Reception child, phonics

[88milesanhour]

My 4.5 YO has just started reception. I wouldn't say she's ridiculously ahead with her reading or obsessed with it/hyperlexic. She brings home new reading books once a week. She blends really well and seems to understand what she's reading well. She also gets a phonics folder every other week with some new phonics sounds/tricky words. The thing is she's literally got the new sounds/sight words memorised in minutes. I have taught her a bunch more sight words in addition to what they gave her at school and she's got all of the phase 2 and phase 3 words memorised (including 'all' haha) I've made this quite obvious by including a printout of these extra words in her folder and ticking them but there's no evidence that the teachers have even tested on these.

My issue is that she's come home today with.an 'updated' phonics folder. However it literally only has 2 more sounds added and no sight words. These are to last her for the next 2 maybe 3 (half term) weeks. She will have them memorised by the end of tonight. Also, the reading books she has are way behind the sounds and sight words she's familiar with and basically the same as last week's meaning she's not actually enjoying using her new sounds. I don't want to (and am not going to) pressurise my child but I'm thinking that if the pace isn't picked up she'll just start to find the phonics element of reading even more tedious.

Has anyone else been in the same boat? What have you found works? Do I stretch my dd to what I think she's capable of or trust her teacher. They are a fantastic school and she's very happy there. I want to add too that she's read to frequently by us atm and this is still very much our focus. Thanks x

Ds point blank refused to do phonics, he was already reading before he started school, he learned words by sight & once he had a good collection of words could work out what new words were. He was bored stiff in phonics lessons & he could read the books that school sent home in 5 minutes. I let him read what he wanted at home, I bought him books & comics, he was & still is an avid reader, he could spell really well, could read 5+letter words when he started school. Don't worry what school do, carry on reading your own books at home, buy comics, make flash cards, do spelling games & word searches, even reading adverts & shop names, ds started learning to read by reading supermarket names.

My daughter had a similar experience - she was a confident reader on starting Reception (now year 2). The class were split into ability groups for phonics at some point, but were definitely still all together at this stage. Phonics sessions for her became about handwriting practice as she already knew the sounds. I supplied extra books at the level she was reading, using the library and then buying them when lockdown happened. Lockdown actually helped us because we could work at her pace and we would do the set class work first thing in the morning and then move on! Schoolwork still doesn’t challenge her but she enjoys school and has lovely friends. I have also added other activities outside school - she does ballet, tennis, swimming and French and is now asking to learn piano, although in Reception she was too tired to do much after school.

Thank you everyone for the advice. I will probably just politely question it with her teacher. I actually find it quite sad that so many people just think I shouldn't do anything extra with her at all... I'm not talking about pinning her down to a desk for an hour a day I'm talking about a quick 2 minutes reading every so often. I know she's only 4 right now but I also firmly believe that reading is very much a foundation for all future learning so why would I not want her to learn to her full ability?! I'm also aware that at a standard primary school kids will usually be worked to an 'average' level and that she might not necessarily be stretched to acheive above that level in her classroom and this is where parents come in. We already do plenty of additional things. She's getting her uniform on for a whole morning of dance as we speak. We go on fun walks and to the park. She's been able to ride a pedal bike no stabilisers sikce she was just turned 3. I teach her a tiny bit of piano. I'm not sure what the big uproar is about going at a pace that I know she's more than capable of doing comfortably. Most educators will agree that if we give a child the tools to read well then everything else will generally fall into place so whereas I don't want to remove the joy and other important elements of early years education I'm sure as hell not going to be lassez-faire with her reading or numeracy either x

@88milesanhour FWIW I completely agree with everything that you've said. My DD could read decently before she started Reception (around red/yellow ORT). Her school do set for ability but the first few books she had sent home were very much of the 'Tim sat on the mat' variety. I found it very frustrating.
However, I've had to try to chill out and accept that school won't necessarily be able to move her on as quickly as I would choose to. So we read her reading books from school (they are much closer to her actual ability now that she's in Y1) to help with fluency and expression and I supplement them with harder books to challenge her a bit more. It seems to be working and I feel happy with this set up.

@88milesanhour
I do agree with you too. My DD1 was a quick reader before the phonics obsession. The point about phonics is that it’s a policy for slower readers to end up being good enough readers so they can access secondary school curriculum. If you have time, the Reading Framework published by the government in Jan 2021 makes interesting reading.

