nursery assesment for home-ed child.

[pinkdolly]

dd2 will be 5 in August and has been enjoying a funded place at nursery since last September. Her nursery teacher has just informed me that she has been asked to supply samples of her work so they can assess what level she is at. They have asked this of all the children about to leave the nursery.

She did tell me which body of people was requesting this but I cant recall now. My first question is should my daughter actually be included in this? Is this to asses if the nursery have done their job properly or are they trying to get a feel for how ready she is for school? In either way I feel thats he need not be included as by choosing to home-school I feel I have taken the burden off the nursery for educating her as I am doing it myself.

Although saying that she has been recieving a funded place so they may want to know what kind of service they have been paying for.

Also (and this has only recently crossed my mind) will information be passed onto the LEA about dd not attending school. We are not actively hiding from them, just enjoying home-educating our children without having to justify it to the LEA.

Thanx for your help.
Pink

[pinkdolly]

Sorry, just re-read that, it's written awfully, and to think i'm trying to educate my children and I cant even write myself .

[Fillyjonk]

sorry pink, I am not clear what the problem is (I am sure this is you not me!)

are you worried that the LEA will discover you?

tbh, if your dd2 has a funded place, they must "know" about you already!

Is it that you don't think her work is any of their business? I kind of agree, though as the place is funded-not sure, I suppose they have paid for it...but I wouldn't fight it if you want to keep a low profile

that said it just sounds like a nursery level ofsted or similar to me, no?

[Fillyjonk]

(oh fgs I meant to say "I am sure that ISN'T you BUT me)

am so sorry )

[Lazylou]

Does the nursery know your DD is going to be HE'd because it sounds like the nursery are requesting samples of work so they can use them towards their transition reports. Not sure why the nursery haven't kept their own examples of work tbh. If they don't know you are intending to HE, they may be about to write her transition report for school and use examples of her 'work' to support what they are writing.

I don't think it is anything more sinister than that tbh. I would double check though about not leting the LEA know about HE. We had to inform them in writing at the time school places were offered to let them know what our intentions were wrt school and how we intended DD be educated.

[mumtoo3]

hi pink
my dd1 also went to a preschool which was funded, before starting school and being dereg, but she was never tested that i was aware of whilst at preschool, and if its like the sats you could refuse! it depends what sort of testing they are talking about!

try and find out a bit more about the testing who its for, how they are doing it, why they are doing it etc, and dont worry too much about the lea, did you get offered a place at a school?

[ShrinkingViolet]

I had this with DD3 - it was to do with the nursery vouchers as I recall, and the "service" being provided by the nursery/school. FWIW, DD3 was then at home full-time after that, and the LEA haven't come near us, so it depends how efficient your LEA are at joining up the different records.
It's nothing to do with going to school, and all to do with ticking boxes to assess the nursery's provision.

[Fillyjonk]

lou where are you?

round here we don't HAVE to inform we are going to HE, we just decline a state school place

ds was actually in the local steiner kindergarten at the time so we were declining on those grounds but we didn't go into any detail

I don't have a problem with letting the LEA know we are HEing per se, though until they can treat us with a bit of respect I am not going to go out of my way to do it.

[ShrinkingViolet]

re the "testing", according to DD3 "a lady came and asked us about our projects, and I showed her my work (Montessori school, so "work" doesn't really mean written stuff), and told her that I (her teacher) is the bestest teacher in the whole wide world, and then I played a game with her, and then she talked to N (other child), and then we went outside to play". For her it was no different to any other visitor coming to the school, and showing what they were doing. Her teacher had some bits of written work/drawings in a folder (I had provided some stuff from home as well) which the woman looked through. Google Early Years Assesments (or something like that) and there's a chart of the kind of things they're looking at, whcih were along the lines of "can play co-operatively" and "is able to write own name".
I was happy to "co-operate" with the school, as the teacher was fabulous; wouldn't be nearly as obliging should the LEA decide to "support" me as a HEdder now

[pinkdolly]

Shrinking violet, yes that's what it is an early years assessment. The things you describes are some of the things they are after.

Lazy lou i'm on very good terms with the nursery owner and she knows my girls are home-schooled. Her nursery is ofsted inspected to take children up to 8years old so my nearly 6 year old goes on a friday morning.

She has never had home-ed chidlren in her nursery before and was herself questioning whether my dd had to be included in these tests.

