Worried about Reception Reading

[Only10DaysIn]

Hi All,

Have NC for this...

Am hoping someone in the know can advise me as to my DD's school and reading.

She started Reception last week. She is a fluent reader, has been for quite a while. Thing is, she is self taught. She just seems to have a good memory for words. She hasn't been taught, which means she doesn't know the phonics system.

Now she's at school and I'm getting concerned about a few things:

1. that once they start teaching the phonics system she might start to get confused and it all might unravel a bit.

1. She is bringing home a different book every night. The first was a wordless book. In the space of a week, she's jumped to proper story books. Today her teacher approached me to say that DD will choose her own books from now on. Is this not a bit much for the first week of Reception? I thought there was a lot more to being a good reader than just being able to read the words?

She comes home so tired and grouchy in the evenings, she is shattered. This is a great school (outstanding, oversubscribed etc), but I'm starting to worry that they're pushy and that once the formal learning starts she's going to get really confused about the 'correct way' to read.

She loves books, loves stories. I don't want to see that ruined.

Anyone had experience of similar? Any teachers out there who can help?
Thanks...

Heavens. Parents moan because their child gets picture books for weeks then only two books a week and other moan that their child has had enough attention from the teacher for them to realise she can read and they still aren't happy.

What you need to do is go into school and discuss your concerns with the teacher.

Children all learn to read at different rates. My sons were four, my daughter was two and they all read a lot for pleasure now they are year 5 and seven.

Whatever your DD was doing at school she would be shattered anyway so don't be blaming the reading for that.

Just relax. You have 14 years of school to get through and believe me it gets a lot harder than if they are free to choose their own books or not.

I wouldn't worry about phonics, it's a different skill to memorising words by sight and I doubt she'll get confused.

Sending home reading books already is a bit much though, I wouldn't make her read them unless she wants to.

The school sounds good to me - the teacher has obviously heard her read, assessed her comprehension (that's the other part to reading, decoding and comprehension) and is now giving her autonomy once he reading choices so she doesn't get bored. Sounds sensible not pushy!

Phonics they are required to teach, but unlikely it'll confuse her - she's just got a great head start, that's all.

If she loves stories and books, just encourage her! And discuss the plan for her reading with the teacher, I'm sure they'll reassure you.

Dd could read when she started reception and not through 'pure' phonics learning. Phonics didn't faze or confuse her at all.
She started on orange level and progressed from there. A complete jump to free reading would seem odd.

The whole class were given a book at the end of the first week. I had expected maybe to get another at the end of the second week. But a different one every day I thought was alot when she's only just begun.

Teacher approached me on the 3rd day to talk about DD's reading and bringing books home. I had expected a much slower introduction.

Obviously I was mistaken.

It is a great school, gets great results. They clearly hit the ground running. I had such a different perception of YR, I hadn't expected any formal assessment so early.

SummerSazz, good to know your DD didn't get phased by phonics. Not sure about what levels mean what. There seem to be levels, stages and colours?? Not sure about free reading either? Teacher just said she could choose her own books to bring home.

Levels/stages are as the children extend with their reading, however there are different 'scales' depending on the reading scheme. It may be that your dd can choose what she wants within a band or can choose any book which come after all the levelled book.if it's the former then great as they Are trying to maintain her interest in reading by allowing her to choose (rather than them selecting). Of it's the latter I would be concerned as it's almost like 'just get on with it'
Sorry probably makes no sense as am typing on phone!

Thanks for the info. I'll probably just go have a chat with her teacher, find out more about the structure of Reception. I feel clueless at this point!

Ours was similar as most of the DC had been in the nursery or other very good nurseries so they simple got off to a fast start with all those who were ready. Is the school planning an info evening on it all? We got a big booklet about home/school links

Your dd will probably bring home books of her own choosing from a suitable selection, it's unlikely that she has completely free choice. But even if she does, it's not going to do any harm.

