Reading And Writing In New Eyfs

[dreamgirl]

Have just finished reading the physical, reading and writing sections and have noticed the following

Copying some letters is in PD in 30-50

Holding a pencil properly is in 30-50

Forming letters correctly is in 40-60

In reading 40-60 it says read words and simple sentences

In writing 40-60 it says attempts to write short sentences

 

We have just been ofsteded and told average on entry from nursery to reception is working within 40-60 months. Well, in the areas I've selected above, our nursery children would not be able to write in short sentences or read, other than their name and words like mummy. So they will obviously be not in line.

With the reading, are nurseries meant to start phase 2???

Feel these things are a significant change to the DMs. They used to be in the ELGs didn't they?

[Guest]

That's interesting, our local school has told us the children should be working in 30-50 when they start and that 40-60 is reception

[apple]

Hi dreamgirl

was your ofsted inspector relating the average of 40-60 months to CLL alone or 40-60 over all areas of learning? If it was pertaining to CLL then yes one might be a little concerned over the points you have earmarked. However, as I understand this there are many more areas and development matters that a child will be capable of within the 40-60 band on entry to reception.

I agree that many of our children leaving nursery would not yet be achieving the points you have highlighted. I am assuming though that as they move through reception these skills will be taught and developed as they themselves grow. Does that make sense?

 

As for children in nursery starting Phase 2 - as and when they are ready would be my answer.

We have a small target group of children who are enjoying and ready for getting to grips with segmenting and blending (really good at blending and only just getting the idea of segmenting). Hopefully with more targeted support they will develop the skill of segmenting and begin the move into Phase 2. However, these children only form a small group - the rest are working within Phase 1.

[dreamgirl]

Up to this year I have worked under the impression that if a child enters reception already working withing 40-60 then they were at the top end of children leaving nursery. However as I say now I have been told that 40-60 should be regarded as more of an average expectation on entry into reception, rather than above average. So given that, and given that the new reading and writing expectations in the 40-60 is significantly more demanding, there will be lots of children assessed as average in Pse, Kuw , cd and poss md but below in reading, writing and physical if they can't form letters, as we will not be able to put them in 40-60, only 30-50. does this seem right or am I reading this all wrong? I am surprised that other people aren't worried or cross about these new developments. I am in a school based nursery that has obvious scope to be more formal than a preschool but even I am worried about the effect these DMs might have on the curriculum in nursery.

[millhill]

Children can be assessed as working 'within' the 40-60 age range if they have achieved most of 30-50 and some of 40-60.

 

For example a child is working within the 40-60 age range in writing if they are:

• Giving meaning to the marks they make
  
• Beginning to break the flow of speech into words
  
• Hearing and saying the initial sound in words
  
• Segmenting the sounds in simple words
  

I would be expecting this level of development (in general) when children enter my Reception class as they have been working on phase 1 in Nursery. Many children are also able to write clearly identifiable letters to communicate meaning when they enter Reception (they don't have to spell words to achieve this).

 

Then, when they are in Reception, I will be working on the next steps of 40-60: naming/sounding letters (phase 2), representing letters in sequence (phase 2), writing short sentences, writing tricky words etc.

 

The same goes for reading, the beginning of 40-60 months states:

• Continues a rhyming string (phase1)
  
• Hears and says the sounds in initial words (phase 1)
  
• Segment the sounds in simple words and blends them together(phase 1)
  

 

Then in Reception they will move onto knowing which letters represent some sounds (phase 2) /naming and sounding letters (phase 2)/reading words and simple sentences (phase 2/3) until the ELGs.

 

I agree with children needing encouragement to develop a proper pencil grip early on. Poor pencil holding is very difficult to reverse. As for correctly formed letters, this is right at the end of 40-60 in PD, so would be the expected development near the end of Reception, not at the end of Nursery.

 

I hope this has made sense. I have worked in a pre-school, Nursery classes and Reception classes and feel that the new DMs are about right.

[dreamgirl]

Thank you mill hill. That is very helpful. X

Can you explain something else please. Why are some or the higher order DMs, such as write a simple sentence, included in the DMs and not put in the ELGs? So if 40-60 goes up to the end of reception.....and the ELG goes up to the end of reception....what is the difference?

