Reading in reception, advice needed

[EndlessUserName]

My DS school isn't brilliant in teaching reading, very low expectations it seems after talking to friends in other areas. DS is April born and in Reception, currently on Oxford level 1+ / pink. We read every day at home (we have a great library so I get the books, school only read with him once a week and send home one book a week) is there anything else I can be doing? I'd love for him to be able to go up the levels like he would if his school had normal / higher expectations. And how have you approached reading at home when they aren't teaching the higher phonic stages at school yet? Thanks for any advice

I’d be encouraging additional reading at home, maybe letting him choose library books to borrow etc

In reception, I wouldn't worry too much. School are all different, some just let children go up the level, some seems to stall.
I think what you are doing is great. Get the books from library, and read with him everyday.
You can teach him higher phonic stage if you like, if you search, there are a lot of great advice from great teachers how to teach phonics at home on MN.

Don't get hung up on the book that comes home from school, just continue to get loads of books out of the library, read to him and let him read with you.

Oh, and the once a week he reads his ORT book isn't the only time he is reading. He will be reading things all the time in school.

Thanks. We get lots from library - phonics books and story books

School definitely don't do much with him, he only reads to the TA and that's only once a week. They do teach phonics daily though. I know this is all accurate.

I guess I'm also wondering about the phonics side though? I'm worried about how he can progress with reading when they're not moving up the phonics stages at school very quickly? I'm confident in reading with him and explaining sounds etc but also don't want to "teach" him too much at home as he's tired enough as it is

They don’t progress in a steady way at this age. Sometimes they are ‘stuck’ at one stage for a while then suddenly it ‘clicks’. If your son enjoys it then lots of reading is good. But keep up with bedtime stories, other games and play. Don’t panic. At the end of the day no one asks when you learnt to read in a job interview.

We've got the opposite problem! DD is one if the oldest and a good reader - but the teacher is flying through the stage 3 phonics already eg 'ear' and 'air' and none of them are sticking! She can tell me the new sound at the end of the day, but if it appears in something we're reading a couple of days after, no clue.

So from my angle there's a strong argument for taking the phonics slow and steady - they are the absolute foundations of reading so good to be secure.

DS school is taking the teaching very slowly but then sending home old look and say books he can't read without the sounds they haven't taught him ... (he doesn't pick words up as wholes at all so look and say really doesn't work for him, he needs the phonics).

I've started teaching new sounds to him, only one new sound every 2 weeks at the moment so as to hopefully not overload him. I've printed off keywords with words with the sounds in and he is happy to read them every other day over breakfast, it takes less than 5 minutes.

On the other day, we practice reading some.of the irregular high frequency words that look and say books are also full of, again for only about 5 min.

What phonics scheme is your school teaching, can you work out what they'll be teaching next?

Pink books half way through reception is unusual I’d have thought. I’d be speaking to the teacher to ask what they intend to do to help your ds catch up.

Slow and steady is fine. Racing through book bands does not help either

Lots of reading at home helps. DD had just got to yellow books at the end of reception but was put back to red at beginning of Y1. The teachers didn't really seem to be doing much to push her on so I asked them to let her try and now she is on blue. I think she'll go up at least one more. We read almost every night and she reads signs and stuff when we're out. She isn't overly keen on phonics, some things she gets much better if you just tell her the word and she'll remember it. We try not to overdo it as I want her to enjoy reading.

I don't think still being on pink books at this time of year is unusual if they are taking the teaching very slowly. Do they do guided / group reading or are they literally just reading once with the teacher?

My DS has only just moved up from pink books, and from what they told me at parents evening and he tells me about other children in the guided reading he is doing well by their standards.

I also bought the songbirds set and am getting what decodable reading books my local library has out to supplement.

Thanks everyone.

@tiredanddangerous yes it is unusual isn't it, we're new to the area and know that this is so different to most of the country from talking to friends, our past experience with the elder boys, from googling! His class (not just him) only started bringing home pink after Xmas... But locally it's what every school seems to do, my local friends think it's normal... So I don't see what school will do as to them it's just the way things are done iyswim.

Taking phonics slow is interesting, thanks for that I hadn't thought of it like that. The teaching that he has had has really stuck with him so that's a bonus I suppose

I may try teaching a sound every fortnight, that sounds very manageable. And we do key words too already but that has lapsed lately so will keep that up

So my list to myself!

Try not to panic!
I will keep doing bedtime stories etc of course
Read phonics books, aiming for daily
Practice key words
Maybe look at some new phonics sounds with him slowly

@Duckchick no guided reading, literally reading once a week to the TA

I don’t think it’s totally uncommon because in some schools the books only start going out after Xmas.

You can subscribe to reading chest and get additional pink and red books and read loads at home

You can also access Oxford Owl ebooks free at home - including biff chip and kipper etc

There is also the app Reading Eggs for tablets, which doesn’t exactly follow the UK phonics scheme, so I know some teachers aren’t sure, but it’s used by some primary schools in the uk and my dds have loved and really benefited from it. I do it with them and make sure I talk through the slightly different bits.

Former reception teacher here. You sound sensible in terms of wanting him to make progress, so you could get some pink and red books to read with him. If you wanted to do phonics with him, look at Letters and Sounds as it will give you an order of sounds to follow. Perhaps one or two a week? I recommend Mr Thorne does Phonics, on his website or YouTube - my reception classes loved him! Do some phonics spotting while you're out and about too.

But above all, read lots with/to him and foster that love of reading that kids need to really make progress! The children I've seen 'click' with reading (not just at reception, but older too, when they're ready) are the ones whose adults at home have really helped them develop an excitement to read.

Oh, and first books going home after Christmas doesn't sound too unusual to me. Schools I've taught in, the first half-term in September is recapping phase 1, then they start phase 2 in October. They can't start reading until they have at least a couple of sounds securely and can blend and segment, which can take time as a skill to learn. Then, of course, all the Christmas things begin to eat into phonics time for a couple of weeks, so after Christmas seems like a natural place to start giving out reading books, I suppose.

Thank you everyone, lovely sensible advice and very reassuring

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