Should I say something?

[FishfingersAreOK]

Hello. My (just)5yo DS has just transferred schools due to a move. Had a brief chat with his new teacher this morning and, just as I suspected he is very behind on his reading/sounds. He is at the level the nursery class are at - or actually somewhat behind.

We (his new teacher and I) have discussed a way forward and am happy this will be addressed. So his needs/education will be met - or certainly some action taken.

But what should I do about his previous school/reception class/teacher? I continually raised (polite) concerns with his old teacher about his reading/sound/letters knowledge. I explained to his teacher that when we read at home I would either get book refusal, or he would appear to more often than now have very poor retention of the sounds. Very occasionally he would appear to "get it". His teacher said children were very different in class to at home and not to worry. She just kept repeating "He is doing fine" "He is at "expected" levels". When faced with that what more can you do to address it in school? His teacher did also say she HAD to use the new reading system called "Sounds Writes" which did not work as well as Jolly Phonics - but her hands were tied. She had no choice.

(BTW We have tried to make up the shortfall at home - reading, frequent word lists, playing word games. His letter formation is very good. He seems interested in letters. But seems to baulk at reading. The teacher said to not push it at home in case it made him totally turn off. So we haven't. My DD is an exceptional reader so it is not a case of us not caring/wanting to put the effort in)

Anyway - sorry for waffle - just trying to say we have done what we can, but I feel we have been misled by his old teacher. He was not really doing fine. This new system has not worked.

I have several (some close) friends with children in the old reception class. So my (at last) question is - should I say something? To my friends? To the old head teacher? To the old reception teacher.

If so what and to whom? How do I broach it without offending anyone?

If not - why not and how do I square my discomfort/guilt at potentially leaving some of his old classmates (and next year's reception) to a similar fate of a reading system that does not work?)

Another BTW - apart from this very happy with the old school - purely moved for location reasons.

The thing is, are you sure it is the teaching that is at fault here? Could it not be that your young-in-year son is just not ready to learn to read yet? It's not as if the new school have actually improved anything yet, they have only given intention to ...

IME 'expected levels' and 'doing fine' can mean within normal tolerances (anything except top/bottom 5%) which isn't necessarily how you would interpret it.

Maybe wait until the end of June? If there is a big jump in your son's reading, then you could drop a line to the old HT (in an I thought you may be interested to know sort of way). If there is not big improvement you'll know it is more that your son isn't ready than poor teaching?

Personally I think you should focus on your son moving forwards rather than worry about his old schoolmates. Those are issues for their parents to raise (if the same issues exist with other children).

Do you use scheme books at all with him at home? I know loads of people will come on and say scheme books are the root of all evil and should be banned from the home but scheme books are designed to help your child learn to read. If the school haven't done this then IMO you should step in.

Both of my DSs loved the Julia Donaldson songbird phonics scheme. They are designed so that all the words can be sounded out phonetically and so it makes them feel like they're making real progress. Yes they are hardly Harry Potter in terms of interest levels but that's not what they are for.

DS2 is a great little reader and has been racing through the reading schemes but yesterday said he wished there were more Biff and Chip books for him to read (so I've just bought time chronicles). So they certainly don't all hate scheme books!

Really good point about waiting.

I think the thing I would want to say something about though is not "poor teaching". I loved his old reception teacher and she did brilliantly by my now YR2 DD. It is the reading system she is being forced to use. She has told me off the record she would much prefer to go back to using phonics and jolly phonics - it worked, it engaged the children, it covered different learning styles. But she is shackled to the system the school is now using - which IMHO seems brilliant for children once they have grasped the basics - but not whilst they are still trying to get the sounds! I am almost thinking it may help the reception teacher get some ammunition not to be shackled anymore IYSWIM.

Will definitely wait anyway - as you have a good point. But would it be appropriate in this instance to talk to the head?

I'd certainly tell my friends what new things I'd found out. But I wouldn't approach the old school staff because my children had left. If my friends wanted to take it further it would be up to them.

