School and home reading schemes incompatible.

[StarlightMcKenzie]

Ds needs to start work on ccvc words and be able to read 5 by the end of term according to school. At home he has been able to read ccvc's for 2 years. In fact he STARTED on ccvc's.

School not heard of reading scheme we are using at home but have pointed to a couple of ccvc's he has struggled on (well they have not been covered by home scheme), as evidence he is way below the 'general' level at home.

Shoukd I just shrug and ignore and expect him to be a free reader by the end of the year one way or another, or shoukd I video him for school?

'I know reading isn't his favourite thing and he may well just not do it.'

Maybe that's because you're forcing him to do things that don't come naturally or making him do something he doesn't want to do!

Maybe school are asking him to read in a different way to you?

And if school are asking him to display skills he doesn't have then obviously they can't say he's achieving the level they're expecting him to.

TBH if you're happy with what he's doing with you then I imagine it will all catch up eventually at school and you shouldn't worry too much about it

Ds for the most part loves Headsprout. When I started it it was because it was looking like his only chance at being taught to read.

He has anxieties about failure and I woukd guess that his inability to perform at school is more to do with THEM trying to get him to do something he is worried about.

My concern is probably more that they have given him a term and a half to learn 5 words and what that says about their understanding of his ability and capacity to learn.

Star - don't worry about the school thinking he can't learn as quick as YOU know he can. As long as he's ACTUALLY learning, the school will catch their expectations up to his ACTUAL abilities in the end. Probably at the point where his reading ability suddenly converges with his chronological age. Which it WILL do, sooner or later. And probably not as late as my DD's did - she had MULTIPLE issues causing her reading delay.

Keep strong!

They don't expect him to learn 5 words. They expect him to be able to read any CCVC word.

And when he's done that they'll change his target - even if it's not IEP review time. They won't keep him on a target he's already achieved.

I think the only problem is that they have created a SMART target and shared it with you.

As I've said before Headsprout is an American programme and uses methods no longer used in the UK (IMHO for a good reason). It can be confusing for children to swap between methods and this is perhaps causing the mismatch between home and school.

Does school teach 'proper' phonics? If so, I'd just leave them to it. He will sort out the confusion that you have deliberately created for him in time, with good teaching in school.

Teacher, until very recently Ds had received nothing that could pass for good teaching. He was largely ignored and babysat which is why I got him started at home. I don't feel a teacher can say they are 'teaching' anything if the learner hasn't learnt.

I haven't deliberately caused confusion. I simply recognised that average teacher too untrained, uninterested or under resourced to teach Ds and was not prepared to agree with them that he could never learn to decode.

He is in his 4th school now (independent) at age 6 and even there they seem to be having trouble engaging him long enough for him to demonstrate his skills, though they are the best school so far.

Mrz, I believe that a number of schools in the UK DO use Headsprout.

I can't comment on whether individual schools are using this method Starlight I can only say whether it is compatible with the methods they should be using (which it isn't) and whether it might confuse children (which it may)
As a school we subscribed to a similar (very expensive) American programme about 5 years ago ...we have it but don't use the parts that are incompatible and confusing

I just noticed you are paying a school to not teach your child to read

He is in his 4th school now (independent) at age 6

You don't think that might have something to do with his problems with learning to read?

If he is on his 4th school by that age then he is probably missing key things because of being moved around so much, schools will do things slightly differently. Keep him in the same school and support them in what they are trying to do with him.

No. EP report told Teachers he woukd not learn to decode. He was always removed from phonics lessons by the TA to teach him to sight read. TAs untrained and unequiped to get Ds to even sit down, let alone qualified to teach Ds anything, so he didn't learn to sight read either. Repeat for 3 schools, during which time we started Headsprout and found a placement with smaller class sizes and higher expectations. Ds is no longer babysat by a clueless but well-meaning TA.

I Expect Ds to be a free reader in less than a term on Headsprout.

But, just wondering how to reconcile with the school as they aren't seeing what we see as isn't a motivating subject for Ds. Or whether to just leave it as when Ds is free reading he is likely to read spontaneously things of high interest.

It's been so helpful that we started dd (nursery) on Headsprout, but I am wondering now if this is actually a good idea given some of the posts about confusion. Unlike Ds, she is likely to be taught to read by her school.

Was it a private EP report?

No LA.

I did then get a private EP report to dispute this, which it did, but was ignored by the school.

Do you know how he is being taught at his current school?

Not really. I 'think' phonics, but differentiated for the needs of the class. It's a SALT school for children with average IQ.

I think you need to ask the school how they teach ccvc words and what his target actually means then you will be able to support him more effectively. It isn't easy when you see your child let down by the system

Yes. I probably do. I suppose I was wondering how important an issue it really was because this school (perhaps because fee-paying?!) doesn't seem to be used to communicating much detail with parents, so there are other pressing issues to try and encourage them to communicate on iyswim. I get an impression (though might be unfair) that lots of parents feel they are 'paying' for their child to be fixed and see that as job done.

It's why I'm upset about comments suggesting I have deliberately confused Ds by introducing an incompatible scheme. I don't think Ds' difficulties and education are purely the responsibility of teachers.

I wish 'good' teachers would act a bit more as consultants/experts to advise parents, instead of acting in a defensive 'we're professionals, don't question us' kind of way that has been my experience.

I don't think anyone was suggesting you deliberately introduced your son to an incompatible programme (it's often recommended on MN and unless you've looked at it closely you are unlikely to know) but it could explain why the school have set this target.

No, someone did say upthread that the OP had deliberately confused her child. But to be fair to whoever said that, the OP hadn't clearly explained why she had introduced Headsprout. I've just had to read the whole thread to find out.

OP, why can't you home-ed?