My child is at an Ofsted Outstanding school (of the sort that raises up very low attainment children to average within three years).
The school does not appear to be teaching phonics. The school has not told parents how to support reading at home other than, at the start, to send out a 45 word list children need to know by end of reception.
The school reading books are mainly from the nineties, so the children seem to be learning to read with a non-phonic based scheme, interspersed with the occasional Biff and Chip.
The children read to an adult once a week at school. The teacher has heard my child twice this term, and written comments once since the summer. The rest of the time it's been the TA, who never writes any comments in the reading book.
My son was initially given very basic books that seemed to be non-phonic. I'm not sure the school has any idea what level he is at, or indeed deems it important, as he is now given four books a week, from Level 1 - Level 4, all of which he can read fairly easily.
I read to, and listen to my son read, every night. I recently bought the Oxford Songbird Books and since starting these his reading has improved dramatically.
Apart from the basics I've taught my son, I don't think he is reading through phonics. When I listen to him I believe he is mainly looking at context. He is often not sounding out letter groups ('ou' 'ae' 'er') but individual letters, and then making a very good guess.
My question is: Does this matter? Part of me thinks not, because I did not learn to read systematically. My son will also be able to read fairly competently by the time he starts Year One, thanks to the work we are putting in at home. On the other hand, a systematic approach has benefits (as well as being government policy).
I suspect that the teacher is going extremely slowly so that all the children start Year One at the same basic level and thus the school is not concerned with meeting the needs of children who are further along the reading road. However, I feel that the school should differentiate. They cannot rely on parents to teach the children who are not educationally disadvantaged. At the moment, phonics lessons involves the class learning one letter a week. We approach the end of the Spring Term doing five days of the letter S.
My son really enjoys school. The teacher is warm, imaginative and controls the class well. The children are supportive of each other. It is a happy place. Apart from actually learning to read and write, it's ace.
What do you all make of this? Does it matter? And if so, what should I do?