WIBU to suggest teachers watch YouTube video to improve their teaching methods?

[BettyFlour]

Before the summer we attended classes at DS's school and had taster sessions in phonics I.e to pronounce the letter M as 'mmmm' not 'muh'. It was excellent.

We have since moved and have started DS at another primary (Reception) and the teacher pronounces S as "suh" not "sss" etc.

The correct pronounciation of phonics can be the make or break for some kids in learning to read.

I have found a youtube video which teaches the correct pronounciation very well. I'd like the Reception teacher to watch it. How do I approach this with the Headteacher? WIBU to even think of suggesting it? I feel IABU however, I want the best for DS. Other children would obviously benefit too.

What an odd thing to say about the Jolly Phonics scheme, chomp! Have you had much experience using it?

We have 30 minutes of phonics in small groups with year 1 and 2 on four mornings a week. The school started this scheme a couple of years ago and last year's year 2s did very well with about 75% getting a level 3, and only 5% not achieving a level 2. This is an inner city primary with many children with English as an additional language.

They run workshops to introduce parents to phonics too so that it is all backed up correctly at home. A few staff have done intensive phonics training, which they then impart to the rest of us.

Much as I dislike phonics, because I find it quite slow for the children at the higher end of ability, it does seem to work well.

Maybe not 'suh' but definitely 'buh' 'duh' etc. Check out their songs:

I think the Jolly Phonics video actually does use 'suh' in a couple of places. It took me by surprise as the handbook is quite clear that it is 'ssss'.

The endless wittering on about searchlights and how you can't read using phonics on my BEd was what lead me to discover synthetic phonics. A large part of me was sitting there thinking 'this is total rubbish, there has to be something else.'

Is the teacher is question quite old?

I would bring it up with the head of early years at your school, not the Youtube tihng, but just that you have heard the teacher pronouncing the phonemes wrong and you are concerned about this.

It is a big deal if teachers teach the sounds wrong in reception, and it shouldn't happen, whatever scheme they are using.

I agree with miow too, they do sometimes creep in due to laziness, it takes a lot of concentration to always remember to say the phoneme correctly without the uh on the end.

She's just a little girl I teach mimi not my dd but you are right, although she is very good at remembering how to spell things as opposed to knowing how to spell things, so my best guess is that she asked once at home and was told cuh o wuh and it's all got a bit lost in translation