School moving to Read Write Inc, able DS in Yr 1 - should I be worried?

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DS (5.5yrs) has just started Y1. School had been doing Jolly Phonics, now apparently moving over to Read Write Inc. DS is an able reader, has all sounds securely and can decode confidently, sounds out unfamiliar words with no problem. At end of YR he was bringing home Y1 spellings (10 per week) and had three reading books (school has mix of ORT and others) per week.

Now in Y1 (he was in mixed YR/Y1 class last year, now is in all Y1 class with same teacher as last year), five weeks into the term, he's had two sheets of spellings (at a level way below what he was doing at end of YR, - eg 'a' 'we' 'he' etc) - these then stopped. His reading books are at a similar level to YR but he has improved over the summer - he literally reads his three books for the week in 10 mins, including responding to comprehension questions. We left a note for the teacher about it but no response in the reading diary...

I went to see the teacher yesterday. She seemed surprised that I was asking about spellings/literacy but said they are about to introduce a new scheme for YR and this Y1 class (but not the other Y1 class, which is a mixed Y1/Y2 class), Read Write Inc. Vague about when - they have the materials though, and they have been on the training. Says they will have a parents' meeting etc.

My concern is that we're five weeks into term and DS hasn't progressed/been challenged in that time (teacher said spellings etc we've already had were 'placeholders' to give them something to do before the new scheme kicks in and allow everyone to start new scheme at same level(?)). He loves reading and we encourage him at home, read other books with him, practice writing etc so overall I'm sure he will be fine (he is middle of 3DC, no PFB-itis here!). My worry is him being turned off reading in the context of school, and 'wasting' a half term of Y1 while this all pans out. I've now had a look at all the RWI stuff online and it seems a good scheme, but I wonder how it will work for Y1s who can already read - will they have to relearn all the sounds etc? Or can confident decoders skip all that? So far with all the DC I've had good results encouraging their interest when it shows itself - while DS is focussed on learning to read I don't want to lose the momentum, IYSWIM.

Congratulations if you've read this far - my question really is, should I be concerned? Or just give school time and space to implement the new scheme and see what comes, even if this takes several more weeks?

TIA for any words of wisdom.

i totally utterly understand you. DD2 ' school just swichted from ERR(chip, floppy) to Phonics program (those little aliens with nonese names). I am just getting used to ERR since DD1 just left for junior school. Since September, parents are basically told that we are switching and we are doing training for teachers.....otherwise I don't have any ideas about it at all.....

I am just doing some extras for DD2 at home at the moment.

I can't give any advice on the scheme but my Dd is an extremely able reader, now year 3, and my strategy has always been to do what the school suggest (ie get her to read a reading book and learn list of spellings even if much too easy) then encourage her to read at her level at home by buying books or going to the library. Still do that now and is v successful, she is a total bookworm. Personally I think that doing easy stuff at school is no bad thing as helps their confidence and cements the basics. Plenty of books to challenge them at home then keeps interest up.

Read Write Inc can be good, but it depends how it's implemented. In DD's school, the whole of KS1 is put into groups, so it works well, and children are working at their own level.

But 'so that they can start at the same level' would ring alarm bells for me, as would the fact that they're only doing it with one class.

In your shoes, I'd disregard school for a bit, get some good books out of the library and carry on at his own level. But I probably also wouldn't be able to resist asking the teacher what she plans to do with him so that he doesn't waste an entire term.

My DS moved schools between YR and Y1 to a school that uses RWI. He could sort of read a bit but didn't get the hang of it (and definitely didn't enjoy it) until he started doing RWI. Previous scheme was letters and sounds which seemed pretty dull and required lots of input at home learning actions for different letters, which DS hated so we rarely did it.

They were taught RWI in small ability based groups - I think they did a fairly cursory assessment to place them initially, then moved them after a couple of weeks if it was clear they were in the wrong place. DS was moved up then, and a couple more times over the year. Reading books and spellings were completely separate. I think he's finished it now although children will continue into Y2 if they need to.

It has worked out really well for him (he is currently reading The BFG, all by himself) so I would hold fire if I were you. HTH.

I have DC in years 1&2 doing RWI. As others have said they are put in small ability groups for what they call 'phonics', these groups are mixed across years R,1 and 2. They did have years 3 and 4 mixed in too but stopped that after the first year (the whole primary school does phonics at the same time). They work on little reading books as a group and in partners and have a cuddly frog that the teacher animates. It is quite fun looking. When they launched they had parents in for meetings to explain how it was all going to work.

My DS finished the RWI scheme in year 1 and so now his phonics group does work like looking at different types of texts and how they are structured.

The kids seem to move groups fairly often, I guess to allow for different rates of progress.

I like RWI as my kids have found writing a struggle and this scheme seems to give more opportunities for writing alongside reading (hence the name I guess). My school has recently changed it's spelling approach and no longer sends spellings home.

Perhaps you can ask if they are going to do a parents evening on the new scheme?

Ours switched to RWI a few years ago, dd2 started at the beginning, dd1 had done general phonics first. At first I think people were a little concerned about mixing between years etc, but when you think about it some children are much nearer in age to those in year above than their year (e.g. aug/sept birthdays). It seems much better as they work with children all at their stage. The phonics continues to yr 2/3 and in the later stages they concentrate more on using phonics for spelling rather than decoding.

As long as they sort them appropriately it should benefit him as he will be able to move on faster. In terms of reading at that stage I wouldn't have too many concerns about going off piste with library books etc. Maybe ask on children's books section for recommendations.

If your child has completed a year of Jolly Phonics he has just begun learning phonics. Most schools teach phonics for reading & spelling to the end of Y2 before focusing more on phonics for spelling in KS2.
Personally not a fan of RWI but it can get very good results