Differentiation in phonics

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My daughter has just started reception and is loving it so far. She was at quite a pushy preschool last year and was taught all the individual letter sounds and some digraphs, and I’ve taught her most of the other digraphs to the end of phase 3. She is reading books containing these sounds and common tricky words (the, to, go) fairly fluently, and has been since Christmas. She’s also writing words using phonetically plausible attempts, eg ‘macarony’ for macaroni and ‘pancacs’ for pancakes. I’m not saying she’s exceptional or gifted and talented, but she is a little ahead of the expected level entering reception.

They’ve started phonics at school but are only covering 2 sounds a week it seems. So far she has had wordless books for home reading. I spoke to the teacher this week and she said they’ll get books with words from next week but only using sounds she’s been taught in school. I said she could read already, so could we have books containing sounds I know she knows, but she said she can’t send home books containing sounds she hasn’t been taught in school.

So, it seems all reception phonics lessons and books being sent home will be a waste of time for her? I don’t understand why there’s no differentiation in this subject? For context I am also a teacher but not of this age, and would never just teach lessons to the lowest level and not extend pupils who can already do what I’m teaching, so this seems really odd!

School seems excellent generally, and from what friends have said to me this is universal across all schools with all phonics schemes, so I don’t think it’s just that the school is crap!

Any other parents with slightly older kids who entered reception got any advice on this or can tell me how their school handled it? obviously, we will continue to read our own books at home, but I had hoped to get some at the appropriate level from school.

I would just borrow reading books containing words from phase 3 upwards from your school and work through those at home.

Most schools follow a mastery approach now for maths. It's not simply a case of moving them on to bigger numbers and trickier operations as fast as we can.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with children of any ability being asked to sort objects in Reception (or indeed Year 1, 2 and well beyond). It's definitely not just a nursery activity. Objects can be sorted in all manner of ways and this kind of activity is very much differentiation by outcome. Can they explain how they've sorted them? Can they sort in different ways? Can they spot anomalies which don't fit that criteria?

I definitely wouldn't assume your child's teachers don't understand his abilities because they're asking him to sort objects, a task you perceive to be too easy for him. That will be the unit of work they're currently covering in class (sorting is a typical September unit in Reception). Of course he's going to be covering the same unit of work as the rest of the class, which can he easily differentiated to cover all abilities. Would you rather he's sat in a corner tackling algebra on his own?

But why? Why on earth is this the new edict?
Why are the teachers not allowed to make their own judgement?
As a parent I see you teachers as the expert on our childrens ability and how to teach them. Not an academic theory from a PhD.

It's week 3, seriously come on!
Are you sure of your child's abilities in a completely independent environment?

We have fought and fought this. They claim it’s to close the gap but our results actually dropped since being forced to take on an accredited scheme. It’s all about making money, selling us shit loads of new books and then they will change it all again in a few years!! We’ve spent thousands on this, another reason why schools are in the shit financially!

No no no please let it not be a money making wasting exercise. This is utter madness

I am a primary teacher, but I haven’t taught y1 in 10 years (I now teach upper primary and only maths.) So i am out of touch with the current approach. I know how to teach the sounds, I am just not familiar with the most recent updates regarding which books will be sent home. Hence my questions.

I don’t mean to be critical of the school, which in overall seems excellent. I am however critical of the approach, as are some reception teachers forced to follow it based on some responses on this thread. I am frustrated that teachers are being forced to teach using an approach they don’t agree with, especially when it is at odds with how every other subject is taught.

My child enjoys reading and wanted to learn more sounds so I taught some 🤷‍♀️ I did not realise this would lead to boredom, no, as I assumed the approach would be similar to when I last taught 30 children that age, which was differentiated with children in groups based on prior attainment, rather than teaching everyone the same thing.

