Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to ditch the school reading scheme and do our own thing?

34 replies

Leilaniiii · 28/02/2018 21:57

My DD is in Year 1. She has been writing her name since she was in nursery and showed signs of being quite bright. We're not pushy parents at all, so have never asked her to do any work at home, we've just left her to develop at her own pace through nursery and school.

However... the school have a reading scheme where they give the children words on little cards and ask them to memorise them. They send them home and we are expected to help the children to practice until they can recognise them. These are mainly non-phonetic words.

My DD, unfortunately, just isn't getting it at all. I show her the cards over and over again and she just doesn't remember them.

She is also bringing home books where she doesn't know any of the words at all. Again, the expectation is that she will memorise them. Well, it's not working.

I think DD would be more suited to a phonetic-based scheme and am thinking of doing this with her at home.

What are everyone's thoughts, please? Would it be rude to ignore the school's scheme to do our own? I don't want to hurt their feelings. Thanks.

OP posts:
dayandnightshapes · 28/02/2018 22:00

Speak to teacher. I'm reception based not year 1 so most books are phonetic. But main thing is, talking to mums with grown up children; you don't want her to hate reading. Email teacher and explain your concerns

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 28/02/2018 22:05

Definitely do your own, although you might need to keep doing the school one too just to tick the boxes.

You can quite often pick up a set of Songbirds off the book people cheaply to get you started.

cablewable · 28/02/2018 22:06

Are the words non phonetically pronounced words e.g. The

As these can only be learnt by memory not spelt so by practicing these words it helps massively with reading. I would persevere with them but maybe ask for different reading books if they really are too hard. They only read a page or 2 at at time anyway. When's her birthday? Is she a young one?

OwlinaTree · 28/02/2018 22:06

This sounds very odd. Hasn't she been taught phonics at all?

10storeylovesong · 28/02/2018 22:12

My ds is 5 and in reception at the moment. They are taught to read phonetically but also have a list of common non-phonetic “tricky” words which they have to learn by sight (e.g. the, they, he, she, said). There really is no other way of learning these, as far as I am aware. They have a list in their reading record book and do flash cards during class. I would imagine your dd’s school are doing similar and that it would confuse your dd to do something completely different to the rest of the class.

ferriswheel · 28/02/2018 22:15

Im too tired to write now but i absolutely know how to solve this for you. If you pm i guarantee ill get it sorted.

Nanny0gg · 28/02/2018 22:16

Did she not do phonics in nursery? Can she read CVC words? (Dog, Cat etc)?

She will need sight words in addition. Make a game, don't always make her 'read' them - lay them out and ask her to find 'the' 'of' 'they' etc. She may recognise them even if she can't read them yet iyswim.

Troels · 28/02/2018 22:21

All my kids did phonics and sight words in school. It worked really well.

longestlurkerever · 28/02/2018 22:21

I feel your pain as teaching reading to DD was a slog but I just had y2 Parents'evening and apparently her reading is now the best in the class and she stays up late reading Enid Blyton. I honestly never thought we'd get there but tbh I don't know if it was the hard slog that paid off or simply the passage of time. I would encourage you to follow your instincts though. Dd and I made a breakthrough when I ditched the books and started doing treasure hunts with written clues and making our own cards that you had to stick on household objects etc.

Clarissalarissa · 28/02/2018 22:22

The way I did it was just go through books with my dcs helping them work things out phonetically. They learn the "the" type words simply by seeing them lots of time and picking them up from the context. No need to learn them off by heart. But it helps if they do a lot of reading - just get piles of books from the library and read one or two a day. That way they learn the words without much effort and it stays interesting. In fact my dc2 learned to read to quite a high level before even starting school - was reading chapter books by then, and never learned any words off by heart.

Original poster
Leilaniiii · 28/02/2018 22:56

Thanks for all the replies!

This sounds very odd. Hasn't she been taught phonics at all?

