Reception reading. Questions questions so many questions

[maydaychild]

DD in reception age 4 1/2.
This post is part rant/question/reassurance that her school isn't a complete crap hole

ORT I am beginning to accept its failures mixed with jolly phonics and bought songbird phonics and raided library. (thanks mumsnet)

She's been on the purple 1st stage till now (duplicate books sent home) clearly bored silly with the story lines, not interested, no enthusiasm home reading.

She stayed off school sick yesterday so perhaps had a bit more energy than normal and read her schoolbook straight off, then read two songbirds (green) straight off.

All I could think to write in her contact book was DD read this all by herself.

VOILA
new book tonight is Green, stage 2. She has never read to teacher or TA.

Her homework is 45 high frequency words but their order has been bewildering. They started with away, come, going and this. She's learnt 20 of them now (painful!)
The new lot are Up - Cat - Dog - For - Is which are the most phonic ones in the entire list ! She looked at them and read them straight off.
YET
She seems to have zero confidence. She is reading all the two letter words without thinking. Three letters she blends. Four letters she just says no I can't do that one.

Have school caused this lack of confidence?
Do I simply need to write 'read this by herself' to speed up the Kipper process?!!
Should she be reading to someone in order to go up a level?
I am also posting about her atrocious attitude and behaviour in Parenting for more wise mumsnet advice.

If the school is following Letters & Sounds they may not teach how to blend 4 letter words (ccvc & cvccc) until she has learnt all 44 sounds (madness IMHO)

I would personally be concerned that this far into the autumn term that no-one seems to have read with her. I would start by asking the teacher if they have a few minutes to discuss your questions. Write them down to take to the meeting. See what response you get and go from there? High frequency words can mostly only be learnt and recognised by sight so I am not sure if there is a particular order for them. Encourage her to start by attempting to sound out the longer 4 letter words as she does the three and decide with her if it's working or if it's a sight word. I am a bit rusty on this as I have been out of my reception class for 4 years now being a sahm soni hope someone with more recent experience comes along too.

Ah, sounds plausible Mrz

High frequency words can mostly only be learnt and recognised by sight so I am not sure if there is a particular order for them.

High Frequency words

a
about

an
and
are
as
asked
at
back

big
but

came
can
children

dad
day

down
for
from
get

got
had

help
her

him
his
house

if
in

is
is
it
it?s
just
like
little
look
looked
made
make

mum

not
now
of

on

out

put

see
she

that

them
then

this
time

too
up

went

when
will
with

really?

Actually, whilst you're in vicinity Mrz...
She is bored of her phonics (I found myself humming one and she was cross at me) so I asked teacher via contact book how many more there were to learn.
She replied 53.
Yet you mention 44 sounds.
What is the difference ?

Oh dear.
She has had
was, away, saw - none of these are on your list?
What are they doing ???????? I mentioned in a post before it seemed they were giving her words which could be found in the purple ORT books. Could this be it?

was has a tricky phoneme and saw has an alternative way of writing so I didn't include them. They are perfectly decodable (as are the examples I posted) but not until the phonemes have been taught

Jolly Phonics teaches 42 phonemes and Letters and Sounds 44 not sure where the teacher has got the 53 from

Sorry mrz

I did say someone else would know more. I meant that schools don't seem to all teach high frequency words in the same order. I have seen them grouped in many ways. As you did alphabetically, or by whether they can be decoded with phonics or not. Or by length of the word e.g. Single letter words, two letter words etc.
That is what I have seen and what I meant by saying I was unaware if there was a recommended way of breaking up and teaching the 45 high frequency words.

Groan I am going to have to go and have a meeting. I feel petrified of this. I am not a stalwart mother, I have never done this before. They have succesfully confused the life out of me.
In the couple of brief moments I have had with the teacher, she doesn't make herself understood. It's the go from there bit mentioned by tired teddy that worries me. I think I have tried (albeit via contact book) to raise these questions and they are not being answered. So I am there... which means it must be the Head next ? Groan again.

Oh poor you I hate having awkward conversations. Write all your questions down and ask for an appointment with the head or literacy coordinator? Say that you ate asking because you aren't clear and that you want you just want to help your daughter. Good luck. Will come back to check how you get on

tiredteddy it really doesn't matter how they are grouped the point is they don't need to be learnt by sight as whole words because most are fully decodable from the very earliest stage others like "was" have tricky parts but are still decodable. The 45 reception HFW were scrapped years ago and replaced by a list of 100 words (which don't have to be taught be sight)

Just ask your school to explain.
When ds was in reception his words to learn were related to the reading scheme, but also had separate phonics sounds to learn.

Try again with the teacher. I would anyway. She'll know more about what's going on in her class then the head.

Make an appointment and ask for a 5 min chat. You'll wonder what you were worried about. (Or think what the hell was that about. But hopefully not!)