RigbyStar Readers - any experience?

[Galaxymum]

My DD in Reception has just been moved over from the Oxford Reading Tree books to the RigbyStar reading scheme. I wondered if anyone has any experience of this scheme. DD has undiagnosed Aspergers Syndrome and is very bright, has extremely good comprehension and good understanding of the basic phonics. She was moved over from ORT because she could just guess the words from the pictures and memorised the whole book! (So it was very difficult to work out what she was learning!)

The RigbyStar books are supposed to improve her use of the phonics - just wondered if any parents have experience and how their children are enjoying the different levels. DD gets bored easily and hoping these books have different stories which will engage her (her main problem as she has Aspergers).

She is on the initial level (Sid and Bath, Tut Tut Pup) but just wondering on the experience of higher levels as most people seem to use ORT.

Hi, we have these and they are lovely. I teach y2 and the higher levels have some really interesting non-fiction books. There is one with a really enlarged pic of a dustmite,flea etc which I find a bit gross, but the kids love!! The stories are much more varied than ort too.

ps am on maternity leave, not skiving!

My dd is in Yr1 but had Rigby Star books last year in reception. In my opinion they were great first readers. The stories are more fun and less dry than ORT, more modern somehow. Hopefully they will suit your dd.

I think dd went up to about orange level with them (sadly they don't have them in year 1 as the school couldn't upgrade all the books in one go ). She loved the Clinker Castle stories which seemed to be about knights and princesses from what I can remember.

Thanks very much for your replies - they do sound very good! I think DD will enjoy the non-fiction books as she is already collecting animal facts. The knights and princesses sound more interesting than Kipper and his family too which are very dry and samey. Thanks a lot for sharing the experiences. It sounds like very good news for us.

Our school has a huge mix and Rigby are in there. We love them and really enjoy their national geographics that start at the purple level I think. We love using the index, contents and glossary in the non-fiction books.

The New Rigby Star phonics go to orange level when they recognise children are reading to a level so the higher level books don't introduce new phonics knowledge.

You can read over 100 free eBooks and activities with Biff, Chip, Kipper and Floppy, the Project X team and Winnie the Witch and other OUP titles all sorted into reading bands for KS1 .

You can download them or use them on screen and there are activities with each book. It'll also read the books to your child if you wish

Just thought I'd share this information because I get really frustrated with only one book a week at DDs school. This website which is totally free has been a godsend.

www.oxfordowl.co.uk/

My kids loved it - the stories and the fun kid's barn. There's loads of helpful advice, too.

Our school started off on ORT and moved onto Rigby in Year 1 upwards.

I personally enjoyed listening to the Rigby books, they covered a great variety of topics and had a wide range of fiction and non fiction books, so there was always something that appealed to the kids.
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I also liked the fact that there were questions to guide you as to what to ask, this was a great start for me to understand how indepth you can get to be more involved in their reading.

There are some stories I remember that I still narrate to other children because they were so lovely