Reading in the UK question - age 5

[rachel574]

We're moving from the US to the UK this summer. We haven't taught our 5 year old (birthday in Feb) to read yet, nor did she learn in her preschool class. She can identify all letters (upper and lower case) and knows the sounds letters make, and can sound out a few words. Do kids in Year 1 (that's the grade she'll be in, right?) already read? If so, we 'll get need to get her going. Thanks in advance!

Hello yes she will be going into year 1 after the summer. It would be usual for her to be able to read. The standard will differ amongst her peers but they'll be reading books with sentences ON THE WHOLE.

Buy the Julia donaldson song birds books off Amazon along with the first set of read write inc or jolly phonic flash cards and try and teach her over the summer. Don't stress about it tho as her new teacher will help her and you.

Yes Year 1 children will already be reading as they'll have been taught the basics in reception year. A lot of schools use Oxford Reading Tree books (or they do where I am anyway) which you could pick up online if you wanted too.

Not all kids will leave reception reading even if they have had one year of school. I wouldn't worry too much tbh.

It sounds like she's got the basics. If I were you I'd do some more sounding out and blending practice over the next couple of months - five or ten minutes a day as part of her bedtime stories will help most children make a lot of progress and you may even find that she's able to have a stab at short decidable sentences pages or books - but if she isn't then don't panic.

There will be one or two chidlren who have missed the reception and nursery years.

So don't worry your child is not going to be way behind or struggling.

........ and even if your DD is "behind" at the start of the year, she's probably in a different position from the children who have been through Reception and are finding it hard going whereas it just sounds as though she's been following a different type of curriculum. If you feel like doing some stuff with her and she's willing etc there's probably no harm as long as you use the UK phonics methods but otherwise I'd have a good summer and don't worry about it.

I used to read with yr1s & yr2s.
There will be a lot of kids still sounding out individual letters & trying to get hang of blending. consonant-vowel-consonant words only, like cat. And a few sight words like (like). Example sentence = "See Floppy"
There must be some videos on youtube about learning to blend at late reception stage. I wouldn't try to do more than a bit of practice at blending.

I'd say the biggest difference between the US and the UK is US children get taught the letter "names" (i.e. the ABC song) straight away, while UK children tend to learn the synthetic phonic sounds and the letter names later. (My DC is in year 1 and says they haven't been taught letter names yet.)

My US niece also had less comprehensive phonics lessons than my DC.

I am a parent who helps reception age kids read. A couple can read really well, most can read words like cat dog etc and I'd say a good quarter can't hardly read at all. I think as long as you start reading now and help her learn the sounds and break down the word 'c..a..t' etc she'll be fine

And, it might be a bit early, but welcome to the UK!

Thanks so much for the helpful replies!

We had a child join DS class in Y1 who came from a country with no formal schooling before that age. Mum was v concerned she would be behind. Within a month she was reading at a level of some of the other children in the class and within a term you really wouldn't have known she'd not been around the previous year. There's an argument to say that children learn much faster a year older, which is why so many countries don't start as early as in the UK. The teaching staff are likely to have seen all sorts, so don't worry.

My DTs are in reception and they can both read, on level 3 (yellow band). The rest of their class is anywhere from level 1 to level 9 (not a typo!).

However I would not worry about it very much. If she doesn't know the letter sounds then I would maybe get her to try and learn these but I wouldn't attempt to teach her to read unless you know what you are doing and what order to teach the phonemes in or you may confuse her. The DT's school gets quite a lot of EAFL students (close to 1 in 8 kids) and they get fantastic results really quickly. Kids learn a lot faster than you would think.

If you have a look at the Jolly Phonics songs on YouTube these have nice little songs which sound out the letters (beware you will be singing "ants on your arm" for hours afterwards though.

E E Eggs in a pan!
I would maybe start with a British phonics TV programme or app (Alphablocks, Hairy Phonics etc) to get her used to the British sounds of the letters (both the accent and the fact we use sounds not letter names) and otherwise she'll be fine!

Don't worry about it, she will be fine of she's not reading.

You can get oxford reading tree books on an app.

I've just looked those up C0unt and they are VERY expensive for something they will read about once!

If you know which school she's going to, I'd suggest asking them which phonics scheme they use, and then having a read of it yourself. Otherwise, it's easy to tell your daughter things in a way that's confusing and not how the teachers will do it. For example, I was was taught 'cuh' 'ah', 'tuh' to sound out 'cat', and that's not at all how Jolly Phonics does it.

But in general, start of Y1 doesn't assume an ability to read, though some can. By the start of Y2 it would be more of a problem, so you've chosen a good time to move.

Free online books for ort here:
www.oxfordowl.co.uk

Just to reassure you, my dd really didn't much progress with reading in reception so in year 1 I started doing more reading with her at home and slowly she made progress. Now is year 6 she is, according to her teacher, probably the best reader in her class.

Children in the U.K. Are taught using SSP (systematic synthetic phonics) very different from US methods for reading and spelling.
They aren't taught letter names initially
Most children will be reading in reception (although there will be a huge range of abilities)
Year 1 generally builds on what has been taught in Reception.

When you are in the Uk there is a company called reading chest that posts reading books at the right level you subscribe. I did it with dd for a couple of months in summer after reception year and it really helped her reading take off.