I think bright DC are frustrated by slow progress. Teachers do not seem to assess ability before DC come into school or in the first few weeks. I knew my DD at 4.4 was ready to read but when she was given the opportunity in Yr she did really well very quickly. Others could read on starting school and they had a different diet of books. Fair enough. They didn’t all learn together at the same pace. Why would you not build on existing knowledge and skills?

Fo go to the library and do your own thing. Children with a big vocabulary will be bored by phonics. They should, in my view, have their needs catered for too.

I'd stretch her so she continues to enjoy reading. Her teachers won't be catering for a gifted reader. No harm in you going with it. I'm not sure what other posters think will happen if you do. She'll be less bored, definite win.

If it’s a good school she’ll have fun revising the phonics she already knows as it will just be like a fun game at school but I’d definitely suggest that you teach her yourself as well if you are confident. Reading opens up the whole world .

The Julia Donaldson phonics books are great to work with at home as the books are actually fun the read but still adhere to a synthetic phonics scheme. Also, playing Teach Your Monster to Read is also great. Continue to read books that she can’t read yet and that introduce new vocabulary and concepts you can discuss etc.

In all of this don’t forget about working on comprehension though. Phonics is reasonably easy for a bright child but true reading is more complex! My daughter could read fluently at 3 but couldn’t access more advanced fiction books as she had no conceptual understanding of certain themes given how young she was. Broader enrichment goes hand in hand with reading ability. Factual books were really popular in our house to supplement stages where phonics / reading stamina was ahead of comprehension of similar level fiction books.

My oldest DD started reception this September. She is a free reader, if I understand the term correctly - reads everything including the parental instructions on the homework sheets, restaurant menus, safety instructions on aeroplanes, short chapter books. The teacher is aware. We get the standard phonics books each week. I read it through with her at least once, check her understanding, answer the comprehension type questions with her, then we put it away and get on to more interesting things.

I find the standard phonics readers dreadful but that’s a different issue I suppose.

Hiya! As a primary school teacher I say go for it with anything extra you want to do at home. In terms of reading books, key words etc maybe ask the school if they have ‘benchmarked’ or assessed her reading recently and what the outcome was. Schools should be regularly monitoring the children’s ability. I will just say though that I do sometimes get parents that say their children can whizz through the books and understand the books but when I assess with a ‘fresh’ book their fluency and comprehension isn’t the level the parent thinks…(not saying that’s the case here at all but just saying please keep having conversations with teacher about what they are seeing at school compared to at home). Teachers should be prepared to work with parents and find ways to challenge and engage children with learning so please don’t be afraid to discuss. Any good teacher should be happy to.

Also benchmarking is a very specific assessment which includes speed, phonics ability, key word ability, comprehension, ability to retell so teacher should have a very good idea on areas she needs to develop and areas she’s confident in.

So many parents are like this at school. The thing is just memorising them isn't enough, it needs to become deeply established across contexts. Phonics seems bizarrely slow at first I agree and it took me time to get it, but it really does work.

My son was the same, knew all the phonics sounds quickly and could read well.

He has just started year 1 and is reading fluently, he doesn’t need phonics lessons but has to endure them for the rest of the year!

I read the book school send home once and then read other things. They library has lots of reading scheme books and so I tend to work through those. He is reading turquoise banded ones at the minute but the phonics books school send home are only green band.

I thjnk just do the homework/skip it quickly and continue giving her more challenging books to read together yourself. Children are very developmentally different at that age, my nephew was a proficient reader before he started school and still had to take part in all the phonics lessons. My ds is year 2 now and they do even out a lot by that stage.

It’s interesting all the people saying their children don’t need phonics because their children are fluent readers. Phonics gets incredibly complex especially towards the end of Year one and gradually turns into spellings rules. Even as a fluent reader myself learning phonics as part of training it was incredible to me how complex the English language is with its endless rules but so interesting to know for spelling. I never learnt it at school coming from the sight learning era and think it Is very useful.

