Reception- Y1 transition help. Tearing my hair out.

[mischieviousspelling]

Everything has been so cut back that there are no class TAs available to support Y1.

Reception is great, completely play based and freeflow, but they are completely and utterly unprepared for Y1 and I'm sick of it. I'm sick of being the horrible teacher making little children sit down all day. I hate that we have to sit all day with workbooks while they look out the window and see children digging and having the best time.

Why are you sitting all day with workbooks ?

I mean, I wouldn't be doing that throughout the year anyway, but surely the start of the year your role is to ease them in to the new room, new staff, work towards the new routine

It must be very hard with no TA but making them sit all day with workbooks just sounds like it will make things even harder for you all.

There are quite a few Facebook groups about continuous provision past eyfs, might be worth having a look there to see how others do it?

We do a combination but any whole class work is very low key at this point of the year. Lots of rotations with independent activities help with finding time for quality input with smaller groups without needing loads of adults.

Effective Transition into Y1 by Alistair Bryce-Clegg is a worthwhile read.

Assuming it's your classroom, why do you not adapt it to the needs of your class? Most primary schools will continue with CP for the first term of Year 1 at least.
I teach Grade 3/Year 4 and I think my class have seen their workbook for a total of 40 minutes last week. I don't use CP but we're also working to actively reduce the time children spend working in their workbooks this year.

I have really tried over the past few years to run CP in Term 1, but it’s completely impossible in one small room with 30 kids, no resources apart from desks and chairs and no TA. Absolutely impossible.

Each year I tried it with tabletop activities it was just so noisy and chaotic, no one did anything purposeful and I couldn’t develop a routine or any positive relationships because I was just firefighting all day.

I run a carousel and I try to make sure that as many of the activities are play based as I can, but they really struggle with the idea that they have to be in a chair all day, wait until the timer says it’s time to move on and wait their turn to be at the playdough table/ sensory trays.

So literacy this week was

1. salt tray mark making/ letter formation
2. name writing game
3. simple sentence match
4. draw a picture of the character in our story
5. playdough (with letter cutters and pictures, but no fixed outcome)

The HT likes everything to be done in workbooks. Our photocopying allowance is practically nothing so I keep it for the afternoon to do cut and stick and crafts.

I feel so down. There were so many sad little faces last week, even with me praising as much as possible. Then six different parents complained because lunchboxes got lost, but that’s because R get to put them in a big box and they get carried along to the classroom and put in their bags by the TA and Y1 have to look after their own.

I have repeatedly asked for a Y1 box and a Y6 can carry it down to us, but the HT thinks Y1 don’t need it.

I totally get you. Similar situation in my Y1 although I'm lucky as I do have a class TA. Tiny classroom without the space or resources to run continuous provision. I have tried really hard over the past few years but the space is simply too small and noisy to have children playing while I try to work with a focus group. The children find it impossible to concentrate. I manage by begging the HT for Y1 to have use of the only spare teaching space (the library area) during the mornings until Christmas, and we use the classroom and that space to split the children between me and the TA with the smaller space being used for focussed groups who swap in and out, and table top play-based activities in the main room. But this is only possible with my additional adult. I have bought SO many play resources myself as there is no budget. Car boot sales are my friend. I think Y1 is so hard as we have a full curriculum of subject content objectives like Y2-Y6, with the same expectations with book-looks etc but tiny five year olds who just want to play. No advice, but huge sympathy.

I think it's a bit unfair to say they are unprepared for Year 1. EYFS is supposed to be play based. There is no stipulation as to how the NC should be taught so straight into formal is a school decision. The first few days of year 1 being work books isn't appropriate. I appreciate this is maybe from your HT and not you but it's really not transitioning from play based to formal at all and completely unfair for 5 year olds.

I do have a TA, however I also have 34 year 1s and a small classroom. I run CP all year. I have resourced the classroom from car boot sales, charity shops and from my own children. Not how it should be at all but it's best for my children. We haven't had any tears from my year 1s this year and today they all wrote (to the best of their abilities!) a story so it's not like we're not cracking on with Year 1 expectations.

Your HT is the problem here though. Not the kids and not their reception year. Let Me Be Five is another great read.

The lack of TA is the real killer. It's not going to change in the near future either.

I completely understand why Reception is so free flow and play based and I'd love to have the chance to replicate it, but I can't. I find it so unfair that all of the burden of the transition is put on me when I have no support.

The lunchbox thing is a really good example. Why can't the children be trained in the summer term to look after their own lunchboxes? It's apparently impossible with 2 adults but then 6 weeks later I'm expected to do it on my own.