I don't think so. I haven't seen any evidence of phonics. They were starting phonics in nursery and that is when she learnt to write her name. Then the nursery teacher left, they promoted the classroom assistant and it all came to a grinding halt.

OP posts:
Clarissalarissa · 28/02/2018 22:58

Very strange - from what I've read phonics are seen as THE way to teach reading these days.

Niceandwarmandhot · 28/02/2018 22:59

If it's not working for her then doing something different may not be a bad idea. But my concern would be that she'd get confused between what she's being shown at school and at home - perhaps you could work with/talk to the school about how to try and avoid that?

beepbeepsnow · 01/03/2018 05:39

Would something like this help?

to ditch the school reading scheme and do our own thing?
cariadlet · 01/03/2018 05:55

Hi,

Year 1 (and former Reception) teacher here. Phonics should be the foundation of reading, but children should also be taught tricky words alongside their phonics. These are words where only part of the word is decodable using phonics. The ultimate aim is for children to be fluent readers with a good sight vocabulary but with the phonics skills to be able to work out unfamiliar words when they meet them.

All Year 1 teachers will be aware of the importance of phonics: it's in the National Curriculum and we're accountable for the results of the phonics screening check which Year 1 children undertake in June.

Ideally, schools should be trying to work together with parents. One of the things that we do is to let parents know our phonics focus for the week. If your school isn't very proactive then maybe ask your dd's teacher for some more information about what is happening in the classroom.

Do you know what reading scheme your dd's school uses? The new ones are all phonics based (even older schemes have been revamped to incorporate more phonics). But reading books are very expensive and it could be that they can't afford to restock.

The book people are brilliant, but if you buy a collection I'd go for Songbirds when they have them in stock rather than the ORT Read at Home.

There are also free apps and free games on the internet. Look for activities to help secure your dd's phonic knowledge (ie remembering which sound is represented by which combination of letters) and her phonic skills (ie being able to blend sounds together to read words).

cariadlet · 01/03/2018 05:59

OP,

I've just reread your original post. You talked about your dd being in Year 1 and you've mentioned what happened in nursery, but nothing about what happened in Reception or Foundation (both words are used by schools because the first year at school used to be called Reception, but is still part of the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum).

Did your daughter start school in September and is in her first year at school (ie Reception/Foundation)? Or is she in her second year at school (ie Year 1)?

ClaryFray · 01/03/2018 06:48

The biff, chip and kipper books are good and reasonable from the book people.

Snowysky20009 · 01/03/2018 07:06

Is she in year 1 or reception?

Mamimawr · 01/03/2018 07:24

Are you in Wales. My children's school don't do phonics either.

BlondeB83 · 01/03/2018 07:28

I’m also surprised by the lack of phonics!

peterpanwendy · 01/03/2018 07:28

I'm an EYFS (former year 1) teacher and I agree it's odd that you don't know what phonics scheme/work the school use and my piece of advice would be to speak to the teacher. Ask loads of questions and air your concerns, she/he will want to know and want to help!
I would also persevere with the flash cards. Type in 'year 1 common exception words' into google, your DD will need to have memorised these by the end of the year :)

Original poster
Leilaniiii · 01/03/2018 09:05

Sorry everyone for the confusion, we're in Asia so all the years are different. She is 5 and will be 6 in the Autumn, if that helps. I assumed that was equivalent to UK Year 1, but maybe I'm wrong.

OP posts:
Kangar00 · 01/03/2018 09:41

Seems very unusual that the books are not decodeable (phonics) but she should be learning red/sight words buy memory. Eg when, people, the, saw, was

Troels · 01/03/2018 20:42

My kids all learned in the US. At home we had hooked on Phonics. It's worth the money and they loved to play the games it came with.
hooked on phonics

theEagleIsLost · 01/03/2018 20:48

Definitely do your own, although you might need to keep doing the school one too just to tick the boxes.

^^ This.

Dancing bears are good for teaching phonics at home - well they made it easier for us. Though song books are good as well.