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

HeraldAngel her mother is concerned that she is being required to join in with whole class phonics sessions when she can already read (and apparently bore her). I haven't seen her state that at other times her daughter isn't being taught as an individual. If I missed it I'm sure you will be able to point me in the right direction.

Perhaps the OP missed my question about her daughter's phoneme/grapheme knowledge.

How many phoneme representations does she actually know?

i'm sure i will be flamed for saying this but I don't think being bored for 10 minutes a day is a terrible thing (if she is bored,most of 10 reception children in my DDs class know trheir letters but enjoy the singing and actions that go with the phonics training and then they learn to write the letters in cursive which is new to most)
Unfortunately a certain amount of boring stuff is an inevitable part of life and I am not sure that we are doing children any favours to shield tehm from this.
I just wanted to clarify my earlier posting.I beleive that children need to know and apply a mixture of methods in reading and I certainly need phonics for spelling.I just think word recognition should be the main way
Bruffin- that article is talking about research done with a sample size of only 77 children !!I don't believe the brain takes in every letter individually and simultaneously.Have you never seen that puzzle where subjects are asked to count the number of F s in a sentence and nearly everyone gets it wrong!

Mrs, is that so about the EYFS, I will be approaching my daughters school again as they quoted that this is what Ofsted require the children to follow and as they have an inspection this month following a bad one last year they have basically left my daughter to wander about. My situation is slightly different that the original posters. My daughter is in a very small school of 19 pupils, she shares a mixed class Foundation through to year 2. My older daughter is in year 1 so in the same class. The foundation children consist of 2 very emotionally young boys and a disabled girl whoi has the physical, mental and emotional ability of a 3 year old. My daughter feels isolated and is desperate to be with the older girls in the class. But the school are so intent on following the EYFS that the poor child 'chooses' to play alone during class time. When she is so unhappy. If this is the case about the EYFS and OFSTED then I will be so cross that she has been made to feel isolated for the past 5 months,

princessparty, there is also the example about speed reading, I doubt that this involves reading every letter, much more likely to be guesses made from a few letters and context

Lulu the government not OFSTED determine what curriculum maintained schools teach. OFSTED is there to ensure standards in education.

Mrz, there's no point in pursuing this any further. I think the OP is right to try to change things for her DD. You don't.

As for the EYFS: don't get me started!!

HeraldAngel would still agree if the child was older?
My son already knew the periodic table off by heart when he started secondary education but had to sit through all the lessons with his classmates while it was taught ...

Lulu - have heard the same from our teacher e.g. "I'm not allowed to teach, it's all got to be child-led" etc. It's very frustrating.

thegrammerpolicesic EYFS states there should be a balance between child led, adult led and adult directed unfortunately lots of teachers are confused by it.

I would be very concerned if a 5yo of mine was bored for the whole school day or for a substantial part of the day.

But if she complained about being bored for 10 minutes of the day, I would tell her to get over it.

As long as there are other times when she is learning new and stimulating things.

I'd be concerned by that too, mrz. My biggest fear in that situation is that a bright child might be turned off school because it's 'boring'. I don't know what the solution is, though. My own DS is astronomically ahead of his classmates, and I expect he is repeating things he already knows to some extent. It doesn't worry me, as his social skills aren't a match for his intellect and I would prefer him to be spending time on this side of things. But I would have been put out if he'd been learning letter sounds at five, when he was already reading hefty tomes on his particular, bizarre, interests. Fortunately his teacher then did do all the things that you mention to keep his interest while the others were learning the basics. It seems, though, that this isn't so in the OP's case.

But I said I was butting out, so that is what I shall do!

Is she writing as well as she is reading?

I only ask because at our school the entire school up to year 6 are doing phonics daily(Letters and Sounds).

So in my dd's rec class they're currently doing ch,sh,th,ng which they've all known for a while(most of their class have learnt by sight the entire phase 3 set) but they're working at using their phonics in spelling and writing eg sound talking and spelling words like fish,church,ring etc. My sons in Y1 are doing ear,air,igh etc. Knowing phonics by sight is NOT using them in writing. Phonics isn't just about reading.

My son was an amazing reader,a free reader halfway through rec and my dd is pretty good but there is no way I'd want them to miss out on their phonics lessons,they are soooo important. Using them in spelling is a skill that needs to be taught for a long time. You don't just learn them by sight (which is very easy to do)and job done.

