How to approach teacher about non phonics readers

[Jumpingshipquick]

So my 3rd child is now in reception. She has a brilliant teacher who has done a great job with the other 2. She teaches phonics thoroughly BUT sends home crappy guess the completely un-decodable word by looking at the pictures pm readers. In some ways it’s fine because I have bought/ know where to find decodable readers in the library and just use those instead. My child will be ok. It’s just so frustrating. The school is not following the national curriculum requirement for cumulative decodable readers, it’s not best practice, and it’s mixed messages for children and parents that just slows everybody down. There will be some children that this is harming their progress.

So how do I best tackle it? Slightly complicated by the fact I have links with the school as a secondary teacher in the town, so I need to be reasonably professional . (And I probably already have a name at the school for being arsey) I’ve tried ignoring because Dd3 will be fine, but the idealist in me can’t keep quiet.

"I would be very unhappy about this. Schools have had long enough to buy appropriate resources. Phonics has been firmly on the agenda for a good 6 years. Getting the correct resources should have been a priority for the school at some point. At one stage, the government was doing matched funding for phobic resources. And I am fully aware of pressures around school funding but this is such a central part of what primary schools do, at this point IMO there is really no excuse."

Totally agree. This is really really really important. It is not a frill, like finding money for nice things like tablets or extra playground equipment. The school needs to be told clearly, get some proper books and cut back on other things if you have to. Can they really and truly put their hands on their hearts and swear that no money whatsoever is being spent on "nice" stuff that is not lifechangingly essential? "Nice/fun" extras in schools will not help kids who have permanently crushed self-esteem because they can't read properly and now they hate school and think they are stupid.

I understand that the situation in Australia is frustrating due to lack of progress on the teaching of proper synthetic phonics, and I do feel really sorry for individual Oz teachers who know about proper phonics but are stuck in schools which refuse listen to sound evidence about how to teach reading. I understand there is currently a petition in Australia to introduce the phonics screening there, UK-style. If this gets underway, it might be a helpful first step.

www.cis.org.au/publications/research-reports/focus-on-phonics-why-australia-should-adopt-the-year-1-phonics-screening-check/

"Among English speaking countries, Australia has one of the largest proportions of children who do not achieve minimum standards in literacy by Year 4. This could be turned around if schools used explicit, systematic phonics instruction as part of their literacy teaching."

Literacy standards are set by the individual country, so just because a country (for example, the US) has more children who achieve their literacy standard than another country (say, Australia) doesn't mean that the US has higher performing children, just perhaps lower standards.

In fact, Australia ranks above both the UK and the US in reading achievement for fifteen-year-olds.

www.businessinsider.com/pisa-worldwide-ranking-of-math-science-reading-skills-2016-12

https://theconversation.com/why-australia-should-trial-the-new-phonics-screening-check-69717
http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/back-to-basics-phonics-test-to-be-rolled-out-in-australian-schools-20161123-gsvoxs.html

@MidniteScribbler
Derailing here but where do you think dentists get their tools? Of course they have to buy all tools and materials!
Even NHS dentists are self employed practitioners who need to make a profit, they are running a business and employing staff. Some are associates who work for the practice owner and pay a percentage of their fees to cover overheads.
On the subject DS in year 1 gets either Oxford Reading Tree- but not always the phonics only ones- or older partially decodable books. It isn’t ideal especially as he’s at a private school with lots of resources. He seems to be doing well though, and they have a heavy emphasis on phonics.

The fact that Australia is considering or implementing the Year 1 phonics check doesn't mean that the school results of Australia are weaker than the school results of the UK.

I by the way know nothing about the Australian system, just that they are far from the weakest English speaking nation by international education standards.

Australia has seen a decline in literacy standards year on year since 2000 that’s why they are introducing the check.

Average wage for a dentist in Australia - $150,000
Average wage for a teacher in Australia - $67,000

In addition, the reason dentists may provide their own equipment (I don't actually even know if they do or not), most dental practices are owned by the dentist or they are a partner in the business so naturally the business needs to provide tools. Teachers are employed by a government department, and there is also a limit to how much a teacher can claim back on their tax against what they actually spend in materials.

Not exactly a comparison, is it?

Not sure what’s upset you? I was just making you aware Dentistry and teaching aren’t really comparable professions as the way they are paid is so very different. Most dentists are assciates these days, there are relatively few practice principals and many work for large Corporates.
Also we are not in Australia- at least I’m not and neither is MNHQ
Medicine within the NHS would be a better comparison as it is an employed rather than self employed profession.
Anyway I don’t think teachers should have to buy resources from their own pocket.

