Sitting on the carpet for 1 hour

[ImDone89]

In the school that I work at, we have to teach 1-hour Phonics lessons to Reception children (4-5 years old). At this age, children's attention span is very short and they can only be expected to sit on the carpet for 5-10 minutes.

The children struggle to sit still and pay attention to the lesson. I don't agree with expecting them to sit for so long on the carpet but who can I talk to about this?

I can't go to the Assistant Head, Deputy Head or Headteacher, as they approved these lessons in the first place. Should I talk to my Union? The Governors? I feel like I'm outnumbered in this, but it's just not right.

Which phonics scheme is this?

You could try The Staffroom board which is for teachers.

Who taught yR last year, would they agree?

How far off piste can you go wrt lesson plan, eg incorporate movement, eg standing and making their bodies into letter shapes?

Who's checking?

I'd be tempted to do 10 minutes, get the class up, doing star jumps/looking at the nature table/doing a lap of the classroom and then another 10 minutes. Slowly, over time you can increase the sitting time and decrease the active time. By July you could have stretched out the sitting to 20/30/40/50 mins with only one break.

In my sons school, the teachers all had packets of biscuits that they bribed the kids with!

Can you break it up into 5-10 mins sections and teach it over several hours? Maybe add in some physicality by giving kids cards with letters on and getting them to arrange themselves into sound groups around the room to help with restlessness.

It does seem like a long time for children of that age. But I'm sure that over time they will learn to sit still for longer periods of time than 5-10 mins.

Maybe the teaching staff will work it out for themselves that an hour is too long? If they have disruption every lesson, then they'll have to think again.

I wouldn't go to your union or governors at this stage. See how things pan out. You might be pleasantly surprised.

If you do decide that you need to step in, I'd go to governors rather than union (which seems an odd way to resolve a workplace difference of opinion that you haven't addressed internally first).

Our EYFS phonics session is 20 minutes. Phonics only needs to be 50 minutes once they're yellow level or above (going by RWI here)

What scheme is this? Youd probably get better advice with the scheme name. No they shouldn't be on the carpet that long and I'm surprised an approved scheme asks you to.

DD was in reception last year and I remember when the parents were invited in for an open classroom for a phonics session during the first term, the teacher said they only do 15 mins at a time at that point with reception kids.

An hour seems insane for kids that age.

We follow RWI and because the school have paid a lot of money for this scheme, it's highly unlikely that it will change anytime soon.

We have regular learning walks to see how the lessons are going and I feel it is a very regimented and boring phonics scheme (but that's just my personal opinion). We aren't allowed to 'go off script' as it were; no time for movement breaks in phonics as it's such a fast-paced lesson, and there's so much to fit in.

There are also screening checks once or twice a half term to make sure the children are in the correct group (they mix according to ability) but each group is 1 hour long.

My DS is Y1 now but he frequently said last year that he didn't like school because his bum hurt from sitting on the floor. Different reading scheme though. He could concentrate enough, just found it very uncomfortable.
Much happier in Y1 with actual chairs to learn in.

Long time ago now but my primary school had a couple of mini arm chairs and bean bags that reception would do a rotation of so everyone got a comfy place at least once a week. Seems genius to me now 😅

Read write Inc sessions shouldn't be that long. But you need to raise things one step up the ladder at a time.

Who is the phonics lead? Go to them first to discuss.

If they ignore/disagree with you, then go to your line manager.

If both of these ignore it, go to SLT.

Governors would not normally be involved in this level of detail about the school's operations.

I don't see why your union would be interested. The union supports with resolution of disputes and employment issues.

I'm a retired Reception teacher and an hour is way too long. Our phonics sessions were 15 minutes. I'd have been bored myself doing it for an hour.

Too long. However, governors aren’t involved in operational matters, and there’s no union matter here. I think you have to go with it if it’s school policy but maybe there’ll be a chance for feedback to SLT? At our school we always discuss things as a staff to see how they’re working, and whether we need to make any changes.

I hate RWI. Only experienced it when I delivered it on supply but it's so dull. I feel for you.

There absolutely has to be wiggle room this early in Reception. One hour from the off is developmentally inappropriate. Discuss it with SLT. Will they accept 15 minutes whole class, for now, them small groups while others access provision?

We follow a different scheme but the first few weeks were only 10 minute bursts, it's all they could manage. We're now up to 15 minutes before losing them but that's through keeping it as interactive as possible. After Christmas we extend to 20, then 30 minutes, but even that is hard going for Reception. I would never do more than 30 minutes in Reception, even in the summer. I'm forever thankful we don't do RWI.

That is terrible! Really poor practice.
Young children need to move since their bodies are growing rapidly, their muscles are telling their bodies to move.The ability to sit still and concentrate is roughly five minutes more than chronological age (for most children.)
Get them off the carpet before the Velcro starts to go.
Phonic teaching should be short , active, done every day, every child involved, and it should be fun!

Yeah, I've had really poor experiences with RWI. It's so expensive, the books are dull and there's no option to pad it out with anything more colourful, or change it easily as it's so unlike all the other schemes.

However lots of settings don't do a full hour all at once at this point in YR. if you join the FB support group you'll see how others are cutting it down / splitting it up.

Knew this would be RWI. I find it boring, never mind the children.

On their own website it says Reception is only about 20 minutes.

I’m reading lead at my school. 1 hour phonics in reception is absolutely insane. They wouldn’t even be expected to sit that long in year 1 in my school.
20 minutes, all involved lessons are what should be happening.

My son's school follow RWI but they do 2 phonics sessions a day instead of a one hour one. It's immediately after register in the morning and the same after the post lunch register. They start on the carpet, move to the table, then move back to the carpet during the 25 minute phonics time. When I got to sit in on a session last week all the children seemed really engaged. During the first few weeks of school they were doing it 3 times a day instead but now they've settled into it they've swapped one of the sessions for maths.

I've got no idea how you're expected to keep the attention of reception aged children for an hour - that is absolutely ludicrous.

It's terrible but I'm not that surprised. My last Head Teacher (shortly before I gave up and retired) wanted me to have 10 autumn term Reception sitting round a table to do writing because that's how year 6 did it and he wanted consistency. He didn't seem to think that the fact that some of them didn't know how to hold a pencil yet mattered.

This isn’t correct for read write inc. They should be doing letter formation practice so surely they’re sitting at a table for that bit?

My DS is Y1 now but he frequently said last year that he didn't like school because his bum hurt from sitting on the floor.

I'm in my 30s and still remember how uncomfortable it was to sit on the carpet (or the floor of the hall, for assemblies)!