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?

Because shortly I need to return to work. Plus DS needs a peer group.

If you need to go to work then you need to go to work. But there are home-ed networking groups available.

Apologies, it was me who mentioned deliberate confusion - because the 'back story' only came out later in the thread.

Does the current school teach phonics well? Could you support them rather than doing something different? It sounds from the history as if your DS has not, up until now, had good phonics teaching, due to - perhaps misguided - advice from an EP. Can that now be rectified?

Sounds to me like you're being a bit premature, expecting him to generalise 'home' reading methods and use them in school, where he's (correctly) figured out they want something subtly different and is trying to give it to them. A bit like a dc learning to read Arabic at home, and English at school.

I suspect he could continue 'learning to read' in the two methods for now... and one day the penny will drop and he'll realise they're actualy the same

actually ... but then I learned via look-and-say

so, in answer, shrug and ignore

I am a bit that you expect a free reader by be end of year 1.

Why the rush?

Or is this based on your observations at home?

Because he only has 1 eighth of the programme left to do. And once finished you can expect to be a free reader, at least from a decoding point of view.

There's no rush. In fact we've taken it VERY slowly.

Having said that, my Ds has language problems and IMO the sooner he has visual supports (aka words and sentences) the sooner he can practise correct speaking.

You might be right Maree, he might not have married them up in his mind. Also I don't think he give a fig about kipper and joe and their bikes or whatever.

Often I write him stories about things he s interested in. We make books together. I write a couple of sentences and he copies and then draws a picture of that bit of the story. It is usually relevant to his life, experiences or interests. I inherited a whole wardrobe full of paper do this seems a good use.

Free reader, in my experience, is a child able to pick up a substantial children's chapter book (e.g. the longer Michael Morpurgos) and to read it with understanding not only of the words but also some appreciation of inference, subtext etc.

Even in my DS's first school, where free readers followed on from c. Level 13 of the 'old numbering' of the ORT, a free reader would be able to pick up any reasonably age-appropriate children's chapter book of 80-150 pages (so for DS at 5 it was perhaps Mr Majeika or a Rob Childs football book) and read it fluently with full understanding.

Perhaps we mean something different?

I don't know what ccvc is but I do know the answer to your question: make the video but don't force them to watch it...

ccvc - stop, start, train, trap, plop, slap, snip , black, - consonant consonant vowel consonant words

In that case he'll probably never be a free reader by that definition.

What I meant was that he could ready any word and guess the strange ones by context IF he understood the context.

I've never heard of those books you mentioned. But he can pretty much read and follow a recipe for example, and instructions where the meaning is important to him (unlike magic keys or whatever he seems to be expected to read about).

'Free reader' is definitely variable from school to school, but it normally signals the end of 'levelled' or 'banded' book schemes.

In many schools this would happen around a reading NC level of 3a or 4c, so the level 'expected' for a Year 4, maybe Year 5 child.

Some schools - I think mrz's does - band books all the way up through, so there will be very substantial, detailed books banded as suitable for high ability Year 6 readers.

It depends how seriously different schools take 'progression in all reading skills' and how they put that into practice through books on which to rehearse such skills - but I do not know of any in which a 'free reader' would merely be able to sound out most words and guess others in context

There are some sample materials for the Y1 check here which if you haven't seen them before might let you know the direction the school are going in.

It is all rather by the by though, his phonics check isn't going to be what future employers look at so you are much better off doing whatever works for him long-term.

Ahh, ok. I understand.

In my school, free reader means something different and few would be there by year 1.

But I get that you mean by the end of your scheme

Old style ORT with Magic key, Biff and Chip etc isn't really a phonics scheme. He must be on level 5+ if he's got to the ones with the key (?) so not bad for year 1.

They're a bit abstract for dc who prefer more contextual clues, in my experience. The magic key DVD can made it easier for ds1. We also supplemented with some eBay stuff Topsy and Tim, usbourne first experiences etc are quite good: the right level, nice pictures, and very obvious storylines.

Learning to read boring stuff just cos teacher said so is a skill worth having, but if it's putting him off, perhaps they'd consider using books he likes that are the same book band, as his current ORT reading level

Honestly, I think you're overthinking this (made sane mistake myself which is why I recognise it plus know all this useless info )

Like Star, for various reasons, my DD ended up at 4 schools by the time she was 6. It wasn't that the moves CAUSED her reading issues, but that her reading issues (and the general lack of support in the first school for SEN) that caused the moves, that and forced house moves.

School one told me in front of DD that she was 'too stupid to learn her letters'. Would you send your DD to a school where her class teacher was calling her stupid to her face, in front of the whole class?!

I moved her to a school an hour's bus journey away, as it was the only school with spaces that would take a DC with SEN.

I had two younger DC's, and the 4 hrs a day on the bus was impinging on THEIR development. So when a place came up at a local school, I moved her.

A term and a half later, I was moved to a new house by the Council, as my flat was condemned.

So DD HAD to change school again, as the other one was I reachable by public transport due to my job at the time. (I was working FT nights, getting in, then leaving straight away for the school run as my partner at the time had to leave for work as soon as I got in the door!)

It was a shame, but she already HAD the reading issues BEFORE the first move.