Perhaps if schools had spent the matched funding on replacing the books, teachers wouldn't have to replace them out of their own pocket.

It is quite difficult to believe, for most schools, that with 11years and thousands of pounds worth of available funding 'We don't have the money' is a reasonable excuse.

How did the matched funding thing work? I’ve spoken to more than 1 infant teacher who thinks I’m making it up that it even happened

Thanks for your responses btw. I’m still mulling over how best to approach it with the teacher...

My school used march funding to buy into the rwi school. But with up to 7 classes using the resources - the books we bought with match funding are for in school use only. We have some phonics books that go home but also send Home older books that are not phonicetically matched to learning. As around 5% of books sent Home go missing each year (we are talking over 200 kids taking home multiple books a week) that’s a lot to replace.
If parents ask about it I am not allowed to dismiss the schools methods. But I try to encourage chn to share more interesting stories at home and use the local library to borrow phonics and story books.

“How did the matched funding thing work?” The government matched the school’s spending on phonics books, training and resources up to a total of £3000. So if the school spent £3000 they could purchase £6000 worth of books. This was available in 2011 and 2012. Unfortunately many schools focused on buying puppets and games rather than essentials.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/funding-for-phonics-teaching-to-improve-childrens-readingng*^

If the UK wants schools to teach proper SSP using the right books, why doesn't it require these books as standard and tell schools that they have to buy them and use them?

It has since 2014 but schools/heads are ignoring the statutory requirement citing lack of money and are often ignorant of the fact that their scheme isn’t decodable.

Mrz- is that true of academies?

No academies don’t have to follow the National Curriculum

Bugger I was hoping that would be my back up ammo.

What a mess.

Thanks for your input btw

So I'm aware I'm resurrecting an old thread, but I was hoping for some more advice.

I approached the headteacher in the end who defended the use of reading recovery books in ks1 because it is part of a 'balanced approach' and quoted the EEF 2017 report. He says an SSP reading scheme is not mentioned in the national curriculum (it isn't). He says they are delivering the phonics through the teaching. He says results have improved therefore there is no problem.

I'm still really frustrated that they are encouraging confusing mixed methods. I question myself all the time about whether I'm being too dogmatic about SSP but everything I know about reading (and teaching reading) tells me that 'Mummy is climbing' guess from the picture books is a shit way to practise reading!

educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/teaching-learning-toolkit/phonics

This seems balanced and does mention that teaching reading isn't just about phonics. Comprehension and recognition of some words is important too.

Be aware that phonics isn't a magic cure all for every student either.

I think you are too focused on one method to the exclusion of all others. Phonics doesn't work for all words, nor will it be perfect for all students.

I'm not arguing that phonics is the only part of reading. But it is the best way to get sounds of the page (aka decoding). Encouraging guessing by teaching anything other than alphabetic code is deeply unhelpful. Even practising 'sight words' on flash cards leads to inefficient reading habits if they aren't encouraged to sound them out. The only children that won't be helped by proper phonics teaching are children with serious phonological issues linked to a wider language disorder. My problem is the lack of suitable reading books for my children (and others) to practice with. It just seems illogical to defend the exclusive use of crappy PM readers in ks1.

Guessing / recognising sight words isn't totally unhelpful. You seem very fixated on this issue. Many people have learnt to read that way.

As for the books, the head probably has no money, and needs to spend spare money on stuff like pencils and exercise books.

The cost of these books is prohibitive for many schools.

Not everything they read needs to be sounded out... Does she never read road signs etc?

"Guessing / recognising sight words isn't totally unhelpful" I'm afraid it is and for some children guessing becomes the default strategy and leads to years of struggle.

"As for the books, the head probably has no money, and needs to spend spare money on stuff like pencils and exercise books. " schools have had many years to build up a library of decodable books and the opportunity to access matched funding. Many wasted the cash available buying games and puppets instead of training and books.

The head needs to re-read the Y1 national curriculum, which most certainly does mention decodable books. Children must be taught to read books aloud, accurately, that are consistent with their developing phonic knowledge and that do not require them to use other strategies to work out words

Pupils’ reading and rereading of books that are closely matched to their developing phonic knowledge and knowledge of common exception words supports their fluency, as well as increasing their confidence in their reading skills.and

The EEF report correctly says that the teaching of reading isn't just about phonics and requires a balanced approach - something no one would disagree with anyway. It does not say that the teaching of decoding needs a balanced approach. It's an important distinction, misunderstood by many professionals who are not properly trained, have not developed their own practice nor read any research.

"Phonics doesn't work for all words, nor will it be perfect for all students." Which words?