Reading scheme recommendations

[Fayrazzled]

If you could buy a new reading scheme for YR and KS1 at your school what would you buy and how would you structure it? Are there any other schemes you would particularly recommend? Would you throw out the older ORT Biff, Chip and Kipper (i.e. the ones not tied to phonics phases) or do you think they have their place?

How does your school organise home readers in KS1? How often do the children change their books? Are they organised into groups based on ability?

Many thanks for any insight!

Definitely throw out the old ORTs - they are useless phonetically!

With an infinite amount of money I would buy: Songbirds by Julia Donaldson, Dandelion Launchers, Read Write Inc, Floppy's Phonics, Big Cat Collins....All are much better than the old ORT.

And then to answer your other questions: Home readers are dished out by the teacher according to what stage they're on...but they use ORT so it is actually all organised around their stages rather than by book bands.

I would rather there was a mix of different types of schemes and them all be phonetically suitable.

At ds's school, they used bugclub as well as normal banded books. A lot of children preferred bugclub. they have interactive comprehension question to answer after reading. Also because it was e book, they can assign same book to many children at same time.

I'm a fan of the books published by phonicbooks Dandelion Launchers/Readers Magic Belt etc

You could probably keep any ORT at orange/stage 6 and above. Most decodeable schemes will have finished by then so seems a waste of money to get rid of those.

In terms of structure, you need to organise them by phonic sounds in the early stages. What scheme are you using to teach phonics?

Rafa- we use Letters & Sounds to teach phonics. At the moment the home reaers are a mish mash of different schemes using book bands rather than stages or phonics phases and there is a heavy reliance on ORT.

Many thanks for suggestions which I will look into.

mrz- love the look of the Dandelion Readers. How do you use them? Do you tie them in to the teaching of phonics- e.g. if you are focusing on 'ou' you'd send the book home that corresponds? Do you have whole class sets then? How do you differentiate your readers?

In that case, I would suggest looking towards schemes that follow L&S as your 'main' scheme.

Phonics Bug/Comics for Phonics from Pearson both do this. As do Traditional Tales, Project X Alien Adventures, Project X Phonics and Floppy's Phonics from ORT.

I'd be a bit careful with the ORT. Some of the levels require all of the sounds in a phase to be known before children can read the books.

You can always top up by adding other schemes into the main scheme where they fit.

Thanks Rafa, your input is much appreciated.

I am using a scheme I found whilst having a good search on the ole information super highway called BRI-ARI.

I am working with a Nurture Class this year and the scheme is meant for those that find reading a harder task than others. It allows children to meet the same words over and over and practise the sounding out over and over. Bit onerous to listen to after a while but really finding it helps the kids using it.

Google it and find out more if you are interested.

Yes children take home a book that supports what they are learning.
In the early stages there are 4 Dandelion Launcher and 3 Readers per unit (sounds aren't taught in isolation) Reades are slightly more difficult than Launchers and we have approx 10 sets so enough for each child.
There are 4 levels for each sound in the extended code books per sound and we also have Magic Belt, Alba, Totem, Moon Dog and Talisman 1& 2. So enough to cover all needs.
In addition we use some of our old Songbirds, Comics for phonics and Phonic bugs. I've scrapped our ORT phonics books with the exception of the Songbirds.

Thanks for all your advice- food for thought and plenty to investigate.