Do teachers ever describes children as "bright" or "clever" these days?

[daisy243]

I'm pretty sure my dd (5) in reception is bright. I think her reading ability is probably around the top 1/4 of the class. Her writing (ie trying to spell words) is really good and her drawing is very good. However, after parents evening apart from knowing all is well I feel no clearer as to whether her abilities are below, middle or top end. I know it doesn't "matter" but it would just be nice to know.
It's as if it's wrong to want to know or you get labelled as pushy or competitive....which I'm not.
What are other people's experiences?

you're right, it's down to the teachers. I'd hate to think it could happen today, but am sure it could and does.

Cortina, it won't happen to your child at any rate because you're there in addition to whatever the school does - its not just down to the teachers. My latish-flowering DD was fortunate in that her school doesn't really do much obvious setting - just some kids got support to help achieve potential, and they included clearly bright ones who could do better as well as slower ones. But besides that she always had my DH reassuring us that he was just the same at her age and he predicted (accurately, to date) she'd follow the same trajectory. The difference between DH and DD - as will be the case with you and your DC - is that she didn't get that undermining and consequent self-doubt.

That's great to hear, Grimma. What prevented the 'undermining and consequent self-doubt' your parenting, positivity and encouragement at home? The lack of obvious setting? Was your DC one of the children that received the support to help achieve potential?

My parents were fairly involved, but there wasn't much they could do, it was the school's early view of me that seemed to set things in stone. I fear I could fail in the same way.

I keep reading about bottom tables do some schools actually still do this?

ours doesn't. I'd hate it if there was a bottom table, or a top table.

mrz our school scrupulously avoids any form of labelling that implies "top" or "bottom". But some kids are just way too observant (have just listened to my friend's rather precocious 6yo describing exactly who is on the "bottom" table in her class and I'm sure her teacher would be mortified that she's figured it out!)

DD1 used to be very confused about why she was on the table for the "oldest" children when she was, in fact, one of the youngest

Several teachers have told me DD1 is very bright. But they don't let on how many other very bright children there are in the class, though (although the current teacher has been known to gesticulate up towards the ceiling when talking about her literacy levels .)

Cortina - a combination of all. I believe even if the school had been unhelpful, DHs self-knowledge and empathy supporting DD would have sufficed.

Unlike poor old DH who seems to have had negativity from (old fashioned)school and home to begin with. In his case, class positions and testing were his salvation because once it did all begin to click, he rose to the top and stayed there (whereat his mother assumed all his classmates must be very dim ).

I think my daughter is lucky then that her teachers have so much confidence in her. They don't let her get away with anything because she has slight SEN's.
As a result, she is very confident in her own abillity and wants to work to her full potential.

The thing is that at 5, children are still very much in their early developmental stage. Some children aren't really ready to sit down and concentrate at this age (for a multitude of reasons); they will not be very good at the academic side of school (though they might be fab at sports and making friends) at this stage. This does not mean that they aren't going to end up super bright in the long term. You just don't know.

The daughter of one of my cousins got 43/45 in her IB two years ago and is at a very good university studying Chinese and politics. She had great difficulty learning to read and write and wasn't really on track until the age of 9!

My DC's teachers tend to use phrases like "very able" to describe where they are doing well.

TBH I'm not that worried about how they are doing in relation to their classmates. The boys are in a class of 30, now the other 28 children could all be incredibly clever, or they could all be struggling, or they could be a mix of both and everything in between. The point is that they are a random group of children, comparing one child to them wouldn't be enormously helpful!

When DS was in Y2, his teacher's first comment at our parents' consultation was: "[DS] is a very clever boy." She was quite right. So, yes, they do say it.

These posts have reminded me of DD2's end of reception parents evening; Her teacher is fab, very highly regarded by parents and children, however has never been particularly forthcoming with lots of praise; I suppose she is experienced enough to have seen it all before, with parents wanting her to big-up their child over their achievements. Anyway, back to the point, she ended parents evening talking about what levels etc DD had reached, and when we asked what these meant in layman's terms she cagily answered " hmmm...well...I'd say that was rather good". We went away delighted!