advantages to going off alone to read a book.

She will of course be reading books and writing and doing a multitude of other things at her own level for the remaining 5hours she is in school each day.

As mrz says, it's perfectly possible for the whole class phonic work to be differentiated - I've completed lesson observations where our (excellent) Reception teacher teaches the phoneme to the majority of the class while encouraging the more able to think of words that include the phoneme and to make up sentences for them.

"She will of course be reading books and writing and doing a multitude of other things at her own level for the remaining 5hours she is in school each day."

She evidently isn't, if her mother is posting here!