Reading scheme and reception child

[Weallnamechangesometimes]

Hoping for some ideas on what is possible/practical so I'm not a pain in the backside to my child's reception teacher.

Background, dd is a second child and has picked up a lot of phonics from overhearing/joining in with older siblings reading books and phonic flash cards of tricky words. Plus loves books and will sit all day listening to stories being read. The kind of child who tries to read the cereal packet and every street sign. Consequently is reading quite well and is already getting very bored of the school reading books, and is already getting put off reading when before she'd be begging to read. The school use little wandle.

I'm not sure what I should be asking of school when I bring this up at parents evening? I don't think school is allowed to give harder books as they have to keep to the phonic scheme cos the government says so and little wandle is a whole class approach. Do I ask if we can read our own books and can she still get her star on her school reading chart? (She doesn't want to loose out on the reward system at school and what 4 year old doesn't love a sticker!)

What I'd love to say is why does my dd have to wait until much further into reception (maybe even year 1) before she is learning anything new when it comes to phonics/reading but I won't of course

I had a similar thing @Weallnamechangesometimes with my DS who is now in year one. He is very bright for his age and all his teachers have commented on this too yet they still give him the same home work and reading books which are not challenging him. Would love to know the answer to this. Xx

@Autumnleaves888 does your school use little wandle as well or another scheme?

We are in a similar position, DS is reading pretty much any picture book, the words I need to help him break down (and learn the meaning of) are words like 'ecstatically'. Our school is using little wandle too. I just write what he does read in the reading journal.

My son is a bit ahead of the reading scheme. We read the books they provide but read more challenging ones at home as well. We haven’t bothered saying anything to his school and he has stayed enthusiastic about reading.

You don’t need to read the books at home. Choose more challenging books and have fun with them. Your children will move onto more challenging reading in the coming terms and years. Just be patient with a school system designed to help all children no matter the level and enjoy having your advanced reader!

Read the school book if she wants a star on the chart, presumably it is quite short?
Then just read whatever you like at home.

It's not worth falling out with the teacher over 5 minutes of reading a night.

Your dd has to wait further into the year to learn anything new because she is just one child in a class of 30, the teacher has to teach all the children the curriculum - she isn't able to provide a bespoke education for your child.

Little Wandle moves at quite a pace through the sounds will be quite useful to plug any gaps in knowledge as she goes through the scheme with the class. For example it will teach the different digraphs that make the ay sound, it's called growing the code. Having a thorough knowledge will also help with applying it to writing.
Have fun and read other books at home but also have faith in the school system. Phonics is usually done as a whole class but your daughter will be grouped in to a guided reading group according to ability.

Just get the school book out of the way, then let her read what she likes.

If you are completely satisfied that she can read and discuss the book then just read what she wants to read. There's a list of things in the book to help with ideas of what you should be doing with the book.

If it's putting her off reading I just wouldn't insist she reads those books, star or not.

My DD absolutely loves reading, but she doesn't engage with the books brought back from school. Instead she reads at least an hour a day by herself and 15 minutes of reading with me or DH. The books she reads by herself sometimes are a bit above her level, she will come to me or DH if she struggles to decode/understand a word.

I remember challenging the teacher over the reading scheme they were using which was sooooo bad. The stories made no rational sense and weren't fun or entertaining, they were just vehicle sentences for phonics. Pictures were bloody awful too.

I got a snotty comment about what wonderful results the scheme produced and how it was the latest approach blah blah. So I gave up reading them much, just signed the book and then read what we had at home. Child still loves reading and we read every night together.

If she is that good a reader, she'll get through her school book very quickly, then she can read something else with you at home. It's not a problem.

The answer to the question you won’t ask is OFSTED. We have to teach this way. We may not agree with it but the damage a poor OFSTED can have on a school is horrible and they are looking at early reading and phonics in every school they visit. If the school is not doing as they have been told, ‘following the scheme with fidelity’ it will result in a bad OFSTED report.
As a reception teacher I would be focusing more on the other areas of reading with your child. Comprehension and fluency. Lots of children are able to decode well but their comprehension is lacking. Read other books with your child, focus on asking questions to ensure understanding. Reread books to increase their speed as this is really important for future learning!!

