Little waddle

[Whatdidisay]

Does anyone have any experience with the little waddle reading scheme in schools.
My child was doing really well last year and progressed quickly through the old style book bands becoming a free reader. Their comprehension and expression were very good and was enjoying reading proper stories rather than the clunky phonic type books.
However since moving to little waddle she has to read as part of a group and is therefore now having to read phase 5 books which seems to be where the rest of the class is which is no challenge at all and she finds it easy and the books boring.
Worse still they have to read the same book over and over for a whole week.
I appreciate that this new scheme may be good for some children but it feels like its holding mine back and they are no longer enjoying us reading together, although obviously they still read their own books to themselves which they prefer.
Should I be that parent and broach the subject with the school, or should I just roll with it knowing that they can read what they want at home?

It’s called Little Wandle. We are using the phonics scheme but not the reading part of it so I can’t comment on that sorry. As far as I remember what you describe is the system they use. But the books shouldn’t be really easy and boring. It is worth asking school about it though.

My spell checker obviously doesn't like the word wandle!
Thank for the reply:
They seem to read in groups now, the whole group get the same book for the week, these books are at a much lower level than what my child has been used to used to! (One sentence per page etc)

It isn't Little Wandle- it is all phonics and early reading- it is the national change in how Ofsted judge schools based on their view of how reading should be taught.

Ofsted were also were heavily involved in the publication of the 'DfE' guidance on the teaching of reading published in the summer.

Write to Amanda Spielman.

If the school are using little wandle correctly your child should be assessed and then books matched to their reading level, they might have just done this before half term. You might find that the books are more appropriate after half term. Books are read three times to develop confidence both in reading and comprehension. Also, it was highly unlikely your child was reading three times to an adult in school beforehand due to time constraints so actually this is probably a bonus. Are you receiving the same book at home to read with your child? That is part of the scheme so that children read with confidence to their families at home.

There is a parent page on the website you can access with more information.

I'm using it, both as a parent and a teacher. Give it some time, they've not been through one whole assessment cycle yet. It's so specific to each child's skills so I highly doubt they'll be reading at the wrong level withing a week or two after half term.
Children are supposed to be able to read books which come home with 95% fluency, good prosody and comprehension. They definitely should not be challenging at all.

Not in the UK but our school do an intensive 6 week literacy programme each year for certain classes and part of it is repetitive reading. There is a purpose to it.

Thanks everyone, the problem seems to be that they work in groups, so the books can't be at a level that the rest of the group can not read fluently?
I will see how it goes after half term, she is an avid reader at home so I guess working below her level at school wont do much harm?

Our school have started using it this term and it is quite a change to get used to. DS in Year 2 gets one book for the week which he is supposed to read at school and at home. There is a lot less content than the books he had previously and he was used to much longer books that would last a week, He can read the Wandle book correctly and fluently on the first run through. There's maybe two words in the whole thing he might have to work out, the rest he knows. His comprehension seems good too. He was reading white band (level 10) at the end of year 1 and from Little Wandle's website it seems the top end of their scheme matches the old green/orange bands (level 5/6). He's reading several library books at home each week but I don't think he is supposed to as we should apparently only use Wandle books. If he was given one a night it would be OK as he enjoys the books but the school doesn't have enough books for that and the scheme seems to suggest one book for the group for the week. The Wandle website also seems to suggest it might not be suitable for all of Year 2? I'm wondering at what point they can "graduate" off the scheme like the old "free reader" idea. That's a question for the upcoming parents' evening.

Mig, thanks for the reply! It sounds like we are in a similar situation! I think I will bring it up at parents evening as my child was past this level of book by the end of reception!

I could have easily written this post. I'm finding it absolutely ridiculous, my son is in year 2 and is bringing home phase 3 books, 5 words on a page. When I challenged the school I was told it was because he had to know every word without sounding it out before he could bring the book home. I'm so disappointed as in year 1 he was excelling in his reading, I feel like he's gone backwards because of this, they need to be challenged surely!!

We are currently introducing the Little Wandle scheme at our school. The books given should be closely matched to the phonics knowledge of each child (based on individual assessments) & if a child is not at the same level as anyone else in the class, they should be put into a ‘group’ on their own with an appropriate book & still complete 3 sessions a week (there’s a different focus for each session). It’s also recommended that you share lots of other stories with your child (& in school) to build comprehension skills (lots of schools send additional non-phonetic books home to help with this, but children are not expected to read these independently). If you don’t feel the book is matched to your child’s phonic knowledge, the best thing to do would be to speak to the school. It sounds like your child is doing very well & has lots of support at home, which is great.

