DD finding Year 1 phonics boring

[miffmufferedmoof]

DD is in year 1 and quite likes some things about school but she is getting bored with all the repetition in phonics.
She passed a practice Y1 phonics screening test at the end of reception and has recently started reading chapter books.
From what she says, it seems like they do phonics every day and it’s all too easy for her.
Would it be reasonable to ask the teacher whether she could do something else instead? I don’t want to be demanding but I just can’t see that it’s a good use of her time and it’s putting her off school.
Any thoughts/advice?

Don't they usually do phonics as a group? By all means speak to the teacher but you may find that they insist.

You can ask the teacher but being honest, in the 4 schools ive got experience of, phonics is sbout 10 minutes - max 20 and whilst its boring if you know it, its not really very long and it might do her good just to cope with a bit of the day which is less interesting. What else could she do as that is what the teacher is doing? I suppose she could siit in the corner reading a book

Phonics isn't just for reading, it's also part of spelling. She will continue to have reading and spelling lessons for the rest of her time at primary school. Not every child is going to like every lesson at school but that doesn't mean that they don't have to take part. You would be very very unreasonable to ask if she can do something else.

I'm fairly sure the "formal"phonics bit is only about 10 minutes and I suspect they do it as a class. Tbh your daughter is going to find things are constantly repeated all the way up school and this won't be the only thing she finds "boring". There is an element of just having to get on with it.

I’m loving the idea of parents calling up teachers and asking if their little darling can do something else because PE/English/maths is boring.

Some parts of the day in school are boring OP. Your DD will have to learn to cope with that. She won’t be able to opt out of everything she finds boring. Far better to teach her now to persevere without being disruptive so she is in the habit of it for her later years.

I’m not saying she shouldn’t do it because it’s boring - I know everyone has to put up with some boring things - but because it’s not tailored to her ability. I genuinely think she would get more learning benefit from sitting reading a book.
Hopefully it’s usually only 10 minutes but that’s not the impression I get.

I would speak to your DD a bit more first, to find out what she means about the phonics bit being boring – is it the 10 minutes of formal teaching per day, or is it the follow-on work that she’s completely quickly and easily? What does she do when she’s finished the work? Has she asked the teacher for something more challenging and been refused?

My DD often complained of being bored in Y1, but not before or since (she’s now in Y3). She said she finished the work and did the extension work if there was any (which there often wasn’t), and then spent the rest of the time helping other children. I did have a couple of general chats with the teacher who acknowledged that she wasn’t really being stretched and said she intended to put a ‘learning plan’ in place, but nothing much happened. Fortunately, it improved in Y2.

I think it would be appropriate to have a chat with the teacher to explain that your DD is feeling bored at times, and ask the teacher whether your DD is finding the work very easy, and if so, ask how your DD is being challenged at school. I’d suggest you keep it general rather than asking for different work to replace phonics.

My year 1 DC has phonics in a group with other children who are at the same stage. It involves reading, writing and spelling. Unless your DD can spell pretty much everything, write a perfect sentence every time and has the reading age of an adult she will definitely be benefitting from phonics lessons. In my DC's class there are plenty of children who are reading several years ahead and they have no problem joining in with, and learning from phonics lessons.

To gauge whether she still needs phonics instruction I'd ask her to write down words containing ten different ways the sound /ae/ can be represented in English or perhaps fifteen different ways to represent /or/. The Phonics Screening Check only assesses very basic knowledge needed for reading and spelling In English so not a good measure of whether a child is advanced. We teach phonics for spelling right up to Y6 and some secondaries are seeing its importance.

Can't they send her upto year 2 at that time. That's what they did with my son in year one and although not ideal, it was too easy, it was better than staying in yr1.

I don’t think they are split into ability groups for phonics, although they are for some things.
It’s interesting that some people think there’s value in continuing with phonics for reading and spelling. I’ve tended to think that just reading a lot and widely will take care of that. It worked for me.
She has generally enjoyed phonics though, it’s just that it’s too easy and repetitive at the moment. For example they might have to sort a long list of words into columns of different ‘ae’ sounds. Surely they could do something like write a sentence or short story using words with four different ‘ae’ sounds or something like that?
Anyway, I’m just mulling it all over while I decide whether or not to say anything so it’s useful to have other people’s opinions and experiences.