Haven't read all of this, but wonder if anybody's mentioned that a lot of children in reception say they're 'bored' and every year on here there's a similar thread. Not saying your daughter's not OP, but my DS worried me by saying he was bored, but after a while I realised it was more that he was finding it challenging having to do things he didn't always like - so being part of a group game rather than ruling the roost, or not getting the story he wants read, as it's someone else's turn to choose. So maybe your daughter wouldn't choose to sit in phonics, but it does her no harm, as many have said it's reinforcing key ground rules which can only help her and it's hardly the whole day. It did my son no end of good to find out what it's like to be one of many imo

hi just to update I took her to see a tutor at one of those tuition centres. She was tested by an educational psychologist who assessed her on reading, comprehension and maths. The tutor told me she has the reading age of an 8 yr old and her comprehension and maths ability is equal to a 7 and a half year old level. She advised me to speak to the teacher again and if possible the head to see if they can help.She was not surprised about my daughter being bored learning sounds as she is a fluent reader with very good comprehension.She also writes very well in complete sentences at home.The teacher doesnt know this or seems to busy to be aware of this I think.
With regards to social adjustment she has made lots of friends and her teacher says she is a very caring thoughtful child. She loves to play, construct, dress up and is very social. She just would like to learn something that is to her level. They are not doing that in her school at all. There is no writing practice or other work set for her and there are no groups.

Zansi a lot of rec kids can write well in complete sentences and certainly where we are a lot would have a similar reading ability.

Phonics is crucial for spelling whatever the level of reading/writing. You may find several are at her level and the teacher is pitching it correctly. Just because she's doing phonics doesn't mean it's wasted time.

It is also possible to stretch the higher ability within a whole class group.

I wouldn't march in guns blazing

imo you are projecting half this stuff onto her or if not, you need to start teaching her how to take 'play' seriously and not worry so much about writing and reading at this stage. the groups, writing practice, numeracy work etc all started in year one in our school. bearing in mind that in many countries they wouldn't be in school at all at this age but would still be doing play based learning, i'm not sure what you're hoping to achieve by pushing her to think academic work is the be all and end all. just tell her to chill and worry about groups and sets etc next year (at the earliest)

in all fairness learning through play is not ideal for every child. DD1 sort of skipped this stage in her very small school due to being only 2 receton age children and was taught witht the Y1 children and loved it. Had, she had free choice, learn through play she would have been mortified. she was and is so keen to learn. Unfortunatly they are doing this with DD2 now in reception and I have seen no evidence of any phonics for her to get bored of ;-) so I can't win lol..

But being a good reader means very little DD1 is 3 terms into Y1 and is reading ORT stage 10 books, we are now raiding kS2 supplies to keep her occupied. but her writing and spelling are really quite bad.

zansi it's brilliant that your dd is so bright, but I still think it's worth asking how the day's structured. As many on here have said the actual sitting and learning phonics in reception is usually only a few minutes a day, so won't harm her. And I can't believe there won't be masses of chances for her to use her reading/ writing/ maths skills through play. There will also be a stack of books for her to read and nobody will stop her if that's what she wants to do. I'd definitely go and talk to them, but don't assume there's nothing there for her - it's not as obvious as when we were at school, but it should be there for her if it's a good school.

My dd seems quite 'with it'. She - like many little girls - reads well. However, she loves playing.

When she get homes from school, all she wants to do is play. We've actually had to drop an after school activity to let her get her play quotient. (We only did 2, anyway)

I truely believe that the more playing children do, the better they get at playing.

So, rather pushing more work on, let them play more. Ensure that there's lovely crayons, paper and pens around. Switch off the TV.

I'm even unhappy about doing reading books at home now because if we don't she picks up a book herself and I would rather her love of reading come from her.

If you dd stays bright (early promise doesn't mean future genius!) she will never be stretched at school. Only University Level (Cambridge stuff) will challenge her. But even then, the very brightest won't be challenged because they are the ones that invent the new stuff!)

I know I'm wasting my time but have to say I would be very wary of anything those "tuition centres" have to say they have their own agenda

good god what a rageing debate. In my school we can see if a child is excelling and we challange appropreatly.

I don't think anyone is suggesting she shouldn't be challenged just that spending 10 mins working as part of the class for phonics is hardly going to scar her for life or bore her and turn her off learning...

sorry I havent read all of the post its mad to me when I delever things ie I take year1 and class teacher takes year 2 and vise versa, there are some children who can do what we are looking at as a starter activity you could argue that they are board doing this but im sorry we work on averages, when we seperate to make work we do activiies which are right for the child. - Does that make sence?

Jeez, please tell me you don't 'delever' spelling to these year 1s, cloudhopper!

I like your prose style, cloudhopper and your new phonetic spelling.