The phonics teaching will help your dd when she is reading bigger words that she is unlikely to come across at this stage, and will help with her spelling as well. Although they will only be doing the basic sounds at the moment, they will soon move on to others.

My ds was reading fluently (without any teaching) by the time he started school, phonics teaching didn't confuse him, it seemed to just help him get a better understanding of how words were made up.

There is no reason why your child's love of books is likely to be ruined by what school is doing.

I guess to some degree it depends on what you mean by fluent. Some people seem to mean can read basic books with 2-3 sentences per page, whereas others really mean fluent as in can read and understand the Encyclopedia Britanica. If she really can read fluently then there is no reason at all for her to read scheme reading books as she won't be able to learn anything from them. In which case reading something she enjoys, for pleasure, makes sense. The teacher can as easily check her inference and deduction skills from a book she has chosen, as they can from a scheme book, which really only run up to age 11, or in some schools only age 8. I think the teacher is trying to encourage her enjoyment of reading which can only be a good thing. The only thing to watch I guess is to make sure that she reads a wide variety of genres - plays, poems, reference etc.
My son learnt to read without phonics and really struggled with spelling. So it is really worthwhile learning the phonics. Once he was introduced to phonics in year 3 (new school) his spelling started improving.

I feel confident that your DD will chose books from a box that is full of (appropriately graded) books. She isn't being presented with a choice of a range from "The Gruffalo to The Hobbit!

DD was absolutely exhausted for the first term of school. I gave her a sandwich and sent her to bed at 4:30 (for her to sleep through until 6am) a couple of nights. She was happy at nursery (prob 8:30-5:30), but reception needed more thought (and she had to make lots of new friends).

Hard as it might seem, forget about the reading for a few weeks. Just focus on letting her love going to school.

If the book is too tricky, or it is inappropriate, just talk to the teacher/write in her book.

Hi All,

Thank you for all the advice and suggestions. Unfortunately we are not able to forget about the reading and relax at this point as yesterday the head teacher and class teacher approached to ask if we could book some time to have a little meeting about DD and her reading/literacy. Class teacher asked head teacher to assess DD a few days ago and they have suggested that she may given a different structure/programme/whatever for literacy and possibly some other subjects. I will find out more next week.

I asked whether they had dealt with this before. Her teacher said she hadn't. She said DD was the best reader she had taught (at 5 years old).

All this makes me a bit nervous as I would really like her to just muck in with the other kids, do what they're doing and concentrate on making friends and getting used to school. School are saying it will be pointless for her to do some of the phonics activities the others will be doing. She has skipped the reading books in Reception class and is choosing her books from an older classroom but the choices seem fine and suitable etc.

As for fluency of her reading. I don't know if she could read an encylopeadia as I have never shown her one (!). I suspect she maybe could. She reads everything she sees, sometimes alot more than I would like her to. ("That cigarette packet says 'Smoking causes a slow and painful death', hows does that happen then?"). She reads books from Enid Blyton to The Dinosaur That Pooped A Planet.

She is my oldest child, I have not paid an awful lot of attention to her reading except to get her books and read with her. I have no idea what an average 5 year old can do. I know some can read and some cannot but I don't know at what levels.

I am not feeling terribly reassured to hear that the school don't have a procedure/programme for kids who fall outside of the 'normal' range. I would much rather hear that they have dealt with this sort of thing quite a lot and they have processes in place to make it all as smooth as possible, preferably without segregating her.

Thanks again for all your help

Hmmm, that should read encyclopedia, not 'encylopeadia'.

If she's reading Enid Blyton she is definitely way above average for a reception starter. If you look here it gives examples of school starter books. So if she is reading at the stage 12 end then that is top of infants/start of junior books. It is a bit that the school don't actually have a system in place, but equally I think it is probably better than the system that exists in some schools that says, "I don't care what your child can read, they have to read every book we own at every level" because a child who can read would be very at reading books along the lines of "This is a dog. This is a cat etc" for the next year or two!

