School not sending physical books home for phonics learning

[LoftyPlumFox]

I might just be massively behind the times but... my daughter has just started Reception and we are expected to read online books with her to practice phonics. We don't have a tablet at home so this would have to be on a laptop. Am I being unreasonable to expect a physical book to be sent home so we can read it together on the sofa rather than on a laptop screen?? Or is this the norm at primary schools these days?

It's part of the larger issue of the way education is set up now that they need to send books home at all. Six hours of academics a day should be plenty for young kids, They really ought to be doing other things at home. Being active, and free play, being high on the list.

If they could reduce the amount of testing and stupid shit in schools it might go some way to giving kids enough time to do their schoolwork at school. And then they wouldn't need to send books home.

Certainly when I was growing up (not in the UK) schools did not do that. And yet we learned to read and write, and better than they seem to now.

I was really shocked by this, and my aged tablet struggled with the app needed. We read them every couple of weeks, but we did read her own books every day. However, at some point they started to go to the school library for a free choice book, and in Y2 she has a paper school reading book and a library book.

Our school has been sending physical books home.

Well, from a school perspective, that's not what ofsted say. If ofsted say you are doing the wrong thing, that is very bad for your school 'rating'.

No!!! Land of the dinosaurs was great!!

My child’s primary school sends physical books home.
We’re also lucky enough to have a library near the primary school that has a good selection of the sort of reading books used in the learning to read schemes, which was useful for keeping up with the phonics practice in school holidays.

My older DC are in secondary school, and they have reading homework set on an online app, but it’s a bit different reading online at that age, as most secondary school kids will be competent enough readers.

I am a teacher. We did this during lockdown and still have the option to set ebooks but we have invested heavily in real, phonetic books.
I do agree about books getting lost, forgotten, damaged etc- we see this all the time unfortunately.

I suggest you don't buy actual phonics books. How many times will she read them? If she learns fast, she'll soon move on. Invest in 'real' books that you can read to her over and over, and that she will gradually learn to read herself. And, yes, get a tablet for her. You'll have access to so many useful learning programmes for years to become. (E.g maths programmes that support the learning of skills in a child friendly and fun way). You are behind the times - such programmes have been around for a good few years and my 20 somethings had online homework for many years.

How sad. My daughter is in year 2 now, but in reception and year one she would have one book a week. Now she has 3 books a week, with a reading log since reception to write in what she’s done. We’re in the south west. I completely agree, I would be sad if it was all online!

The school I work in provide every reception /KS1child with a physical reading book to take home. They read with them a minimum of 3 times a week in school and send the book home everyday plus a reading for pleasure book to be shared at home. Yes some books aren't returned or get damaged etc but in 5+ the years I've been there only 3 or 4 books have needed replacing. We have a library where every child in KS2 gets there physical reading book. There is no excuse for the school to be doing Ebooks only, this trend started over lockdown and it's very poor of them yo have carried it on.

Look at the phonics on line as homework to support her to learn to read. Then do lots of reading at home with her to install a love of reading and books. You can use your local library to get new books out too. And use their computers if you want to but a lot of homework is online or on a app nowadays so a laptop or iPad or tablet is potentially a good investment.

Use Reading Chest. Then your dc will get lovely books and certificates through the post. A worthwhile investment as it is such a boost to their reading.

Do you think the parents would/do pay the fine? Or pay upfront?
Unfortunately some books that aren't returned in our case are usually given to those children where the parents are less likely to have read with their child anyway (for various reasons) and not likely to be able to pay a fine so the child misses out by not getting a book.
I find it tough, some classes do no book returned then no new book, but only in a few cases does this make the parent seek out where the missing book is.

Which phonics scheme is she following?

My DS’s school does send a book home but we also have access to the Rhino Readers app, which is brilliant. The trouble is I don’t see the point of reading the same book over and over (as they expect us to do with the paper book) so we read other books on the app. So the paper books he brings home we’ve already read several times on the app. But we still have to read it 3 times before it’s changed for a new one!!

Also, have to say, Kit and Sam are not as engaging as Biff & Chip. When Biff and Chip went to Scotland, their awesome nan made a fake lochness monster which spiralled quickly out of control with press getting involved 🤣 when Kit and Sam went to Scotland they did loads of tourist stuff which was so dull to read!

I had this. I just went to the teacher and said I was sorry to be a pain but we don’t do screen time so could we have books and worksheets? There was absolutely no problem and we’ve had physical books and homework ever since- the teacher even agreed that it was too much screen time! Just have a word with the teacher.

Sadly huge numbers of books go home and never come back to school. I don’t agree with the approach but I understand it.

Our school provides paper books but (because I'm a vinted addict and they came up) I bought some phonics books very cheaply on vinted that were like new.

What I don't understand is schools saying it costs thousands to replace lost or damaged books each year. Firstly "thousands" is not a lot in a school budget. Secondly why can't the school also buy them second hand off vinted or similar? I got a box set of 10 Songbirds books for something like £4 plus p+p. If the class has 30 children, who each lose or damage (overestimate) 20 books a year, that still only comes to the low £100s.

I would hate that we have actual books

I would buy an e-reader. Reading on. A backlit screen is really hard. You can get android e-readers now that work with all the android apps

Plus each kid has to have a book that exactly matches their phonic sounds learnt so far. So you need to have 30 books for each set of sounds. Real books are expensive. Our school paid 8k for the books alone

people are saying it's a cost thing but I'm in an impoverished area and it's all physical books because half of us don't have a single device at home.

At my daughter's school they use books from lots of different schemes - Jolly phonics, songbirds, biff, loads more - and just relabel them with a colour code to match the levels correctly. The books are very much not new, sometimes held together with sellotape. I seriously doubt it costs them thousands each year to replace the few that get lost or damaged. If I can buy 10 for a few quid on vinted, so can they.

I think more likely, some idiot assistant-head at op's school got dazzled by the ebooks tender.

I'd hate this. My DC school (village primary state) still send books home. I think they'd have parents going mad if they expected people to use computers, lots of these children are picked up by grandma or a childminder who they read with. My children aren't allowed on the computer or tablet without me but will pick up a book to read by themselves.

Because schools have to follow their scheme to the letter. They can't use books from other schemes.

They also can't invoice Vinted and use school budget so you're expecting teachers to pay for yet another thing out of their own money

I work in a school and yes we absolutely can buy stuff on vinted or any other website with the school credit card as long as we justify what it's for and it's within departmental budget (books for the class being a totally justifiable purchase).

As I said in my second comment, any book can be part of the scheme if you just check it for which sounds it's got and label it for how it fits in your scheme. That's how my daughter's school does it.