I feel your pain. I look at the children as they come into class and feel like it’s lambs to the slaughter.

I think the lack of understanding around Year 1 generally (even extend that to KS1!!) is a huge issue. It's absolutely ridiculous that Year 1 classes aren't prioritised for support. In my school they'd rather ensure Year 6 had a full time TA than KS1!!

It's stereotypical but I hate that primary leadership is so dominated by men and men who have taught in KS2!! It's so detrimental to just force all children 5-11 to follow a model that is really for UKS2!

But yes I agree about the lunch boxes. That does sound like something that could be changed.

I feel like the poor country cousin. We're so low down the priority list.

*literacy this week was

salt tray mark making/ letter formation
name writing game
simple sentence match
draw a picture of the character in our story
playdough (with letter cutters and pictures, but no fixed outcome*

Sorry but I thought you said you were in y1? This is nursery level tasks, it's barely even enough for reception.

It might make you sad but year 1 is ks1, they are there to learn and you shouldnt be encouraging a mindset that learning at a higher level is a poor substitute for play based activities they do as younger children. Growing up and being ready for more should be a positive thing.

It sounds like your Reception is not gradually introducing enough structure. It shouldn't be an instant change in y1. Despite it being part of EYFS Reception is also part of school of school - it's a transitional year and being ready for year 1 is a big part of that.

Ps the lack of TA is poor though. Is there no capacity at all in school.

Government budget cuts are a joke. Schools should be able to afford a TA for the mornings in y1 as a minimum.

I'm with PP those sound like EYFS / Nursery activities no wonder kids don't meet the expected level by the end of primary when they are in yr1 and still people think it's sad if they aren't playing all day? The reception teacher should have spent the term from Easter in reception gradually preparing the kids for the shift to yr1, spending little bits of time sat at tables, making the step a positive one, getting the kids doing a bit more writing and getting more independent surely that is the point of reception. Otherwise why not just leave them in nursery another year 🙄 some of these kids will be 6 around now and people seem to think they can't cope unless they are playing all day, find it really sad people have such low expectations of kids these days

When I was new to year 1 (from year 6...), an EYFS adviser from the LA told me that children shouldn't see any difference between the July of Reception and September of year 1. Transition can start from April of Reception or as late as year 2, but it should be a gradual process of moving from continuous provision to more structured learning and should be planned for over a term or two.

So if your Head expects you to introduce formal learning from the September of year 1, then your Reception colleague needs to start that transition, regardless of whether they (or you) agree with it being age appropriate, and your Head needs to make that happen - it's not your job.

@KweenieBeanz I don't have really low expectations of my class. I have really high expectations actually which is why I run a CP model and work my arse off to ensure that all whole class and group work tasks are of a far higher standard than I would be able to deliver if I was running a formal class. I ensure my challenges in CP are accessible independently meaning they're the kind of thing I would have had to do as a lesson previously - albeit my challenges are more practical than my sit down formal classroom would have been.

There is such a misconception of what 'play' is - and it is seen as such a dirty word!! Wasn't it Einstein who said 'play is the highest form of research'?

I'd actually love to see some research into why a formal classroom is better for 5-6 year olds because I've not yet come across any.

And as with anything in teaching, there can be bad 'CP' classrooms where the learning is poor. But there are equally many dreadful formal Year 1 classrooms where the learning is just as poor. The teacher is always the key.

Career change

You are correct that the teacher is always the key. The problem in a typical UK state classroom is there will be 30 kids, probably at least 3-5 of which will have some additional needs, of which one could be more severe needs. There is likely to be inadequate support for SEN, leaving the teacher & TA stretched very thinly. This can mean that with the best will in the world, children are not always fully challenged by the opportunities of CP as there is not enough adult input to guide & extend.

It is very difficult for children to become fluent readers and writers without progressing to doing more substantial volumes of reading and writing - several sentences at a time etc and tbh few 4/5/6 year old children will incorporate that volume of reading/writing willingly into free flow play without adults prompting/guiding. Fine in reception, but in y1 they are KS1 and they simply won't reach the standards needed.

It's rare to see continuous provision for y1 that incorporates sufficient volumes of reading or writing to extend the more able in ks1 without it involving a book, extensive adult guidance to ensure the children take the opportunity to write enough or being sat at a table.

your Reception colleague needs to start that transition, regardless of whether they (or you) agree with it being age appropriate

This. It doesnt have to be done in a heavily formalised way but they should be being leaving Reception prepared for some more seated activities/ involving longer attention spans.

