Reception reading too easy

[Cutie18327]

I have a 4 year old daughter, she is August born and I wanted her entering reception confident (we have had slight behaviour issues in preschool while she caught up socially and emotionally with age) so I taught her to read before she started school. I am a teacher (secondary) so I have greatly enjoyed this process. My daughter has always been bright for her age, not exceptionally so, but enough that strangers will always remark how eloquent she is for her age/how good her memory is etc. and obviously I do want to nuture that.

Her reception teacher alluded that she was top of the class for reading at the moment, I did tell her that we were blending diagraphs and trigraphs at home but she has come home two weeks in a row with books that have 'Dig' or 'sat' on one page. She has been able to read those for a year now, and at home will read more complex sentences.

The issue I have is that 1. I don't want to come across as the pushy parent and 2. The teacher did already say it is supposed to be easy to encourage practice. I am following a totally separate reading program at home so I am happy to continue with this and nuture her growth in other ways but equally I do want her to be stretched and challenged at school as she is very capable.

How would you approach this?

Are they set in ability groups in their reading scheme? Surprised PPA teacher is designated for this task as phonics should be daily and their books should be in line with the phonics group they are in.

Above what? My school used to use those and the children read through them at their own pace. There wasn't a set level per year group.

No, it has no bearing on the learner at all, so why bring it up at all? I need to check the spelling of 'quadrilateral' the odd time but I can still teach 2D shapes well (and its probably wrong!). I have to double check when I spell 'subitising', but I know how to use it to good effect in class.

Teaching young children IS incredibly complex; I couldn't even begin to explain what is involved to those who don't do it, partly because it's so ingrained in me that it's a part of me now. However correcting posters' spelling like that seems to be a way to say 'you think you're smart...well you're not'. This is not what the post is about.

The OP is a mother who is a teacher, probably found it a fun challenge to teach her (first, I'm guessing?) child. She notices that the child is doing more complex reading at home than what she's been given from the school. She is wondering why the books aren't being differentiated to her child's apparently ability. She doesn't quite buy the answer from the school, and later discovers that the main class teacher isn't even the one to change the books. She doesnt want to seem pushy but, as a teacher, this doesn't match her experience of how students' ability and their work match (as a secondary teacher).

Correcting her spelling (of some niche terminology) and saying its relevant, comes across as very disingenuous. You just wanted to put her in her place, or at least that's how it came across. These 'and you spelled x wrong' posts on Mumsnet always come across as very lowest common denominator, and always give the impression that those making such comments are just having a bad day and want to take it out on someone.

OP. Do not worry about a lot of these comments. Let them go right over your head. I teach Reception and I also think there's a problem when the reading books are too easy. When I was training I was taught that there should be around a 5% level of difficulty in reading books for effective progress, and ilI've found that to be true through the years.

Just ask the teacher where your daughter is with her phonics and if they have noticed that she can blend beyond cvc words, and if she can try books with words containing them. Depends on the phonics/reading scheme the school use but don't be afraid to go back for an informal chat about it. If they don't budget, then co tinue doing your own thing at home and it will all even out in the end. Hope all goes well.

Me too! That's exactly what I was thinking. Something doesn't seem right.

Sounds like my eye-roller of a four year old who, again, as a late school starter, I taught to read. Shot myself in the foot slightly because she was ahead of many who’d been at school for months.
just keep reading for pleasure at home and don’t make a big deal. I believe at that age the stuff that happens at home is more important than what happens at school.
for us school was about socialising.

I have a bright year 2 child, who started school reading and I have two older children, one who knew some basic phonics and could read simple words, and one who refused to even look at letters, so I feel I’ve had a fair range. The (same) school has been useless with my “more ready” child, insisting on sending home the phonics scheme books when now at home they’re confidently reading chapter books “because that’s what we do”. It’s rubbish. Now they don’t have to do year 2 SATS there’s no incentive to push and stretch the brighter kids.

