Phonics taught exclusively by TA

[bucketfull]

My dc is in Year 1. They use RWI. They study in groups and he's always been in a group with TA doing all of his phonics learning. I knew they'd often read with a TA but thought the teaching of new sounds, grammar, spelling would be done by a teacher. In reality, the class teacher has no idea where he is with his reading, which group or level, if he's struggling, etc.

Just wondering how usual this set up is and how would other parents feel about it.

I just find it poor the school has not told parents about assessment. They should. However I accept the op can look on line. Do you think all parents know this?

Why would parents need access to assessments?

@redbigbananafeet
Is that to me?

I am really talking about how schools inform parents about how they assess children. How judgements are arrived at. What “working at expected” means etc. If parents don’t understand the curriculum, the assessment process and attainment, how do they make sense of a report? They would not be shown every bit of evidence but an overview is useful.

👍

I'm surprised that after 8 months at school the OP hasn't had a parents/carers night to ask these questions. We've had 2. That's what parents nights are for.

The TAs are the ones that teach the kids who struggle, the ones with learning differences and the ones with behavioural needs. They have a much harder and less appreciated job in my experience. Most of the TAs I’ve worked with have been just as good as the teacher at these things.

It seems usual. My daughter's class has three TAs who seem very involved if not more so than the teacher at times, they are there daily but teacher can be off often.

The TAs are trained specifically in things like phonics and SEN, and arguably are better placed to teach these things than a teacher. I think it's a nice setup. I also think we could see a real change in how things are taught and TAs will end up being basically teachers and you will begin to be able to train as a teacher on the job as a TA.

@redbigbananafeet Yes. Schools should engage with parents and explain things to them and answer reasonable questions. It’s how you build a partnership with parents.