Agree with posters that it's for spelling too. Until recently I used to do TA on a supply basis and in the school I was in they do it pretty much up to (or certainly a version of) until y4, every morning for about 15 minutes.

Agree it'd best you arrange to chat properly with class teacher to get full picture of where DD is at as being bored isn't the same as not needing it!

"I’ve tended to think that just reading a lot and widely will take care of that." It will for about a 5% of people but the rest need explicit teaching.

I think I’ll ask about what extension work they do and whether she could move onto something a bit more advanced. I think because general ability levels in the school are relatively low, the brighter ones can get held back a bit or get complacent because they’re top of the class (I have an older DD there too and have observed this with her)

Yes the phonics is boring for those that have already got the hang of it but they learn new phonics each week so she can't really miss it!

Also she may have mastered phonics for reading but how is her phonics for writing?

Also she may have mastered phonics for reading but how is her phonics for writing?

This exactly!! Just because a child is good at reading doesn’t mean they are capable at writing and spelling unfortunately.

To gauge whether she still needs phonics instruction I'd ask her to write down words containing ten different ways the sound /ae/ can be represented in English or perhaps fifteen different ways to represent /or/.
I don't think I could do that put on the spot but I still spell the relevant words correctly when they come up, which is where DD was at by year 1. Not that year 1 phonics content at her school would have been helpful if she'd known even half that much, it was taught at whole class level and they covered very limited correspondences.

OP, DD in year 1 got to the point she didn't want to go to school because of phonics and wasn't really behaving during it (e.g. she didn't want her partner to write on shared whiteboard because he'd get it wrong and take up all the space). It was more than 10 minutes. I spoke to her teacher who agreed and let DD do some comprehension worksheets instead, DD was very happy and learning again. It's perfectly possible and not a ridiculous thing to ask.

But you're not learning phonics are you? I bet you could if you thought about it
Day, rain, made, eight, straight, they, great, ballet, veil, reign
Autumn, sort, saw, board, more, water, caught, thought, court, wart, dinosaur, walk, broad, awe, door

Once children have mastered and feel confident with the five phonics phases they go onto support for spelling which continues throughout the school and is necessary even if your dd is a good reader. So suggesting that your dd can do something else because she's bored is a bit silly tbh. I would suggest talking to the teacher and explaining what your dd has said because she may be able to join a year 2 group. It's very common here for year 1 and year 2 to mix and create ability groups for phonics.

Hollowvictory but they don’t learn new phonics every week! They’re just repeating the same old basics over and over again to make sure everyone passes the phonics screening check.
Her writing is very good. Not always correct spelling but always phonetically plausible.
Thanks thirdfiddle!
Redcrayon yes, working with a year 2 group sounds sensible but I’m not sure if it would work practically. They don’t seem to mix age groups for that sort of thing.

Her writing is very good. Not always correct spelling but always phonetically plausible.

So she's exactly where she needs to be in terms of Y1 phonics. Her phonics knowledge is developing.

^this. She's still learning. There'll be other kids that are in the same position. There'll be many times where she already is familiar with what's being taught. Part of school is consolidation of knowledge and yes there'll be tines she may be a bit bored. However I also was like this when my kids were in year 1.now they are in year 6 I've chilled!

mrz, they don't teach all those spellings in year 1 at our school, maybe 2-3 for each sound. They won't teach ahead. Given a child who spells accurately using full range of correspondences and reads familiar words correctly and unfamiliar words feasibly, what else are they going to get out of year 1 whole class phonics teaching with its very limited set of correspondences? In DD's case, teacher agreed nothing so gave her something different that she could do independently.

But more generally if a child is finding a particular aspect of the curriculum too easy, good teachers want to know and may well be able to tweak things, or explain to child what aspect they aren't mastering yet so they know what to concentrate on. Talk to the teacher is always a good idea if your child is unhappy, particularly when they're so little, so I don't like the pouring scorn on the idea in this thread. Kids aren't always great at putting themselves forward asking for more challenge.

X post with OP's update, if she isn't spelling accurately yet then maybe that's the aspect she should be working on in the phonics lessons. Still worth talking to teacher though, it may be that talking to your DD about thinking about spelling will be enough to help, or may be teacher can make a point of throwing more challenging spelling questions her direction.