I am finding similar. The books coming home are very basic, not challenging and being read fluently. The school told me this was the aim but he hasn’t moved book band for a whole term!

It’s just starting for my child. I’m a bit dubious about mine reading the same book 4 times. She will have memorised it by the second read through so it feels entirely pointless especially as it seems like the books she’s on are beyond Little Wandle. I’m sure there is a reason for it but it seems like a backwards step for children that are ahead.

@YoungGiftedPlump

It isn't Little Wandle- it is all phonics and early reading- it is the national change in how Ofsted judge schools based on their view of how reading should be taught.

Ofsted were also were heavily involved in the publication of the 'DfE' guidance on the teaching of reading published in the summer.

Write to Amanda Spielman.

My childs school is not doing this little Wandle scheme but we're still being asked to read books 3 times now, generally bringing home one book a week. My Dd is very reluctant to read and absolutely refuses to re-read the books. As a consequence she's now reading less. It's stupid.

We’re asked to read the same 3 times a week! As a result he’s reading less different material.

Children are supposed to be able to read books which come home with 95% fluency, good prosody and comprehension. They definitely should not be challenging

Perfect….do the children know they should be reading with good prosody?

(Actually they probably do. I remember being a mixture of impressed and aghast when ds1 came home using the term ‘ellipsis’ in Year 1. I’d heard of the word, but had to get him to remind me what it meant, if I’d ever known! Have never even heard of prosody. Now know what it means, though!)

@HunkyPunk

Children are supposed to be able to read books which come home with 95% fluency, good prosody and comprehension. They definitely should not be challenging

Perfect….do the children know they should be reading with good prosody?

(Actually they probably do. I remember being a mixture of impressed and aghast when ds1 came home using the term ‘ellipsis’ in Year 1. I’d heard of the word, but had to get him to remind me what it meant, if I’d ever known! Have never even heard of prosody. Now know what it means, though!)

My year 2s can tell you what good prosody is!

There is a lot of power in re-reading for fluency and word recognition, but as the parent of a 4YO I absolutely get that it can be dull for them with the decodables.

There’s probably a lot less power in it than people think IMO. Particularly once children are familiar with the book and are moving on to reciting it from memory. It seems like the opposite of the thing you want to encourage if you are looking for reading fluency.

The real test of reading fluency presumably comes at the start of the next week when they are given a new book they haven’t seen before.

Ah shame I think dds school are just introducing this new scheme.
She’s moved primary schools and one of the things I disliked abort the old one was this approach. I didn’t really realise it was a National thing,

Both myself and my child are less motivated and disciplined about reading the same book at homes multiple times. And she memorises too,
Maybe there is benefit to repetitive reading but if they end up reading less it’s stupid isn’t it,
What was wrong with the old way?

A lot will depend on how good the books are tbh. There is a big difference between re-reading a favourite, well-written story and some of the dross that appears in the reading schemes.

We had a history book home last night that my daughter had about a month ago as she was genuinely interested in the topic and wanted to re-read. There were bits she was doing from memory and not really reading despite the length of time. She had one the night before that was painfully dull. I think she’d be annoyed to have to re-read that one for a second time let alone a fourth.

It's nothing to do with a particular scheme and everything to do with the statutory requirements of the National curriculum to re read books.

Newnamemsz How does the requirement to re-read books get translated into ‘you will read the same book 4 times in a week’ though?

That's the school's policy probably based on the works of Samuels and Chomsky who advocated repeated reading of the same book to develop fluency, generally 3 or 4 times or perhaps more to do with availability of appropriate books.

Found this thread after getting an exciting email from school and accompanying book home with my Y2 child. Thanks for the help in understanding what has felt infuriating to me without the other part of the story.

I know schools are in a difficult position and kids in a class/year group are now probably spread even further in ability/levels than they were before, so the content is having to drop as a result, but then what happens to the more able children in the class?

School's are now required to adopt a government accredited scheme to teach phonics. They are all very similar and prescriptive - school's are penalised by OFSTED if they do not have 100% fidelity to the scheme.
The re-reading of books that children can easily read is part of the approach. However none of this stops any parent reading whatever they like with their children - our school explicitly tells parents to read to, and with their children from a broad range of reading books. You should definitely not feel handcuffed to your child's reading book. Reading books for the teaching of reading are just a tool, you should not be relying on them solely as parents. Get down the library or the book shop ...