Our school does similar - starts with books with no words and slow learning phonics. As far as I understand it shools have to follow a structured phonics course and ours have chosen this particular one. It does seem slow but there only little, and you can do more reading at home if they are interested. By year 1 my eldest wasn't bothering to read the books coming home from school and was just picking up more interesting ones from home or the library.

Things have changed dramatically in education since then. That approach is generally considered outdated now.

I too am a Reception teacher and, having experienced this approach for the past few years since it was first introduced, I have mixed feelings.

I too was very anti when we were first told of these changes but, having experienced it, whole class phonics is beneficial for all abilities. You are still able to stretch the more able without rushing them on, and less children get left behind as they're always exposed to what the whole class are learning, even if they receive separate interventions based around their own individual targets. I think it's easy for those with high achievers to want to push for ability groups, but this approach means lower attainers will always remain behind their peers. They never get the chance to catch up and close the gaps if they're always taught away from their peers, at a slower pace, without opportunities to learn from their more able classmates. Likewise, it's not uncommon for HA children to be rushed on too quickly in ability groups, without enough focus on consolidation and revision.

I'm not a fan of only being able to give books containing taught code to those who are clearly way ahead of that but those children can still be challenged through their books for pleasure. It is what it is. The school are doing nothing wrong. They have to show fidelity to one scheme now.

ghg

Sorry wrong thread!

Sounds like the ELS Essential Letters and Sounds approach..... have a Google, not teachers fault, speak to SLT. I would keep up with the phonics at home and gave a look at this scheme as it's slightly different from jolly phonics or read write Inc. The order is different.
They will be streaming after Christmas I would guess.

I’m a teacher in YR at an outstanding school - seems fairly normal for having only been at school for a couple of weeks. Main thing we focus on is not reading ability but comprehension. If you can read, great. But can you understand the text, answer questions, understand the vocabulary, recall the story fluently etc. We follow Little Wandles scheme and everyone starts on wordless books, because that way the children are looking at the pictures - can they predict a reasonable follow on, on the next page. Can they discuss what they’re seeing? Can we find all the things on the page with a certain initial sound? Are the phonemes and diagraphs/ triagraphs secure?

Once happy with that, children are grouped in to ability and the books they take home reflect that. In our school, they also go to the library once a week and get to take a book and we also have books of interest in the classroom they can take home. We fully encourage all reading. My DCs both started YR at a much higher level so I do understand the frustration.

Ive said it 100 times - we know what we’re doing, trust us. Wait til half term, when most schools assess again and then have a conversation with the teacher.

You will also find that it is harder to split reception children into smaller, differentiated groups now because of the pressures on staffing. Indoor/outdoor continuous provision should be happening all day, so that’s two members of staff observing/interacting with the children. An extra member of staff to take groups - lovely! But someone’s had a toileting accident, and the teachers doing continuous provision can’t leave the children, so that’s the teacher covering groups. Or the child with SEND who hasn’t had any paperwork completed yet, who really needs a 1:1, so the extra adult is with them. Sure, the teacher doing provision can also have a group, but they won’t be working at 100% effectiveness with either group, and if someone falls and bangs their head then why weren’t they being supervised adequately?

It’s all a huge, underfunded, depressing mess.

I really don't understand holding children back who are ready to progress. But there you go. If you want to progress to the next set of new sounds yourself I would recommend something like the Fast Phonics section of Reading Eggs. My DC has learned/consolidated a lot from this and enjoys 'playing' on it.

I am the mum if a primary ECT (who shares this account) and from what dd says, it is all about 'teaching for mastery' now.i might be misunderstanding but able children dont go on ahead, instead they deepen their knowledge of what the others are doing

My nephew is reading and he was sent home with orange books, which I think is year 1 level? It must depend on the school. He is learning the phonics the same as everyone else.

If your child is reading is she not just picking up the phonics backwards through reading instead? I would just give her normal picture books at home like the gruffalo, slinky malinki, where the wild things are or similar.

