Reception; 1 DC playing whilst rest are learning

[Whisperquietly]

Ds is in Reception on reading level Red. He reads these books fluently, understands them and finds them boring. School often goes a couple of days without changing his book.

He enjoys reading and at home reads and understands more complicated books. I’ve been borrowing library books so that we can read each day. DS’ teacher mentioned that his reading is the most advanced in his small class and (I thought) hinted that I was doing too much with him at home.

Today he said that the rest of the class was doing phonics. He told his teacher he knows these sounds and so she agreed he could have free play.

My questions are:

1. is this normal or would a teacher usually set that child some independent work.
   
   
2. is it usual not to have a book changed or read in school every day?
   
   
3. does every school make DC read every book in a level before allowing them to progress? At this rate he’ll be on Red in year 3!
   
   Just need some perspective as I’m considering dropping the extra reading. Thanks in advance!

[Whisperquietly]

Sorry, should also mention we get no info on what the DC are learning each week. I’ve asked but it hasn’t improved.

[Norestformrz]

1. No it's not normal to let one child play while all the others work.
2. No it's not unusual for books not to be changed daily or for all children to be heard read their books.
3. No not every school makes children read every book

[user789653241]

My ds was fluent reader when he started school. Still, he was included and enjoyed phonics lesson with other children. It's something very fundamental and important that even fluent reader would benefit from.
At our school, how often they changed books depend on each child. My ds was not changing books daily, and also borrowed 3 books a day while he was on lower level.

[vichill]

Red books at this stage of reception is pretty mediocre imo. If you know he can read above this level you should challenge the teacher.

[user789653241]

*not only

[PandaPop90]

I used to work as a teaching assistant and I would say:

1. No, I don't think this is normal - when I was in EYFS we'd have interventions with children who were higher/lower at phonics than their peers - so while the rest of the class was learning phonics, we'd be teaching the more able children tricker sounds. Or even just reading with them so they could continue to practice! This might be difficult if your child's teacher doesn't have enough support in the classroom, but IMO, he shouldn't be doing free play, he should be doing related to what the others are doing. Do you know what the system is for teaching phonics in your school? Is there any way he could maybe join a Y1 class for their phonics lesson? We did that a couple of times for our high flyers too.
   
   
2. We tried to change the kids' books and hear them read everyday, but sometimes due to short staffing/having 1000 things to do, it sometimes just wasn't possible. However, we tried to make it so no child was ever left longer than 2 days without having their book changed/listening to them read. But we also encouraged children/parents change their books whenever they wanted (saved us a job )
   
   
3. We didn't. It was only the lower ability children that if I doubted they were really grasping the concept of what they were reading, that I'd probably make them read most of the books in the colour band. But otherwise no - if a parent wrote in their homework diary or came to speak with us to say that they felt the books were getting too easy, we'd assess the child to see if they could move up a band. Mostly it was fine, but I would say that it's not just about reading sounds/words - we also had to test their comprehension of what they'd just read before we'd let them move up (literally just asking them a few questions about the text). Could you ask your child's teacher about moving them up a band if you think he's ready?
   
   Sorry for the huge post!! Didn't realise it would be so long lol!

[Naty1]

The scheme dd was on you had to read most of red as it had all the different ways to say the sounds.
Her school only changes twice a week. As we were reading all red books pretty much all the kids were on red still at this stage.

[RainbowGlitterFairy]

1. It depends, a full phonics session I would set some work, and if it was happening regularly i would but if it was a 5 minute recap and I wasn't expecting a child to be that far ahead I might go with free play as a one off.
   
   
2. Yes. There simply is not enough time to hear everyone read every day, I make sure everyone is heard once a week and wish I could hear them every day but if i have time to hear extra readers I will focus on the ones that need the help and aren't getting read with at home.
   
   
3. No. Mine move up once they can read that level confidently, with feeling and comprehension, whether that's after 2 books or reading through the whole level twice.
   
   I’m considering dropping the extra reading Please don't, the most important thing you can teach him is to enjoy reading, if he's bored with the reading scheme books and that's all he gets reading will become a chore.

[RamblingFar]

He might have played then and done some work with her separately. I've done that occassionally with some of my class in the past. There's no point them sitting through it if they are going to do the next step individually with an adult. And they'd miss their free pay time later whilst working with the adult. Not all schools have the free adults to do the interventions at the same time as the whole class teaching.

[Tomorrowillbeachicken]

My son used to be put in the corner with Lego in reception as he used to do the work quickly then disturb everyone else.

[FridgeCut]

My son is summer born and in reception and is on blue and has been for a while (he couldn't read more than his name when he started), he isn't the best reader in the class I don't think. He has his book changed once a week and they read their books once a week, twice at most. At his level they are doing guided reading and working on expression and comprehension. I would be concerned that red is the highest of the class and whether they are pushing them enough. They stream phonics and have two classes, no-one is let off even when they know it. Reinforcing is important and never a bad thing. I would definitely be going in for a chat.

[Smurf123]

Was it free play? Or was it play relating to phonics or topic that ds enjoyed and thought of as free play.
I've sometimes given my kids "free play" while I work with others and then swop. However the play options will have been pre decided by me to ensure they have appropriate learning intentions - children could choose but only from the set options given.