OP, your DD sounds very similar to me at the same age. I could read pretty much anything, never needed to learn spellings, had a big vocabulary. I could (and still can) read very quickly and polish off a book in an evening.

Not sure what any of my teachers thought. I don't remember doing stuff that was any different - but wasn't expected to read books in the kind of staged levels.

My mother says that I dutifully repeated words sent home as spellings, but more importantly that she recognised that I was no more emotionally mature than any other child my age.

Honestly, I would encourage her to read whatever she wants at home and not worry too much. Oh, and get rid of your 50 Shades/Black Lace books much sooner than you thought necessary.

FWIW - I don't consider that I was a gifted/talented child, nor do I have an exceptional IQ. I just acquired this skill easily.

I think you will find it is actually ok. Reading is only one small part of the day, and better she is being taught at a level appropriate for her.

In our school, that would mean learning phonics with an extension group, or maybe a year ahead. It won't make a difference to her play or friendship groups.

Tbh, if she "gets" reading, she should find phonics ok. Ds2 just picked up reading on his own, and found phonics no problem.

Have a chat with school, and let her have as much down time as she needs.

The school sounds as if they are responding to her needs and are very quick to spot her ability. This is MUCH better than ignoring her! I would wait and see how it pans out.

Maybe your DD is the most advanced child they have had - this is not their fault as such, and it sounds as if they are making a huge effort to fit her education to her needs. This can only be a positive thing imvho.

Thank you all for the reassurance and helpfulness. The last 2 weeks I have found stressful. My own education history is complicated. I did well academically, read English at Cambridge, but felt pressured and pushed so much. Cue all sorts of mental health problems that have lingered for years.

I have taken the opposite approach with DD and her little sister and I'm a little daunted by the prospect of a brighter than average child as I fear she will be cast as 'the clever girl' and feel pressured to keep it up.

The school are being very helpful and very positive about her.

For my part, I just want a smooth, happy ride at school for her.

Ah, see where you're coming from!

I bet she'll find find her own way at school. There are always a handful per class who are at a similar level in the long run.

I personally think the key is to have lots of other interests - sport, dance, music etc. We do minimum academic stuff, other than reading and homework, but lots of other activities (obviously not in reception when they are exhausted!).

Try not to worry. Better she's taught at a level that's appropriate than for her to be bored to tears on Biff and Chip! It doesn't need to mean hothousing, and if you explain to the school your concerns are not to stretch her sad unnecessarily to make sure she's integrated well socially, as well as learning, it will be OK. Good luck!

Thanks sunnyrose :)

In so many ways, she's a very average 5 year old. In fact, both nursery and school have mentioned that physically she's still very little. Swimming she has found very hard, she's definitely not going to be a sporty type (just like me!). As for down-time she loves play-doh, craft type activities, colouring books and watching Care Bears on youtube. All very 'normal' (hate that word).

So I hope she doesn't need too many seperate activities at school as she is very much of her age, iyswim.

Thanks NoSquirrels :)

I bet her school are just as vigilant about her emotional and social needs as her educational needs. And the fact that you felt pressured means that you will ensure your dd won't be, if you see what I mean.

I hope the next two weeks of school are less stressful for you.

Thanks Humphrey.

Saw her teacher this morning, booked a meeting for Tuesday. We had a little chat and she said exactly what I hoped to hear, that they weren't going to rush through reading levels just for the sake of it, she could choose (almost) any book she likes even if its an 'easy' book and that the school are very keen to give her space to develop in all areas, not just literacy.

Teacher seemed so pleased to have DD in the class, she is so kind towards her, it was so reassuring to see!

Sounds good. I think your daughter will have a great time at school.

The first couple of weeks of the school year are always a bit of a head spin. My two are year 6 and 3 and I still find the first two weeks of September very stressful.