(Having said that, my children have started school before, during, and after covid. And boy does the school have more interesting behaviour now to deal with than it used to)

Same for my DD.

DH read to her every night and although we didn't teach her to read she attended the schools attached nursery full-time and by reception was reading really well. DH is also a secondary teacher and one week 'suggested' DD was given more appropriate reading material. Boy, did he get clapped back at! Year 1 was the same. At home we let her read whatever she wanted, but got her to read her weekly school book at least once. By Year 2 we stopped reading the school book (she just read it during her school reading slot) and the school didn't mind. Now in Year 4 and she is secondary school level for reading and comprehension. Yet she still gets primary aged books every week, alongside any book she fancies from their library (which she never reads so I've told her to just pick the lightest one as she has to carry it in her backpack along with her own book!)
So, I would just let it go. Let her read whatever she wants to read at home (audio books are good too) and let the school carry on giving her what they give her. Read it, don't read it... it won't matter as long as she is enjoying reading at home. Just don't forget to chat though the book with her afterwards to check her comprehension and understanding.

Its good to come across as a pushy parent. My nan waqs pushy with my little brother. My mum wasnt pushy with the rest us, she was carefree. My little brother works a good paying career everyone else gets by on normal jobs.

We took the approach that practice with phonics wouldn't hurt and the phonics books from school were a small percentage of what she was reading overall. She was always able to read far beyond what they were sending home, but had access to other books so it didn't matter.

in some ways it allowed for more enjoyment of reading and we were freed up to choose different things to focus on, such as vocabulary and comprehension. She is done with phonics now and loves reading so no harm done.

Above reading level for his age (Mum’s a teacher, could read when he started reception).

Thanks for this response, I'm not 100% sure that they have been put into phonics groups just yet (they only started reading after the October half term in class) but I will mention it to the teacher.

Thanks all!

DD went into reception about the same level as your DD by the sounds of it. Our EYFS class would differentiate for DD and the other boy at her level. When the class were doing F, the teacher also covered PH etc. It did take a while for the teacher to gauge her level - I think it was about the November or December though so by now. They kept her on the reading scheme but Year 3 stuff. Her comprehension has always been strong though.

DS was further ahead still and they had him free reading until the other kids in the class caught up and they could do group comprehension questions.

I would say it's MUCH easier to differentiate in EYFS when the free play actually lends itself to the teacher having time to spend one-on-one.

The rest of infants was bloody awful. Year One in particular.

I would just let school do their own thing and let dd read whatever she likes at home.

Goodness, you’re making hard work of this. Just add a note to your DD’s reading book to say ‘Dd is finding these books easy and can discuss what happens in them. Could she move up a level?’

I would leave it as is. Do the reader that comes home, enjoy home reading a variety of books with your child and maybe spend some time drawing and working on numeracy too. I think so many kids fall behind in maths quite early so I would be spending time there if I felt the need to work on anything, rather than continuing to push ahead on something they were already advanced in

Use those ‘dig’ and ‘sat’ books to teach child how to encode the words; get her writing! It’s great that she can decode, next step is to encode! Have a writing book with lots of sparkly colourful pens, stickers and attribute meaning to mark making. The RWI scheme is fairly good at teaching rhymes to form letters correctly (easily found on YouTube.)

I think consolidation of learning is quite important though at that age.

Don't worry about being the 'pushy' parent - the school is there for every child, you're there for one child. Advocate hard.

He must have been bored absolutely fucking rigid.

Fascinating to read this OP as I did exactly the same thing with my August born DS and for the same reasons. He is able to read more complex books at home, but since he's started Reception we've noticed his fluency has really improved, so while it might seem too easy I think it still has benefits to really consolidate existing knowledge.

I personally have no plans to ask school for harder books; he loves being the best in class at phonics and he loves the praise he gets for reading "Red Hat Rob" perfectly 1st go.

My oldest also started school able to read and now in Year 2 everyone else has caught up. It's worth it but it all comes out in the wash soon enough. You did it for the confidence boost - and that has worked.