If your dc does jolly phonics...

[tinypop4]

What kind of books are they bringing home to read? I'm totally confused by this. Dd is in reception and they are well underway teaching them jolly phonics. Dd went to school in Asia for a year and already learnt most of them there, but she's enjoying the songs etc that go with it. Teacher had assessed her at yellow level (I don't know what this means) and she is bringing home books with yellow stickers on. Some of these are dead easy like 'Tim has a cat' and some are really quite hard, like Polar Bear What Can you Hear which had some super hard words in.
Are they not meant to follow some kind of scheme to support the learning going on in the classroom?
I would see the teacher to ask but she's been off a couple of days so just calling on the knowledge of mumsnet ...

Our follow the dreaded chip, biff and kipper... ORT scheme.

It sounds like they’ve got some old books there, that contain sounds they’ve not yet taught in class. Ideally speak to the teacher for clarification, but if she’s not in at the moment perhaps write a note in the reading record, to say that your DD appeared not to be able to decode the following words. Perhaps ask if the teacher thinks your DD should have known these sounds, and could you have a chat to find out how you can help her?

Hopefully the teacher has just made a mistake, or the book was actually designed for you to read to her, rather than her to you. The alternative is that your DD’s school (like many others, sadly, including my DD’s school) is using ‘mixed methods’.

Thank you Ginmummy what is mixed methods? Why would a school choose to do this instead of a reading scheme?

This book?

Yes Norest.

I thought some of the words were really long for her stage of reading (boa constrictor) and some quite hard to break down like leopard. She did pretty well with it but it was very different to 'Tim's Din' which we had the day before!

The Polar Bear book looks like it should be in a higher level phonics section. Did she get it by mistake?

Perhaps (it seems like a higher level of reading to me) but it had 2 yellow stickers on it so it was in the yellow box that she chooses a book from!

The Julia Donaldson phonics books are lovely and have a bit more interest in them than the school ones at the early stages.

I would assume that it is a library book for you to share rather than a reading book for your child to read independently

Norest dd selected from the yellow reading book box - these are their books to read! Perhaps it's been incorrectly labelled and shouldn't be yellow, although right now I'm not even sure what yellow band means! This is why I thought they followed reading schemes

Our school sends home 2 books. One for the child to read based on phonics ability, and then one for parents to read to the child. I would guess that this is what your school are doing.

I’d be very worried if the school is including “real” books in their early reading scheme. It certainly doesn’t comply with National Curriculum requirements

Norest thanks for clarifying that- it is actually the second real book she had this week. Obviously she can't really read them in any meaningful way.
I think I will make an appointment to see the teacher when she's back as I'm not clear on what they're doing.

mrz, I've been wondering what your thoughts would be on the reading 'scheme' books at my DC's school. Basically, they've abandoned reading scheme books and bought a new library of non scheme books, which they've then allocated a reading level colour to themselves.

Apparently, they decided to do this to improve comprehension and children's interest. I can't say I've found this a reality, as DS is basically reading toddler books which don't overly interest him and as they can be pretty random there often isn't really a story to follow.

Am I right in thinking this is going against the national curriculum?

Sorry to hijack Tinypop but it seemed a similar issue!

Is that for every year group?

I believe so, certainly for KS1.

I can't work out if it's holding DS back or not, he's only just gone onto blue level in Yr1 but has just got 40 out of 40 in the practice phonics tests they've been doing.

Though after KS1, they're generally free readers anyway aren't they?

It’s a statutory requirement of the National Curriculum should match the children phonic skills and knowledge so I’d be concerned.
I’d also wonder why they are allocating reading colours and what criteria they are using to decide.

Thanks mrz, these are my concerns, I think I'll fire off an email to the school.

I've actually just dug out the original letter and apparently this is better because these are 'real' books, whereas reading scheme books have low comprehension levels. As far as I can work out, the more words/pages the higher the arbitrary reading level

Which is absolute rubbish. More words doesn’t mean more difficult.