Any reception teachers able to help please?

CG77

Hi there,

My little man is in reception and due to do his 'timeline' this week. We have been asked to provide photos which we will do tomorrow. For reasons I won't go into if that's ok (but can do via pm if necessary) I need to know what the school are going to cover in this topic. What will they discuss in class and what exactly does it involve? I would have asked the teacher but we got the request on Friday and they start the topic tomorrow!

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

CG. x

emsywoo123

CG77 wrote: »

Hi there,

My little man is in reception and due to do his 'timeline' this week. We have been asked to provide photos which we will do tomorrow. For reasons I won't go into if that's ok (but can do via pm if necessary) I need to know what the school are going to cover in this topic. What will they discuss in class and what exactly does it involve? I would have asked the teacher but we got the request on Friday and they start the topic tomorrow!

Thank you very much in advance for your help.

CG. x

Hi CG I think I understand why you are asking as I am sure we have pm'd before, my apologies if I am getting confused (got a baby-confusion happens easily) :rotfl:

Are the school aware of things? It depends very much how you want to handle it, but I would get in there tomorrow first thing and talk to the teacher/year head. They may well start the topic tomorrow, but I am sure others will not be fully prepared with snaps, so I personally would not worry about delaying a day until you have a fuller picture.

CG77

Hi emsy,

Thank you very much for your reply (and yes we have PMed before-hope things are good with you!)

Yes school know but I do worry how much understanding they have as they are going ahead and covering the topic in this way without discussing it first. I'm wondering if it's just a very superficial 'look at how I've grown' type thing or something and maybe I'm worrying over nothing?

Hopefully someone will be able to give me an insight as to what exactly they will be discussing here and put my mind at rest! Aaargh the joys of being a worrying Mummy huh?

CG. x

chickywiggle

i'm guessing it'll be something like this (google: foundation stage my family topic).

without prying or being rude it is the curriculum laid down by the government, the school have to cover what they are taught. e.g. they can't not read stories about 2 parent families because daddy is not around for 1 child in the class. they can't not cover the war because 1 child knows someone who has died.

speak to the teacher and explain your concerns and if necessary they will suggest a work around, be able to tell when your child will get upset and offer a teaching assistant to be on hand should your child need to 'take a break'.

hope it goes ok.

CG77

Thanks Chickywiggle.

Of course I understand it's the curriculum (I'm a teacher myself actually-secondary), but the teachers can choose HOW to cover the topic and even before my little man began school I brought up this as being a potential issue for him, so I would have hoped they would have spoken to me about it first instead of just going ahead without a) giving us more notice and b) discussing it with us first. I thought maybe they knew they wouldn't touch on anything sensitive to him and for that reason thought it unnecessary to do the above things. I will read the link you provided and hope it gives me more of an insight.

Thanks again

CG. x

nad1611

Hi I'm not a teacher but all my children did this while in reception. Really the pictures were used and stuck on a scroll of paper and underneath the child would attempt with the help of the teacher to write something about the picture. For example say the first picture they are a baby, they might write, "I am born", next picture they might be feeding and they'd say "I learn to eat food", next may be as a toddler and it would say, "I learn to walk".
As far as my own experience of this goes there are no private or personaql details investigated I think the school would be well aware that many may have sensitive issues surrounding childbirth/children, so I wouldn't worry.
If the issue is extremely sensitive then I would simply let the teacher know that you need to speak to her and explain the reasons why you can't join in, threre's no way they'll force you into doing something you don't feel happy about. Hope this helps.

flora48

When I was teaching in Key Stage 1 the time line work was entirely about the child's milestones. You will provide pictures of your choosing so I am sure that you will give a great deal of thought to which you send to school. Not knowing your circumstances, and not wishing to pry, I can only tell you that in my experience of many years that the children are very often comfortable in their circumstances and tell their friends anything as a matter of course. By all means discuss this with the teacher but bear in mind that that it is not feasible to discuss every topic of work with all who have a sensitive issue.

CG77

flora48 wrote: »

When I was teaching in Key Stage 1 the time line work was entirely about the child's milestones. You will provide pictures of your choosing so I am sure that you will give a great deal of thought to which you send to school. Not knowing your circumstances, and not wishing to pry, I can only tell you that in my experience of many years that the children are very often comfortable in their circumstances and tell their friends anything as a matter of course. By all means discuss this with the teacher but bear in mind that that it is not feasible to discuss every topic of work with all who have a sensitive issue.

Thanks for your reply. It is exactly because I think he may 'disclose' or ask questions that I'd like to discuss it with the teacher first. I hoped that she would think to give us more notice than over a weekend (either so we could contact her if necessary or simply so we had chance to choose the photos carefully!) but as she hasn't, I wondered as I said before if maybe it wasn't the topic I have previously brought up as one of concern to me and my little boy. I wouldn't expect to be contacted about every topic, only one which might bring up issues. Even if she hadn't thought it might be such a topic, I expressed concerns about it even before he started so to see the note on Friday with a deadline of Monday was a bit of a surprise to say the least. From what people say, it is the topic I'm concerned about so I will have to contact the teacher first thing tomorrow to discuss how I can support him through it before she embarks on it with him.

Thanks again.

CG. x

Newly_retired

I could be totally wrong but it seems to me you may be being over-sensitive about this. As the teacher knows your circumstances she will be careful how she handles it but really there could be a number of children in the class with "issues" and she hasn't got time to contact and speak privately with every family.

CG77

Thank you for your reply Newly Retired. Maybe it's my fault for not explaining the situation fully but I won't for reasons in my son's best interests. The mishandling of the topic in question (without appropriate support and therapy) has had a lasting and very detrimental effect on many children in my son's position and of course I wish to avoid this at all costs. Sorry if I'm being cagey but it has to be the case.

Again thanks to all who've replied to my original question. I have the answers I need now and know what I need to do.

Thanks again.

CG. x

dizziblonde

It's usually nowt more than was a small baby, now look how I'm grown up... what babies can't do that we can type deal - usually backed up with stuff like the role play corner being turned into a baby clinic and stuff, maybe with birthdays linked in as well. Maybe some data-handling stuff like how many children have brown/blue eyes etc - depends on the school (and teachers' ingenuity) how much they can link into a topic - by heck I've seen some tenuous links worthy of a medal over the years.

Strategically "forget" the photos if you want stalling time (I generally anticipated a week for such things to drift in anyway - you can bet 80% of the class won't have stuff in on a Monday morning that's been asked for on a Friday evening), and go in and have a word with the teacher - will give you more actual info than some randoms on the internet will. However it's a pretty standard foundation stage topic - nothing much can be done to avoid that.