I'm sure the old ht would appreciate feedback, especially as the system is new. It may be that the teacher isn't confident with the new materials although it should have taught him phonics, just like letters and sounds? I know the lowest of our 4 sets in yr are still working just on cvc words so the previous teacher is right that he's not unusual, i presume you are just keen for him to master it before y1. Fwiw you can get the jolly phonics clips on youtube, type in 'jolly phonics in order' to watch the lot - might help get him interested again?
Hope your dd has settled in well.

I have just ordered a Jolly Phonics CD and wall charts. We have quite a bit of stuff at home - but has always met with resistance (and he can be a stubborn little monkey!) He has certainly shown more willingness to learn to read recently so will use that to our advantage . I also talked up how exciting it would be to be at the new school and it would be where he could learn to read like a big boy. I think despite whatever has happened in the past he is now ready to set off on his reading journey - and the new environment (if not the new method) will hopefully promote that.

So maybe you are right - focus on my son for now, a casual chat with my friends. Maybe I may feedback to the old HT at an opportune moment (we will be receiving school reports shortly so that may be the ideal time).

And tbh I (and DH) are struggling with this more as DD just absorbed reading like she was always meant to have a book in her hands.

We will get there. And if there are issue to be sorted we will sort them.

Thank you everyone - though more views still welcome.

I would be very surprised if the issue was 'sounds write' itself. It's not a phonics programme I have used but from what I know about it it is a better scheme than Jolly Phonics. It does seem to be getting very good results in other schools.

If you're noticing he's seems more receptive now it might be that he wasn't quite ready earlier.

Hi FishfingersAreOK

I agree with others who have posted above that there really is no point bringing all this up with previous school - as TeenandTween suggests they can fall back on 'he was too young at that point' - 'he wasn't ready' as reasonable explanation for poor performance.

I too have been furious with school's approach - but the thing is they believe they are in the right and unfortunately there's really no persuading them otherwise. I think they also know that parents will do more at home if they're worried - so they benefit anyway (whether we complain or not).

It's water under the bridge now Fish - and as you've said you've discovered jolly phonics (the workbooks are great - lots of colouring there too!).

One other thing is if your DS is really into a tv show - don't miss the opportunity to use that against him. Most children's shows have magazines and most magazines involve reading. Make it a treat. Do a bit of the boring guided reading book and bribe him a bit 'If we do the school book now, then you can read your magazine!'. Have a look - I was really surprised at all the hidden learning there was in some of the magazines.

Same thing with games: DS games or old fashioned board games - often come with instructions. Great to get him working on that (obviously when a bit older - as 5 may be too young still depending on the game).

We had similar problems with DD1 - we found patience and good cheer helped a lot. We also made a point of always letting her know we believed she'd get there in the end. We just made sure that no matter what - after bath time we would all read together each day for at least 10 minutes. We also made a point of reading books to her regularly - maybe not every night - but reading our favourites, or new popular series (Lemony Snicket, Harry Potter, etc...) - and would encourage her to gradually read more and more from them as well (by selecting bits that were easier - literally reading Harry Potter or Count Olaf where we pointed each page at first and then building gradually to whole sentences, whole paragraphs, etc... by selectively choosing ones with achievable words).

HTH

I have heard very good things about sounds write. Jolly phonics is also good. But at the end of the day a phonic scheme is only as good as the teacher implementing it. If your son's previous teacher thought that sounds write wasn't working for your ds then it WAS within her power to modify what she was doing with him so that it WOULD work.

I had used Jolly Phonics since it was first published in the early 90s and found it effective in reception (not so much in KS1) but much prefer Sounds-Write and would see it as a backward step to go back to JP.
Since changing we have seen impressive progress in both reading and spelling at every level.
Unfortunately some teachers cling to the familiar like a child with a comfort blanket.

My children go to a school that uses Sounds Write and I don't think it's weaker than other phonics programmes. (My oldest learned using Phonographix) It sounds like the teacher is crap at using it rather than the phonics system being a problem. At our school 100% of kids got level 4 or higher in their Literacy y6 sats (36 in y6 last year).

I know schools using Sounds-Write achieved better than national average in the Y1 phonics check last year and agree any programme is only as good as the teacher using it.