RE: Help and advice please!
by: Tissue - 21-05-08 22:59
Tell her to get a copy of the early years foundation stage on line and remind her that nursrey nurses know more about child development then teachers. You are right, children of this age learn through play. Children should have access to activities to develop pre skills. It is important children are confident and not taught above their development or they will feel failures and have low self asteem. They should be mark making for enjoyment. Most of our 4's are recognising and writing their names but not our 3's. I am in a nursery class in a school but even in the reception class the teacher has introduced more play based learning because the children learn better this way. Only one of our children went up to reception reading last September. 27 out of 30 are all reading now at different levels. So in answer to your question they are not expected to read on entering reception. I hate dot to dot and it is not done in our school. We do not have work sheets in nursery class. Shame on your manager. She should know making children write or try to read before they are ready or in an inappropiate way does more harm than good. Believe your gut feelings, you are right. And by the way I'm a NN with a degree not that it makes a difference, I know plenty of excellent NNs without one.