@Rycbar Is it an issue if comprehension is good for books at the appropriate interest level, such as most picture books, but not as good for books aimed at older children that are outside his four year old experience? His father has been letting him borrow chapter books from the reading scheme shelves at the library whilst I direct him to the picture book boxes. Some of the books he's just not going to fully understand as he's four.

I get this completely and it must feel a real bind for staff. But, genuine question, don't Ofsted also monitor how a school stretches more advanced children? The OP's experience suggests that's not happening at their school.

Don't make the assumption that a child knowing some of their grapheme-phoneme correspondenses and/or "tricky" words is an indication of that child being more advanced.

Many children, particularly those who come from a home where they are spoken with and interacted with regularly, will have some knowledge of phonics before they start school. What following a programme like Little Wandle does is ensure that:

1. all children grasp all of the grapheme-phoneme correspondences, and
2. children who have previously learnt things with small embedded errors have these identified and corrected. It takes time but it's important to do, especially because those children who have learnt things prior to Reception often do have small errors in their understanding. The progression does move quite quickly though.

We also say to parents that the school reading book should not be the only book your child is exposed to. We, for example, send two books: one that's phonetically decodeable at the child's level and one that isn't and can be a shared text with an adult.

In terms of phonics teaching - no. The government has implemented new rules on teaching reading and they are very clear, the school must buy in to a government approved scheme, including all the reading books, and it must stick to the scheme exactly.
Ofsted just check the school is following the government's rules.

In reception we asked for harder books for DD and were ‘told off’. In Yr 1 we just ignored them
, didn’t engage at all and read at home (teacher NQT and not on the ball). Yr2 teacher much more switched on and DD went up 4 levels. Still very easy but she doesn’t mind reading the book the day she gets it, writing a comment about how she found it in her log book and then reading her own books. Obviously she is rated well above average for reading… which the school takes credit for 🙄

Do the schools need to show adequate progress from the baseline assessment in reception? So if a child can read well before school they would still need to show they had progressed the child further by year two?

So is the consensus do my own thing and not bring it up at parents evening? I'm sure that formally learning the phonics is a good idea because there will be gaps because she does sight read a lot. It's the week of a reading book with 6 words in that seem to suck out the enjoyment of reading. Especially now she doesn't want to read other books anymore.

Can you not just read the book once then fill in the reading diary or whatever to say it is done? I don't see a reason to do it more than once if she can read it easily. Then just do your own thing at home.

I just fill out the reading journal with what is read, usually the sharing book, as I see that as the purpose of the journal, to record and communicate. Though, I think the OP is worried about the reward scheme, that her child will miss out if they are reading different books after the first night.

OP, I would suggest she read the book once then read what she enjoys, and record it all. If the teacher replies then I would tell them the truth that the books are discouraging her love of reading. If she misses out on rewards then you can reward her yourself at home.

Teacher and phonics lead here. The school shouldn’t teach homogeneously even in reception: we group vertically. Some of our reception readers came in with high knowledge and are grouped as such. No school should be teaching a generic class “level”: indeed one of the Ofsted/ reading framework requirements is that children are assessed regularly and taught at their level. We assess every 6 weeks at a minimum but the YR teacher has let me know she has a group who are ready to move up, so I’ll assess them mid term and if they are ready to move they will join some y1 children at the same level (green level at RWI). Just because your child is able does not mean they should be kept back. They should be challenged at their level. All of the phonics schemes should build this is - RWI certainly does!

@Weallnamechangesometimes Have things improved for your dd at all?

DS is now being given books marked blue and level 4, which is an improvement on the first half of term. So they must have assessed him up to a point, but these are still far below what he is capable of reading. They don't seem to 'flow' well like regular picture books so aren't as enjoyable to read, but he is at least reading them, which is an improvement.

We are continuing to read books he chooses as well and hopefully he'll be assessed again before Christmas and can move up.

I think RWI might be an exception to phonics schemes in that it encourages differentiation and grouping by ability. All the others use whole class teaching as far as I can tell. My daughters school uses floppy’s phonics and cover 2 sounds a week. She isn’t as advanced as some of the kids on this thread but she is confidently reading scheme books level 4/5/6 and yet we get level 1+ books sent home. I asked the teacher who confirmed this approach will continue, with no grouping and no harder books sent home. I now get her to read it once, then the rest of the week we read other stuff. I appreciate it is all ofsted driven not the schools choice, but as above do ofsted not care about challenge for more able pupils any more???