You're a primary teacher yet confused about this, sure. You also speak of 'motivated parents' at nursery, if you're so motivated why can't you work ahead on phonics at home? Plenty of books available through local libraries and online resources. It's the first few weeks ffs, whilst phonics has to build solid foundations and follow an ofsted approved ludicrous formula, I'm sure the teacher will be able to compliment her abilities in other areas (as you'd know as a teacher).

Not sure if you are implying I’m lying about being a teacher? Weird lie to tell if so. For the last few years I’ve taught upper KS2 and only certain subjects, not English, though I have taught year 1 in the past so do have experience teaching phonics. I have not had to teach phonics since ofsted started this fidelity to a scheme thing which I think is only in the last couple of years.

As I have said repeatedly, I will continue to read with her at home and use the reading books I have. Unfortunately I cannot afford to go out and buy a whole reading scheme which covers the sounds in the order they are taught, I am using books picked up in charity shops and given to me by people and they’re not covering the sounds she needs to practice. The set I have jump straight all over the place so I’m having to teach split digraphs and so on so she can read them, before she is fully secure on some of the phase 3 sounds. I was hoping the school would send home books practising the sounds she needs to practise.

I am well aware we are only a few weeks in, but, as I have also said previously, the school have confirmed she will NEVER bring home books containing sounds she hasn’t been taught in school, and they will not be grouped for phonics. It is not a case of once she has been assessed, they’ll send harder books home. They won’t. They know she can read, but until they’ve taught the first 10 sounds at a rate of 2 per week to the whole class, no one gets a book with words in it. Then everyone will have one book a week with those 10 sounds in until they’ve taught the next 8 (or however many) sounds, then everyone will have books also containing them. From comments above, it does seem this is what ofsted is pushing now. I personally find this approach odd, because if I was observed teaching something whole class in maths to 11 year olds and acknowledging some of them could do it, but not giving them anything harder, I would be criticised. I don’t understand why phonics is like this.

Of course my daughter has plenty of other things to work on and I’m sure they’re doing so. I would just like harder reading books to read at home, which doesn’t seem a huge ask, but clearly isn’t to be.

Thank you - we are now using this and it is perfect. Introduces the sounds and gives lots of practice as well as books practicing those sounds. Perfect!

This comment makes it even more obvious you aren't a primary school teacher, very odd. Anyway, there are lots of free resources online for all schemes and library cards are free.

Hi OP. Similar issues here. My son is now in year 1, and they use a scheme called Sounds Write. His current reading book is called 'spring' and practices the Ng sound. He's supposed to read it every day for 2 weeks!! He was bored shitless by it on the second read. He could easily have read this book a year ago.

We have biff chip and kipper books at home and he can comfortably read the brown band of those. So he can read words like 'evolution', 'carnivore' and 'triangular' but has been asked to practice 'sing' and 'long' etc. I have questioned it and been told the reading book is to build fluency. I have given up at this point and I'm just doing my own thing with him.

He also says he hasn't ever read with an adult in the 5 weeks he's been in the class so it's very possible they don't know where he's at. It's frustrating because I haven't hot housed him. My eldest took a long time to learn tbh, he just picked it up very quickly and has an eagerness to learn. He has apparently been playing up on the carpet during phonics and I'm worried he's just bored 😔

😂 um, ok. Well, I’m not uploading a photo of my staff ID or my payslip to prove it 🤷‍♀️ believe what you want.

Our local library is woefully lacking in phonics books. It’s got a lot which would be great for children at about year 2 level but not a lot for beginner readers.

Anyway. I’ll leave it here. I am aware of online games and resources, the existence of libraries, and the concept of purchasing my own books, as well as sharing non phonics books with my child.

If she can read then why are you having to teach her sounds so she can read them? If she can read then just give her normal picture books surely? My four year old nephew just reads anything he likes. They are much more interesting with more varied language to extend her vocabulary. She can read the phonics books as they come home.