Reception Reading Advice pls

[wandymum]

My DS (4) is in reception and this term they really seem to be focusing on reading.

He is a good reader already. He can read anything you give him. He chooses a reading book himself from any in the library plus a banded level 9 book because they cover reading and writing in the one system and his spelling is less advanced. All of the other children in his class are reading the same book.

They've divided the class into reading groups based on their progress but DS is not in a group because his reading is so much further along. Instead he works alone with the teacher when she has time, but mostly seems to read to himself.

I'm not worried about his academic progress (his reading is pretty much there already) but am a bit concerned that he may get bored and/or feel a bit excluded being left to his own devices so often.

Anyone have experience of this or ideas for other ways I could ask school to occupy/involve him?

Hi,
DS1 in reception also is on a similar level to your child. He is on ort9, gold band. None of his classmates are anywhere close. They all read individually to the teacher, so that is no different for him to anyone else. With phonics though he spent most of last term working individually on the phonics programme with a TA as he already knew all the basic sounds that the other children were covering. This term though they have said they are planning to give him a trial to see how he goes in year1 for phonics so he will be working with a group.I think this will be really good for him. They don't do anything like guided reading yet but there was talk that when/if they do he might go to work with the older year group. Actually the school have been amazing with him and have found the right balance between having a fun reception year with lots of play and challenging him. It's a small state school and reception has only about a dozen children with a teacher plus a TA so I think that helps.

Hi,
DS1 in reception also is on a similar level to your child. He is on ort9, gold band. None of his classmates are anywhere close. They all read individually to the teacher, so that is no different for him to anyone else. With phonics though he spent most of last term working individually on the phonics programme with a TA as he already knew all the basic sounds that the other children were covering. This term though they have said they are planning to give him a trial to see how he goes in year1 for phonics so he will be working with a group.I think this will be really good for him. They don't do anything like guided reading yet but there was talk that when/if they do he might go to work with the older year group. Actually the school have been amazing with him and have found the right balance between having a fun reception year with lots of play and challenging him. It's a small state school and reception has only about a dozen children with a teacher plus a TA so I think that helps.

DS2 used to read direct with the teacher for the first half term of reception as he picked up reading really quickly (could blend a few simple words when starting). By October half term they put him to read with the year above in guided reading, as that I would imagine is when the rest of reception started doing guided reading and there was no group suitable for him (small school 15pupils per year).

I wouldn't have thought one to one reading took up more time than a couple of minutes per child two or three times a week, (depending on staff.) So I wouldn't have thought your son was reading to himself much more than most children who have books in the corner to play with (regardless of whether they can actually read or not yet.) It's not as if he was being asked to go off on a trek round the playing field for a couple of hours. By all means do talk to the teacher about if because it's worrying you. But I wouldn't have thought it would feel much different to him than if the teacher had asked him to draw a picture or do any other activity.

Bear in mind that unless the class has lots of staff allocated to it, the children won't all be reading at the same time. So it's not a question of all the children are in groups reading with an adult and your DS is sat in the corner on his own. It's more likely to be one group reading with an adult while the rest of the class do another activity or have free play.

Has your DS said that it bothers him?

I wouldn't worry unless your DS is expressing concerns or seems to feel left out. DS1 is at a similar level in Reception. He talks a bit about doing things that the others are clearly not doing (although he never says that nobody else is doing them, IYKWIM). He also goes into the Y1/2 classroom for some of the phonics sessions. The school is lovely, and I've made it very clear to them that although I want him to progress, the most important thing for me is that he settles well, has fun and makes friends (which he has). I asked him the other day what his favourite thing is at school, and he said 'learning a new sound' - which makes me laugh, as he knows them all standing on his head. But the teacher makes the actions funny, and DS has always enjoyed doing repetitive things that he finds easy. So maybe next time you're talking to his teacher you could ask about whether he's still joining in with plenty of group activities - and as long as he is, I wouldn't worry about him doing reading on his own.