Another Little Wandle Question

[ThatsGoingToHurt]

Is there any where that says what order the Little Wandle boOms are read in as I want to work out how close DD is the end of the phase. She is currently on phase 3 set 2 and reads the book fluently without sounding out any of the words in under 1 minute. I’ve asked if DD can be moved up to phase 4 but the teacher says she has to been reading at 90% fluency when they assess at the end of each half term. The problem is that DD couldn’t hear in Reception so made painfully slow progress with phonics. Thanks fully she has grommets inserted at the end of Reception and immediately started making progress with phonics. The problem that the teacher on about my daughter being behind and needing to catch up, but if they only assess once every half term it is difficult for DD to catch up!

They don’t have an order within the 2 sets of phase 3 (the phase 2 ones do). There’s 16 of them I think now (used to be 12) but she shouldn’t need to read them all if she is good enough to move on at the end of term.

I suspect that my daughter just missed the 90% fluency cut at the end of the first half of the spring term. It’s frustrating as the teacher is always on about catching her up but if they only assess once every half term then it difficult to catch up with her peer as you have to wait to be assessed.

If you keep reading picture books with her at home, her reading will improve regardless of the scheme and she should jump up quickly when she is tested. I'd just read anything and leave school to school.

Don’t obsess about the book she is on. Ask the teacher for a list of sounds and tricky words to work on then practise blending the sounds to make words. Try to go from ‘sound talking’ and blending out loud to doing it in her head. If the class are on track and she is being taught in the main class phonics lesson then they will currently be working within Phase 5 so she will have plenty of exposure to harder sounds to help her catch up. She should also be doing a daily keep up session to secure her knowledge if she is only on phase 3 books. Being on a keep up session would also mean she should be assessed every 3 weeks instead of 6 weeks. Her reading book will have been read 3 times before it comes home so should be at least 95 % fluency before it even gets to you. Her home reading should be about confidence and fluency. Choose a library book to further promote enjoyment of sharing a book with you .All the above only applies if they’ve been on the programme a while. They may still be building different elements up.

How old is she? My Y1 daughter is currently reading at Phase 5 set 2. Planning to ask next week at parents evening how she is progressing.

I’ve given up with the little wandle school books. I’ll do them once a week to show we’re semi cooperating but i’m doing my own phonics books at home and my daughter’s reading two levels higher. The basic ones are just sapping her motivation when she can read much better and more interesting stories.

The trouble is by the the time she brings the books home she is bored of it and has read it so many times at school she has memorised the book. I have some Songbirds book at home I will try to dig out as I bought them last year when she was in Reception to she wouldn’t entertain reading them!

Update. DD was eventually moved up to Phase 4 set one at the start of the summer term. Last week she was moved up to phase 4 set 2 and now this week she’s brought home a phase 5 set 3 book. DD seems to be enjoying reading them much more as they are starting to have ‘proper’ stories!

Who knows what/how they are assessing her now!