Board & card games are great for this and I never understand why more teachers don't use them, they are especially good for maths.

@AloysiusBear You write as if a CP classroom means that all the children do is roam around playing in sand which certainly isn't my experience of teaching this way or of anything I've seen in my research.

I currently teach year 1 but I've also taught year 2, am KS1 lead and I'm a LA moderator. I see absolutely no negative difference in our end of KS1 standards since we changed approach. Having been to many schools as a KS1 moderator, I have seen many absolutely appalling KS1 classrooms where the children do nothing but sit at their desks as day. Sitting in a formal classroom doesn't magically make them learn more. My children get plenty of opportunity to become fluent readers and competent writers. Just because there's not 30 bums on chairs (34 in my class!!) all writing in a timetabled English lesson between 10 and then 11 doesn't mean they don't do quality pieces of extended writing!! Our books are full of quality English and maths!

Careerchange456
Of course CP isn't just playing with sand.

But CP as implemented in the UK tends to be associated with resources that are play based, involving providing resources that enable opportunities for learning for children and an element of children choosing what to engage with. There's a degree of relying on children exploring the resources independently. I see it work really well with things like story telling but not good quality extended writing. At best labels, captions and titles. Hardly any children will engage with the resources and come away with a piece of independent writing 3 or 4 coherent sentences long without a greater degree of adult intervention and in a class of 30 there's not enough adult capacity.

I think CP is hard. It is good when done well I just think it simply isn't often and I think it rarely results in children doing enough writing.

Do they do that quality extended writing sat at a table?

If so, what makes your approach any different than "formal learning"? The element of choice?

Few schools have y1 sat in rows silently working in books all day! Even those that have more directed whole class teaching will use engaging resources.

To bring this back to the OP, regardless of approach her "literacy" activities were not appropriately challenging for ks1. In a y1 class your top readers are going to be reading fluently, perhaps in their heads, with the stamina to tackle a phonics equivalent to old turquoise/purple length books. Your best writers could be producing 4 or 5 good sentences, spelled mostly correctly.

Salt tray mark making, name writing, drawing a picture and play dough letter cutters are EYFS activities for 3-4 ye olds. It's not providing enough opportunity for learning in year 1 regardless of how its provided, unless there's a hell of a lot more to these tasks.

Yes, but this is the problem- they have to do everything completely independently, which they are not at all trained to do, so I have to start off with the most basic of tasks to make sure that everyone can do it.

But they are in y1. The vast majority should already be able to read and write. What are any of them getting from mark making in a salt tray or writing their own name? I would have expected most to be doing this in the first month of reception not y1. The preschool next to our school would be doing these tasks with 3 year olds.

Is it a deprived area with a high proportion of children not at age related expectations, development wise?

I think you really really need to address with your head what is (not) happening in reception if the tasks in your list are all you think should be expected of them.

It's a very mixed catchment. I'd generally estimate around half achieving GLD, some not far off, and we always have a group who need a significant amount of
support.

Most of the class are now learning to write their surname but some are still working on first names.

In the salt trays they're copying pre cursive patterns. It's also something that they don't find as intense doing completely on their own, because they have never been told that they have to go and sit at a table and do something all by themselves. Every task in R is supported by an adult.

Half achieving GLD is below average, I think nationally it's about 70%. But the half that are meeting it must be able to write at least one sentence.

It sounds like your Reception really is the issue as it's not leaving the children adequately prepared for year 1. Never mind the academics but the independence.

This isn't to say you haven't got a raw deal having no TA by the way. It also sounds like some of your class may have additional needs if they can't even write their own names at the start of year 1. Can you push for assessments & start the EHCP process to get these kids more support?

Mischievous if you have several children still unable to write their first name in year 1 something is going badly wrong in your reception class. In our school lots leave the EYFS class able to write their name and for those who aren't, interventions are carried out in term 1 and term 2 if reception to enable them to meet this target. Only those with significant learning difficulties leave reception unable to write their name and these should be having input from your school SENDCO and additional classroom support (an EHCP is not required to implement some additional support).
You shouldn't be lowering the standard for the whole 30 kids so that it's suitable only for those few. As a PP has mentioned you likely have a top group who are now reading reasonably confidently and capable of writing several sentences, why are they not being catered for? Why not get them round a table and practise those pre-cursive shapes with a pencil and paper?

As a PP has noted it's appalling that you have NO TA support whatsoever in year 1 - and first up you need to talk to your head about that. And tbh considering moving schools as yours sounds pretty awful!