Confused

[bangingmyheadoffabrickwall]

DS is in Y1. He has been reading Dadelion Launchers/Readers and his last book was ‘Punks Plums’ - CCVCC words. The school put a yellow sticker on the book, assuming this is ‘yellow band’ as he has moved up from ‘pink band’ (bypassed red when I queried his reading in the summer).

Anyways, last night he came home with ‘What Dogs Like’ and tonight ‘Posh Shops’ - both ORT and book band red. This perplexed me. So last night I wrote in his book that the reader was too easy (even DS said so) and he read it with no effort and little enthusiasm. He likes a challenge!
So today I get a message saying ‘Jumped a small section to more phonics based ones’.

Clearly going from CCVCC words to ‘x, w, y, ch, sh, ng’ is a step backwards and certainly not ‘jumping a small section o more phonic based ones’ because dandelion launchers are fully phonic decodable.

I have wrote a message back saying that I am confused as the words in his new reader are not challenging and he read phase 3 words months ago and he is currently on phase 5!

His spelling reflect his current attainment and capabilities - split digraph /i-e/ and this week phase 4 words (milkman, fishfinger, opener etc)

I would understand if he was struggling with ‘yellow band’ books and CCVCC words but he is most definitely not! Even comments in his book from school do not indicate this.

Am I right tone confused and to want answers as to why he has moved from reading CCVCC words with 3-4 sentences per page to 1/2 sentences per page and words that are phase 2 and 3.

It doesn’t seem right.

“Clearly going from CCVCC words to ‘x, w, y, ch, sh, ng’ is a step backwards “
Punk and the plums is unit 10 ( and red not yellow)
unit 11 is ch, unit 12 sh, unit 13 th, unit 14 ck and wh and unit 15 ng and qu so the ORT books are introducing new sounds but certainly don’t match a child working at phase 5

There doesn’t seem to be any ‘order’ and when queried as to who chose his books he said xxxx’s mum who is a volunteer. Now obviously this could mean the volunteer (who I know personally) is simply following the teacher’s instructions. I’ve yet to establish that.
He does jump from dandelion launchers to dandelion readers. They are clearly marked as to which is which on the back of the book.

He whizzed through ‘Posh Shops’ (He cruelly read this prior to the summer holidays with me at home - not given to him by his school( so O am aware that his reading material at home does not reflect his ability.

Another trip to see the Y1 teacher then to clarify what is going on and the progress that DA is making.

Sorry for typos. I am on my phone.

“He does jump from dandelion launchers to dandelion readers. “ Dandelion readers follow exactly the same progression as the Launchers but offer more text per page (from unit 3 onwards). They are written to match the Sounds Write program so don’t really fit Letters and Sounds phases. Basically units 1-15 Launchers and 1-20 Readers are basic code intended for reception and Readers Level 1-4 plus split vowel spellings cover alternative extended code taught in years 1 and 2.

I would give all 4 Launcher books then follow with the 3 Reader books in each unit if a child needed it.

School follow Letters and Sounds. DS tells me the sounds he learns daily. Last week's spellings (i-e words) supports what DS tells me except this week's spellings were; milkman, fishfinger, sticker, opener, golden and focused. No wonder I'm confused as to what he's doing - his reading material doesn't match his spellings for a start!