Is your child in Reception?

[Jinglefox]

If so, could you tell me where they are with their phonics/reading please and maybe what the range is like in their class.

DS is 4.5 and seems to be quite far behind other children in his class. He only recognises a few letter sounds. He’s no where near blending and reading.

His class is small and seems quite academic. Some of the children are reading tricky words. I’m wondering if they’re unusually ahead or if DS is going to struggle (Older sibling has SEN).

DD is 4.5 and knows her letters and numbers and can read simple three letter words. But some of her friends are wildly ahead of this. And others behind. I know it's easy to be glib but I don't think it matters at all at this age, they progress at different rates. My view is that school will
flag if there are concerns. Many kids don't even start school until 6/7 in Europe.

My Ds is 4 his can blend simple words and is starting to read sentences. He knows all of his sounds but has speech issues so it’s not always clear. He will have a go at sounding any word he sees! I think there’s a group ahead of him but he is one of the youngest

My child is not in Reception until next year but I used to teach Reception. Please don't worry, it's not a race. Don't compare your child to others.

I used to teach in a school in London which was outstanding and all the children did really well and were really happy. It was a lovely place. No-one went near a single Phonics related thing until January and because they were that bit older and more ready they took to it and picked it up really quickly. By Summer they were much more confident than classes I've worked with where they'd plugged away at it all year. We're not even in December yet so please try to relax.

The most important thing at this point in the year is settling and building confidence and independence.

Learning through play is absolutely vital and should be the priority.

My younger daughter will be 5 in January, she is not confident with all the letter sounds yet, but she will have a go at sounding out and blending 3 and 4 letter words (though she doesn't seem to recognise any digraphs yet). And she likes breaking spoken words down into the letter sounds too. There is a massive range of ability in her class - some are reading fluently (and were before they even started school). I suspect my daughter is in the lower half but I know they all have their 'aha!' moment at different times. For example, my 7yo was one of the last in her class to get the hang of blending, but now she's in year 2 and she's a really good reader and writer......Once she got the hang of it she accelerated and easily caught up.

Thanks everyone, sounds like the children in DS’s class are typical. I was hoping they were unusually bright!

Everything from sounding out simple CVC words and to free readers. If your son didn’t do any phonics with you or in preschool his level seems normal and not having started early isn’t a problem either.

My DD is in reception and is just 5.
She is blending pretty well, but at 4.5 she was only just starting to hear the first sounds of words. If I asked her what cat started with she could struggle to hear and discern the sound in her head.

The change in the last 6 months has been huge, so I honestly wouldn't worry about where he's at just yet.
He will get there in his own sweet time, with a bit of practice each day.

Teach your monster to read has been a fantastic help at home though.

DD is just 5 - and her blending/reading has SUDDENLY come on.

Only a little while ago she was making mistakes with the letter-sounds, and her blending seemed almost random. But something must've clicked in the last month. She can now read her reading book herself, slowly, and but with only a little support for non phonetic words.

She isn't able to sound-out/spell-out words yet though. So if she was trying to write 'snowflake' for instance, she'd get the S and the K but the rest might be a jumble.

Our biggest challenge is making sure it's fun for her, and doesn't become a burden. Reading and writing are so important (in later life) and can give such joy, I'm keen to make sure that she doesn't get put off by us pushing her to read too soon.

My son is in reception, June birthday.

He can read CVC words and CVCC with the digraphs he knows.

He sounds them out usually, but is starting to be able to do the sounding out in his head rather than out loud. He can take a while for each word.

I’d guess he’s about middle of his class.

Sounding out CVC words confidently and a few sight words 'the' 'a' etc is usually the goal by Christmas. Some will be beyond this, others behind but that's the expectation/ average.

We have some who are still struggling with single sounds and cvc words and one who has already read Harry Potter ( yes, honestly, she read it before she joined us in September 😲)

My DS is 5 in reception and can recognise lots of sounds but not yet blending. The spread at this stage is huge.

And still bloody wordless books home

How do you know what other children are doing?

The local Primaries use a phonics scheme where children are placed in groups based on ability not age. So you can have groups with a good range of ages, some children get phonics quicker than others. It is still early days in Reception.

Are school letting you know what sounds they are learning so you can practise at home?

I teach Reception and have just assessed my class. 20 children are reading a CVC word (three letter word with a vowel in the middle). 6 are recognising all the taught sounds and can hear and blend them in a word (eg, I say c....a....t, they can hear the word cat)
3 children have picked up a handful of sounds and tricky words but no idea of blending. 2 children are SEN and not assessed.
They're a pretty average Reception class although I'm impressed they're not further behind tjan average given the amount of nursery they have missed.

That may or may not help but if you're worried I'd suggest requesting a chat with the teacher.

@spanieleyes OMG @ Harry Potter!

@FASDE1517 thanks, that is helpful.

Thanks everyone else for sharing.

I’ve spoken to the teacher recently, but wanted to know where he was in comparison to other children of the same age.

Did he go to a school nursery and learn phonics last year or are phonics all new to him this year?

Yes he went to the school nursery from 2.5 (missed one term due to lockdown) they did phonics.

DD is just turned 5 and she's just this week started to properly blend and read 3 and 4 letter words without lots of prompting and cajoling along. We've been reading Kit And Dan this week and it's the first time it felt like she was actually reading to me. But like others have said, it's a huge spread of ability at this age,

My daughter is now in year 1 and there is still a massive spread and a number of children still on red books who presumably have needed a bit more time to get blending.

It would be the letter recognition that would worry more than blending. Do you think he just needs more input or is he struggling to get it at all? When we had home schooling last year there was a lot on letter recognition and games like treasure hunts, splatting the right letter, races etc for those that needed a bit more time to learn them. Things that were all just quite fun and felt like playing rather than ‘learning’.

I just looked some up of our home schooling pictures from this time last year (bubble closure) and I’ve got a video of mine reading cvc sentences (v slowly and blending like d-o-g ‘dog’) and starting to do cvcc works like duck. I’ve also got some sort of train track scene going on for letter recognition (shouting out letters as the train goes past) and a picture of a scavenger hunt for objects beginning with letters.

Thank you @Bunnycat101.
I think they do games like that in class. I’ve got some resources to do more at home. Maybe other parents have being dong a lot more at home from the beginning of term. It’s only this week that I’ve realised there’s such a big gap.

Former Reception teacher. It's totally normal to have a class with phonics abilities at this point in the year that range from only being able to recognise a couple of sounds to being able to read simple books.

Please don't worry! It's amazing how much progress some children make over the year!

My DD is now in Yr 6...
But she was on the Pink book band in Yr1. She suddenly picked up blending in the Autumn term. She passed the Phonics screening a few months later through her own hard work and that of her teacher/TAs.

Its still really early.