My dd can write her name but needs help, writing is not something she has been ready to do quite yet and I have been happy not to push her into it.

Filly- no i'm not really fussed whether the LEA find out about us or not. Am just enjoying leading the simple life of being undiscovered. I do not know how are LEA are in regards to homeschooling. Some as we know can be quite difficult.

But i'm afraid I do disagree with testing children based on their age. One of the (many) reasons of home-schooling for us is that the girls never get (well, you should be doing this by this age and this by this age, and if your not your slow or dyslexic etc).

My girls enjoy a whole host of activities that other children their age might not get to experience. And testing them merely on numbers and their writing ability is placing limitations on them)

Why cant we let children be children without submitting them to testing?

TBH-she doesn't exactly have to sit a test just submit her work so they can scrutinise it and see what ability she is at.

And I know they have funded her place so they probably want to see what the nursery have been doing with their money. But inmyhonest opinion the nursery have been doing far better things with her then sitting down at the table and teaching her to write and do math. They are always taking her out and exploring nature. have recently taught her about the life cycle of frogs, weather changes etc. Do regular trips to the local park and library and provide plenty of activities and time for learning through play. Which is exactly where I am at with her at the moment.

So what might satisfy their legal burden of learning possibly quite different to what satisfies me.

I am very pleased with the educational provision that the nursery have provided for her. And feel that the assesment might not do the nursery justice. And they have been so good with all my girls.

Perhaps i'm being to fussy with it all.

[onwardandupward]

I think OFSTED are supposed to be inspecting these places in order to be able to reassure tax payers that their money is being well spent - it's all about accountability.

I think you should be able to opt out of it, like people can opt out of SATS. One can opt out of SATS can't one? Doesn't the child just have to have "a nasty cold" on the relevant day?

[Fillyjonk]

oh they are tests? like SATS? Is it the child or the school being tested?

I find the idea of assessing a young child a bit odd.

Jury out on whether or not its ok to assess a nursery or not.

[Fillyjonk]

upward isn't it that you can't opt out of sats, the child still appears?

[littlerach]

Usually htis is for Transition Records that accompany the Building Blocks into Reception.

It is simply a chart showing what stage your child is at.

It would be very unusual to have formal testign at preschool, it is usually doen as casual/informal observation.

[Fillyjonk]

so it IS an assessment of the child?

otoh the stuff they are assessing seems fairly innocuous

[pinkdolly]

sorry i'm really not making myself very clear. I'll try again.

They are not going to physically sit my dd down and test her. They just want the nursery to submit the work she has done at nursery to prove that she can do certain things. Such as write her name, count to 10. Recount a story in some detail, recognise shapes. Know letters of the alphabet etc, etc. All the things that a child might find an advantage to start school. The nursey owner informed me that recently there has been a big change in the provision of eductaion at nurseries and that they are now required to do a lot more with them.

The nursery have not long been ofsted inspected so it is not for that purpose. All children ready to leave nursery for school are having their work looked at. The nursery teacher did tell them that dd would not be going into a school environment but I think it fell on deaf ears to be honest.

My dd wouldn't even know she was being assesed so it's not that that bothers me. And i'm not overly against it. Just wandering if it as all necessary considering what they require the children to know for going into a school setting is different to what I require my dd to know.

Am I making a mountain out of a mole hill?

I do not really know if the assesment is to check on what my dd knows or to check on what the nursery have taught her. I'm going in on monday to have a chat about it so will find out then.

[onwardandupward]

I still don't get it. Who is going to be assessing this work? I'd be saying "No, thank you. The only person who needs to assess my child's development is me"

[littlerach]

I think it is only to go up tot he school, so in your case, to you!!

We have just been completing this for the children that leave us, and uit will go with their Building Blocks to the school they will attend.

[pinkdolly]

Yes that's what I thought onwards and upwards, I feel there is no need for her to be externally assesed by anyone. I thought she said early years something or other but I cant remember exactly. Will clarify this on monday.

[pinkdolly]

So basically they wantto assess my dd so they can tell me what stage my dd is it. I very much doubt that I would ever get a report back from them. And her name has never been down for any schools so they will have no where to send the information they collect so it seems a bit of a waste of their resources really.

[Fillyjonk]

i'll tell you what would pee me off here

I'D want her nursery work!

but thats me...