Pre-school Transition Booklets

[Guest]

Hello,

Please can someone help me! I have just received the pre-school transition booklets from Nursery and the majority of the children have 'achieved' the first 3 SS (green level). If children enter Reception with the first three scores achieved then what would be their predicted score for the end of reception? My problem is that with the first three SS achieved then the prediction looks to be that the children should achieve 8 points on each level however I know that the average score is 6. Does this mean Nursery have over scored their children or is it the norm for the children to have achived the 3 SS by the end of Nursery?

I hope this makes sense to someone and I hope you can shine a light in my direction!

 

Cheers

[Susan]

Hi elm and welcome.

 

You raise some interesting points. I have found that some children--admittedly few but has still occurred have not always achieved the first 3 points at the end of reception although they have achieved some subsequent points. (Assuming that you are referring to the profile statements?)

 

I think you can reassess whne they join you especially as the profile itself is designed to be used within the reception year. It would be unusual for all children to have achieved these unless there is something unusual about your catchment area?

[Guest]

Are these the Lancashire Pre-School Transition Profiles?

 

If so I would imagine that the Nursery has probably been generous in the scoring. Don't forget that Nursery schools don't have guidance on assessments except for the published guidance that came with the Transition Profiles and that is not too helpful. I have worked in close collaboration with the infants school to ascertain what is required for the first three profile points (as well as using the guidance) and they certainly weren't all at the top end although many were. The reception class teacher said she would expect the average child to have achieved the first two stepping stones on entry to school. If all children were achieving all three stepping stones then this assessment would have too low a ceiling - so where do you go from there?

 

The other thing is that in most areas the first three stepping stones are achievable particularly if it is good nursery provision and you have a cohort of older children who have been at nursery longer.

 

For those that have achieved them (a few were beyond them and I had to move on to the Profiles), I provided evidence in the form of written notes, observations etc to show the reception teachers exactly what the children did for me to make that judgement.

 

All the same though I know that they will make their own assessments in reception as in some areas e.g. separating from main carer with support - they may be fine at Nursery and then struggle when at 'big' school.

 

Hope this helps you a bit. We have been doing a lot of work on transition to school this year and much of that was streamlining the assessments so that they are useful to the reception teachers. I was certainly overscoring in some areas before we started working together.

 

Sue

[Guest]

Hi Susie65,

 

Yes they are the Lancashire Pre-school transition profiles. Thanks for you help as it has made more sense. The Nursery provision is very good and some children attend from a very early age but this still wouldn't justify 90% achieving the first three profile scores in most areas.

 

It looks like we will have to work on our assessment !

Thanks again