Any teachers about? Phonics advice

[Kiwo]

DD is in reception. They use Bug Club phonics, although most of their reading books seem to be Oxford reading tree or songbirds.

She could blend and read CVC words before she started school. She's the oldest in her year and has done 2 years of preschool but she's not some sort of prodigy/"G&T". Anyway the school are working through the phonics sounds starting with SATPIN and they give a book to read at home every week. They told us they'd give books based on what the children have been learning, but DD has been getting level 5 books! Last week's had "igh"/"i_e"/"y", plus loads of non phonetic "tricky words" which she obviously hasn't covered yet. We're getting through them and explaining the sounds but only managing a few pages a day as she obviously finds them quite challenging.

My question is: is this a standard way of teaching for the more able/older reception kids? I worry that it's confusing her and that she should be reinforcing the simpler phonics first. Also we're not teachers and I suspect we're teaching the phonics wrong, or at least differently to how her teacher will do them when they get that far (e.g. we say 'magic e' for i_e - no idea if that's still current).

Any thoughts - especially from reception teachers - would be welcome.

Before anyone asks, I did speak to the teacher about this - or thought I had - but she still keeps getting level 5 books 🤷‍♀️

Children should be getting books on the level
of phonics which they are being taught. Ask for phase 3 books. If she’s bright, read other, non schools books too.

Magic ‘e’ is a split digraph.

Level 5 is normally y1, where they have had a full year of phonics teaching, so i would query this. My understanding was that they should have books to the level they are being taught at- and in reception, they are normally all taught the same basics before being split into ability groups later (our school only does that from y1 onwards, with extra additopnal intervention before then if needed)

She should already know the sounds, without you having to reach.

Just read different books and ask again next half term.

This does sound a bit odd OP. Normally teachers are told by Ofsted only to assign books containing sounds that the child has been taught in class. Lots of kids are naturally curious and pick up additional sounds independently so this can be frustrating. I've never seen anyone complain that the books are too hard especially in YR

Is your daughter definitely not being given extra sounds to learn meaning she effectively has been taught these additional sounds? Is she picking the new sounds up quickly if you tell her how to sound them? Most importantly is she enjoying and engaging with reading or getting frustrated? If she's happy to have a stab at the books then I'd just keep going, encourage her and tell her what a superstar she is and maybe make some of your own flashcards with any new tricky sounds and help her learn them. If you think it's frustrating her though then I'd have a chat with the teacher.

Thanks, yes I'll ask.

We've got lots of phonics books at home, so we currently reading a couple of pages of the school one in the morning, then a whole simpler book at bedtime.

They've split the class into ability groups already, but I don't think they teach them different content.

I'll start by saying I'm not a teacher! But as a TA with a few years reception experience, it's nice to see an able child being given a challenge. A lot of the time, they're just left to coast and end up at the same level as their peers with no love for reading because it's been squashed out of them.

Have a quick look at sound buttons. They help children to recognise single sounds, digraphs/trigraphs and split vowel digraphs (i_e, etc - your magic e) you can absolutely use that terminology! It won't confuse your DD, just gives her a reason that the other letter changes it's sound.

Fwiw, I think you're doing absolutely the right thing by keeping up with the easier books too. A challenge is amazing but you're consolidating her foundation knowledge too which is excellent. Do speak to the teacher if you feel like the challenge is too much for her but if she's still wanting to read those books then I, personally, would stick with it

Edited for formatting 🤦‍♀️

A phonics assessment to see which graphemes she knows would be the start point. Then ask for books with the latest sounds in. I’d also check the tricky words (High Frequency Words) in the book she is given match the words she’s been taught in class - they may not as she is currently ahead of her peers. So you may need to tell her those words so she can continue to progress with her reading.

It's really quite strange but if you're unsure then yes a conversation with the teacher is probably for the best. It would be interesting to hear how the teacher thinks she's managing. I know my dd is a lot more reluctant to do schoolwork with me than she is with her teachers so is there any chance she's reading more fluently with teacher? Like I said in my pp though this is quite strange as I always thought teachers get a bit crucified by Ofsted if they're jumping kids ahead too much.