I think at 4 don't over think it. Do what you like at home- don't need to tell the teacher. Phonics lessons are short in class and the teacher will probably start asking the more able group to write a word with the sound in/ sentence if able. Phonics is the foundation of reading, if not secure she may struggle later ( usually year2 if early reading) so let her take her time in school, Phonics should be reinforced in school so should be finding it easy and should be able to learn the words easily. Don't get too caught up with how brilliantly ahead your child is at 4- most will be, the other will be caught up this year.

She will not be too keen to read if more difficult, trust the teachers they knew what they are doing

If she finds it easy and is learning it well at school (phonics is a very short part of the day in Reception so wont be tedious) then no need to push it at home. Read her book then just read longer books to her so she improves her vocabulary, understanding of story structure etc. You could always point out words with the sounds she has covered "Oh look, this word has the 'sh' digraph".

If I'm honest the focus in reception in this term is very much social interaction and getting used to school. Rules, routines, friends, the teachers observing the children etc. to be fair, most of the year.

They will do assessments eventually though and will discover she's v able.

Homework isn't mandatory at primary level. They are just going through the motions really. Do you feed back on any platform? Eg tapestry? If so I'd post what else she did. They'll still have to send what they're doing though to be sure she's included.

I'd mention it to the teacher at parents evening.

For me it's key she's enjoying what ever your doing with her. When she hits y1 she'll fly, but they don't get the level of play and social interaction they really need in y1.

Use the local library and just enjoy books.

Different children have different home input a lot of early years/KS1 is about bringing them up to a semi equal position. DS doesn't go to reception until September but has started a few basic phonics at nursery, when we went to look around the children were streamed for phonics after the first half term (standard state school but 3 class intake). Maybe ask the teacher if this is the plan.
If she's bored with the school work that's not ideal as she'll become complacent. You seem to be doing the right things extending the learning at home.

@RewildingAmbridge
The government is keen no DC are left behind and can all read well enough to access the secondary curriculum. That is laudable but it should never mean bright DC are not given the chance to expend their knowledge from high starting points.

The poster that said YR was not really about reading doesn’t understand that bright children need more. Some schools don’t see bright Dc very often so cannot accommodate them. Teachers really should be able to though. Schools are for everyone. Not just the average Dc.,

OP there is a mumsnet thing where there is a lot of 'I'm not competitive' virtue signalling all the while little Arlo and Jemima are being tutored to the hilt.

I got fed up with the fact that my children's primary school didn't differentiate for kids who were faster to learn to read. So I subscribed to Reading Chest (this was more convenient than the local library) and had the pleasure of teaching the dc reading myself. They were super confident readers all the way through and the confidence they had with their literacy meant that they sailed through the academic side of primary, and were able to develop their own interests.

If you're looking for challenges at home, there are different levels on the online phonics bloom that will give your child the chance to move ahead. Also Nessy really accelerated my child although it was intended for children slightly older than them. Without that challenge they would have felt quite uncatered for. That was during lockdown so we had to go at their speed! It has its benefits!

We had the opposite problem my daughter loved books until she got to year one.
The school seemed to give up on her and at 7 she was sent home with a picture to read for homework.
I got phonics books which she memorised.So we want to the bookshop and she chose 2 books.I read the first chapter and then we took it in turns checking her comprehension or imagining what might happen next .
She recognised words by remembering When we went on motorway drives we used to read signs on lorries and vans,play hangman,anything to get her reading .
The school noticed her improvement but wouldn't correct her written work at school and wouldn't let me take it home so by the time she got to high school some if her spelling was patchy (mixing th and f because they sound the same),
We had similar issues at high school being given books she had already at home that she'd read out loud.(little boast she got a precovid 6 in Eng Lang,7 in Eng lit)
She 19 now,at uni but still can't phonetically spell words out,it's a blind spot for her.
I'd be rich if paid for all the times teachers said I should have taken her to the library,she went to weekly storytime from 3!

Go to the library and get books to read together, just check she knows the stuff school give her and then move on to things more her level. It's important that the teachers make sure that every child knows every sound - they don't know where any gaps may be otherwise. Just get her reading fun books at home with you.

Sometimes it is a blessing to be able to whizz through homework when they’re little. In reception and y1 I wouldn’t worry. We just used to read our own books and whizz through the phonics books pitched at the class level.

My daughter found some scheme books painful. She was much happier reading something with a plot. I think most of the progress she made was me reading with her a wide variety of texts rather than the books from school.