What do I do about reading books my daughter can't possibly read?

[Patchworksack]

Mr third child has just started Reception. The school have changed how they teach phonics AGAIN (3rd child through school, 3rd method= Read, Write, Inc) and I have dutifully attended the meeting to explain the method and gone out and bought the parent pack to support her at home. She is just starting to read CVC words and has been sent her first few books with words home. They are sending home ORT books which she can't possibly read with the method they are teaching - every page contains at least one word which has sounds she has not been taught, including split digraphs, y making an 'I' sound, ing endings etc. Given that these are books with 3-5 words to a page it's a significant amount of it she can't decode. I recognise they have budget constraints and maybe don't have enough RWI books for every child, is it too much to ask for books she can read with the method she is being taught, given that I'm expected to make her read it every night for a week? It is very definitely for her to read, they have another library book which is a story for the adult to read to the child.

Are the non-decodable words “tricky words”? They’re taught alongside the phonics based ones.

You can buy black and white versions of the read, write inc books on amazon fairly cheaply. If you're worried I'd buy those.

My DDs did a mix of phonics and other methods as they are now in their 20s. When there were words they didn’t know, we used context of what they were reading to have a go at what the word could be. That leads to a greater understanding of the story and aids vocabulary. I didn’t expect them to read every single word. We read every night and we had library books too that never fitted any reading scheme. They just expanded vocabulary for a very bright child. You can help with the words she doesn’t know because it stops the flow and enjoyment of reading if you don’t.

They're not non-decodable, they are just using phonics she has not been taught yet, and is not due to be taught until yr1, according to the meeting school held.
I guess I'm asking if it is a reasonable expectation that her school reading book is readable using the method that school are choosing to teach her?

No it's not. Because the school can't go around throwing away perfectly good books and they don't have the budget to buy loads and loads of new books just because they have changed the scheme they use.

Feel free to ask the teacher what to do but I would suggest you pick out the decodable words and get your child to try reading those and you read the rest to them.

I do think schools ought to give explicit instruction on this though because there are three threads like this every week - it must be a problem in every school in the country!

You’re sure it’s the right book for her level - she hasn’t just picked one from the box and it’s accidentally a higher level? Mistakes happen easily - I’d just ask to change it.

I'd send them back with the note 'this book is inappropriate with her current level of phonetic knowledge.... please provide appropriate ones.'

I would do the best you can reading them with her and help her with what she doesn’t know. Then just make a note in her reading log of what she was and wasn’t able to do.

Reading is about more than just decoding anyway. Get her using the pictures and the context to help her. Even if she can’t read the whole word, what’s the first sound? Could she work it out from that and the sounds she does know?

I'm trying not to be a pain in the arse because I recognise they are short of funds. I shall grind my teeth quietly in frustration and not make an issue of it. Thanks everyone who replied.

I would get her to read the words she can and you read the words she can't. And don't stress.

I'm on child #3 and teaching method #3 too and I realise that they all learn to read one way or the other (barring actual issues) and that the latest miracle scheme is neither here nor there really in the grand scheme of things.

I would order some black and white RWI books online, as suggested above. Or, if you have lots of money and are very nice, get full color ones that can be donated to the school.

I thought schools got matched funding for buying fully decodable readers for kids. What happened to that money?

I bought a set of phonic reading books from the bookpeople and used these for my #3. We used the school ones to read jointly with him reading the words he had learnt the phonics for. I donated the books to the school as he went through them to add to their phonic reading stocks. Not ideal but as you say schools have no money.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/primary/2760537-Am-I-right-in-thinking-a-school-should-have-a-phonics-based-reading-scheme?messages=100&pg=1

Aha--I just did a search and schools have had matched funding provided for years and years and have had a long time to take care of this issue (since before 2014), and clear information about which schemes they should be buying.

There is literally no more important task that a school has than teaching children to read--everything else follows from being literate. Unless they have spent zero money on trips, playground equipment, IWBs, fun-but-non-essential school events, how can they justify not having proper books when the funding has been there?

A lot of schools (including DD's school) have not taken up the matched funding offers and are still using random old mixed scheme books. However, if the school have adopted a new scheme and 'trained' the parents, it seems ridiculous that the school is sending home the wrong type of books.

I would send a note in, along the lines suggested by Tomorrow, and perhaps refer to the parent training too. Perhaps something like this:

"This book is inappropriate with her current level of phonetic knowledge that was carefully explained at the excellent parent briefing recently. Please can my daughter be provided with books that match her current stage of learning."

If the school doesn’t have enough books, at least your DD will be more likely to get the appropriate ones (and others will miss out – but that’s hardly your fault).

"Because the school can't go around throwing away perfectly good books and they don't have the budget to buy loads and loads of new books just because they have changed the scheme they use." money was available to buy decodable books many schools chose not to or wasted the money buying "fluff" instead of investing in quality books and training.

"- it must be a problem in every school in the country" it isn't!

"Get her using the pictures and the context to help her." Please ignore this advice. Teaching your child the strategies employed by poor readers isn't the answer.

Please ignore this advice. Teaching your child the strategies employed by poor readers isn't the answer.

That’s rubbish. That’s a recognised strategy that early readers are supposed to use.

If they didn’t have the money to buy the appropriate books why did they change schemes?

Inniu that is an excellent question.

"That’s a recognised strategy that early readers are supposed to use" no it isn't, it's a strategy to be discouraged.

Not according to the latest whole schoo reading training I had two weeks ago.

You don’t encourage your students to look for contextual clues to what a word might be?

Mrz is correct - it's a debunked strategy which encourages gusssing, not reading. The National Curriculum states that children should practise their reading using decodable books that closely match their phonic knowledge and that do not require them to use other strategies.