Thanks @Shakeyourwammyfannyfunkysong . Yeah, they told us in the parents' meeting for phonics that they'd give out books based on what's they're covering in class (and I suspect that's what they tell Ofsted - the school has form for doing one thing "officially" and something completely different in practice 🤨) but I don't really understand what their motivation is...

She's doing ok with the hard books (and we're doing easier ones at bedtime) but given that we usually only get through one full reading of it per week I doubt she'll retain much, and I do worry that we're getting explanations wrong which could be detrimental

Edited to add - it's a big school (4 form entry) so maybe they just don't have enough books at the same level for all the children???

The books from school they're reading at home should be easy, not hard.
Just put them to one side,and read easy books and query it after half term.

Mine is in Y3 now and a very strong reader. I would say Phonics is very important and for the vast majority of kids a highly efficient way of learning to read. However I'd say 2 things.

1. Understanding is just as important as the decoding of books. It's important both for the child's enjoyment and the end goal of good attainment in English and other subjects. This is why even in Y3 with a very competent reader I still do a lot of reading to my child as well as her reading to me. It means she can access more mature books together and take the time to really talk about what the text means or any complicated words.

2. The single most important thing to do if you want to keep a kid engaged with reading is make sure they're enjoying it. Phonics books I think are necessary but for the vast majority of kids are dull as hell. I think it's important to also read lots of fun books with kids to help them appreciate what the end goal is

Your daughter sounds like a smarty pants and I'm sure she'll do great 😊

This doesn’t sound right. I had the opposite problem in that my daughter was reading quite fluently before reception started and asked for harder books like you’re getting and the school refused. They said the whole class (reception) or group (y1) had to be kept together and only have books where they’d been taught the sounds. Speaking to a lot of teacher friends (I’m an ex teacher but not of that age group) they said that yes, this is the required approach. so I’m surprised to hear your school is doing it, for a child who isn’t actually quite ready for the harder books.

Id speak to the teacher initially and say they’re too hard, and write a comment to this effect every single time she read to me in her reading record.

The problem with ‘just read other books’ advice that everyone on here sees to give that most people don’t use a full set of phonics books at the right level for their kid. Of course you can read other books together but if you want a new reader to have success reading a book the book needs to be the right level and cover (mostly at least) sounds they have been taught already, or it’s demotivating. This is the type of book they SHOULD be bringing home from school!

Reception teacher here. You are absolutely right that her reading books from school should only contain the sounds they are currently covering in school. Their choice of books for her sound completely bizarre and Ofsted would rip them apart for it.

Speak to them again after half term and explain how much support you are needing to give in order to help her decode the current books. Point out the level of high frequency words in them that she's not yet been taught, and the fact they contain split digraphs ('Magic e'), which is usually Year 1 work. Hopefully, whoever changes their books simply hasn't realised how complex these books are, although it is a massive oversight on their part.

Going forward, as she already has good blending skills with simple CVC words you could choose to work on her sight vocabulary at home, playing games with some of the high-frequency words which have been coming up in her books which she doesn't know yet. The first sets usually contain words like:-

I, the, to, no, go
he, she, me, be, we, are, all, was, you, my, they
said, have, do, so, come, some, when, what,

That's just off the top of my head so apologies if I've missed some. You can Google such lists (known as 'tricky' words). They are words the children can't decode yet for the level of phonics they are working on, but appear in the books at these levels due to the frequency of their usage in the English language. They can only be taught by sight, so the children need lots of exposure to them to help them learn them. This is most fun through games, such as Bingo, splat, treasure hunts etc. Again, you can Google lots of ideas for fun ways to teach tricky words.

Basically, the school should not be sending home books which do not match the level your daughter is working at in school. However, if they persist in doing so, she'll be more able to read them independently if you work on developing her sight vocabulary.

Good luck

She should ideally be bringing home two books. One decodable book which only includes phonics and tricky words she had been taught so far. That decodable book should be read by her three times. Once to decode the words, again for greater fluency and finally with more comprehension expected. The second book should be any book she fancies from the classroom or library. She shouldn’t be expected to read it independently and can be enjoyed with an adult, or by looking at pictures- however she wants to foster reading for pleasure.

Thanks that's all really helpful.

Yes, she is getting a non-phonics book too.

Good point re the tricky words @BoleynMemories13 we'll work on them over the half term, and I'll have another chat to her teacher when they go back.