Q for reception teachers...

[Geegee4]

Hope you don't mind me asking...DD is doing well with her reading, has made lovely friends, is compliant and enjoys school. She's early Sept born and the eldest in her class. I've had opportunities to get involved with the class and can see there are 5-6 children with challenging behaviour/ SEN. Throughout year have been pretty happy with quality of teaching but also a bit surprised what a slow introduction the kids have to learning... As a teacher how are you able to focus on so many children of such differing needs?

What do you mean by a slow introduction to learning? Do you feel there isn't enough sitting on the carpet/at tables maths and literacy type work?

Yes, that it's been very focused on learning through play, which I do think is a good thing, but that not a lot seems offered beyond play. Carpet time is for letters and sounds, but DD really likes numbers etc too.

They will probably do covering all the maths objectives through play and practical experiences then, sitting on the carpet doesn't make it better learning even if it appears more obvious to an observer.

Yes, I totally accept that, but for instance DD came home saying they learned the tricky words 'out' and 'so' as part of carpet learning...I appreciate the teacher has the curriculum to teach, but she's further on than this...what can the teacher offer her when she has some quite challenging students and needs to stick to guidance? Should say we love the teacher, just think she's ready for a bit more...

she's in reception.

It's play based. More formal learning will come in year one.

Ok you think I'm pushy and annoying.

Got it.

When my DD was in reception I felt like you OP. The class were counting to 20 but DD could count to 200 and beyond and at times I think really wanted to learn more. Tbh I still think this nearing the end of y1 but I don't know the answer!

As a Reception teacher I have found that while many children can count beyond 20, they do not always have an understanding of what numbers represent. So we do a lot of work on accurate counting, counting on and back from a number (adding and taking away) and working towards and beyond the Early Learning Goals by increasing the level of challenge for more able children eg grouping ( beginning of division and multiplication) and problem - solving eg how many did I take away from a group.

We really focus on practical maths so always try to use objects when working with number.

Thanks very much for the responses. Really appreciated.

It gets worse in year 1-2. At least in reception the directed learning is a small proportion of their time.

I think schools have gone a bit overboard on the practical maths thing. Yes great, teach them the concepts with physical objects, for SMALL sums. But once they've got the concepts you need to let them move on or they just get bored. DS year 2 teacher was questioning why he couldn't do doubling with counters. He could do it perfectly well in reception, simply couldn't see the point by year 2 as far as we could work out.