[millhill]

The government were keen to keep the ELGs down to a minimum, that was their 'headline news' part of renewing the current EYFS (117 goals reduced to 17).

 

So what they have done is put some of the old ELGs into the 40-60 month bracket (bearing in mind 60 months is 5 years old and the ELGs are part of 40-60 age bracket anyway) and instead we have one very broad ELG for each of the 17 aspects of learning.

 

The ELGs are what children are expected to achieve at the end of Reception, just before they go into Y1 (some achieve them earlier, others don't).

The 40-60 DMs are what children are expected to achieve whilst in Reception, the early 40-60 statements generally apply to end of Nursery and the later 40-60 statements will usually apply to the whole of the Reception year.

 

In Reception, we have always worked with the DMs, not just the ELGs, so would be expecting children to come in having achieved some of the early 40-60 month statements.

 

I hope this makes sense!

[dreamgirl]

This is very interesting. Do you think ALL the DMs in all the age bands in each area are hierarchical?

 

[millhill]

I don't think they all are, and the new EYFS states this at the bottom of the DMs.

Some children might not have achieved all of the 30-50 DMs but have started to achieve the 40-60. e.g. in 'Number' a child might not be able to match numeral and quantity correctly (30-50) but can recognise numerals of personal significance(40-60).

 

Having said that, the DMs generally show progress in each learning area, so the age bands are used as an 'average' for assessment purposes, such as Ofsted and so on.

Edited April 13, 2012 by millhill

[dreamgirl]

Mmmmmm interesting. I still feel that some of the areas are easier to get the 40-60 in than others. And if I were the government keen on being perceived as wanting to raise standards, I wouldn't make some areas harder than others as not so many children will be judged as being in line. Still....what do I know!!!!!

[mundia]

I think is one of the difficulties with trying to break down the sections into each DM statement, I think we can tend to over analyse. For me, they represent the range of things you might expect a child to be able to do when working within that age band. They are not exclusive, and many children will miss some out. For example, the EYFS is very dependent on the use of phonics, and so not only is it saying what needs to be taught, but also how it should be. Whatever your own views on whether or not phonics is the only way of teaching children to read and write, what do you do when a child doesnt ' use phonic knowledge to decode regular words and read them aloud accurately' but does 'read them accurately'?

 

I think I always preferred the approach that says 'emerging' secure etc, as this clearly shows that for example on entry, a child may be just emerging in the 40-60, but there will be many aspects not yet secure, and these will develop during the year. That same child is likely to be secure in the 30-50 band, and so there will be an overlap between the two, especially in different skill sets. So a child may be very good at phonic decoding because they have been taught phonics at home, or in nursery, however they may be less secure with understanding what they read, or becoming familiar with how stories are structured, because maybe they haven't had much experience of stories being read to them? And vice versa of course!

 

In the case of some being harder than others, this depends much on what we perceive as being harder or easier. Since every child is different, there will be those who can achieve some things easier and quicker than others, and Im sure we all know of children who might have reached certain specific skills at 3, this is why the age bands at that point are so wide. However another child might be finding that very hard but really excel in an area of CD for example, because they have a very vivid imagination and love creative stuff.

 

I think I had better stop waffling now...

[dreamgirl]

Thank you. Lots of food for thought there. Great. X

[dreamgirl]

Thank you mill hill and mundia. That is what we do in our nursery. Just wanted to get it clear in my head that for any average child...if there is one!!!! ....going in to reception, they may well be secure or above in PSE in 40-60 but very unlikely to be anything but emerging in reading and writing in 40-60, given that phase 2 is not usually done in nursery.

[Guest]

Just wondering if anyone else thinks that what is now regarded as expected in writing is the same as what was a point 9 which was very hard to achieve by most children in Reception. The exemplification material give examples of writing of an expected level and these are the same as what you would look at if you were awarding a child a point 9. Worried that the children will not achieve the 'expected' level despite making good progress and being well on their way to becoming writers in a play based learning environment. I have looked at the revised national curriculum and some of the ELG's could easily be part of the Year 1 objectives therefore being unfair to describe the ELG's as expected particularly in Reading, Writing, Physical and Numeracy. I think Reception teachers and parents will be left feeling like they have let children down.