DD moved to lower reading group

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Hi

I'm hoping that any teachers on this group or parents with similar experience can give us some advice.

Our DD is in year 2, is on "My Plan" and will start ADHD medication soon but doesn't have an "official" diagnosis. The school uses the ReadWrite Inc phonic books. At the end of year 1 she was reading the Set 5 books (yellow), and was briefly moved to Set 6 at the end of term However, on starting year 2 she was moved to the lower group that were reading Set 4 (pink) books. DD was very upset at this move, "Worst day ever" and words to that effect. So as to not demoralise her further, we continued to read blue books at home. I would say her reading was not perfect but she was able to read these books confidently. This further reinforced our view that the school had made a mistake. But we let this carry on while we sorted ADHD-related questions in the last few weeks, and she has now restarted Set 5 from scratch.

The school has a phonics teacher who coordinates the reading groups from R to Y2 and therefore we arranged a meeting with her. In that meeting it was explained that DD didn't have full grasp of Set 5 phonics and her speed was below what she should be on to move to Set 6. She said that she was moved to Set 6 in error, under the impression that the group was going to continue with Set5, and that it shouldn't have happened. We countered that with ADHD doing reading that was "boring", over and over again, does not achieve anything. Teacher - Oh but her reading has improved in the past few weeks. Us - Yes, because we've been pushing her on the blue books. The atmosphere in the room was not great. Finally, I asked if there was any parental choice in this matter and was told No, the school could not skip learning and needed to follow OFSTED requirements.

We are not demanding parents. We have listened to the school on multiple occasions when our gut told us it was wrong. But here I felt the school just weren't listening and they are now using OFSTED as a card to silence us. Is it true? We're not going to do anything with this knowledge, we'll continue to read with our DD (now on Set 7 books) and let the school teach at the lowest denominator - but just need some advice on where parental choice stops.

What phonics group she is in at school is not something you have control over. The school makes those decisions.

what you can do is support her reading outside school. Understand the scheme and work on what she needs to do to move up. You and her can read what you want outside of school. There’s many places -libraries and the reading chest - where you can get books for her.

Assuming you have no reason to doubt the school’s ability, you need to trust their judgement and just support her reading outside school. I second the idea of Reading Chest.

Its much easier to just let school do school reading their way and you do home reading your way. I tick off the school reading record and do it my way at home. I nod politely in the Sendco meetings and encourage DD to earn her stickers at school but we don't do school at home. It's unlikely they'll see my point of view and I disagree with theirs so why discuss it? Teachers are just doing their job, but in the grand scheme of things the reading scheme doesn't matter at all. Pick your battles and forget about this.

Ugh!! I absolutely hate Read Write inc for this reason…it’s like a cult where schools slavishly follow it to the letter even when they can see it’s killing children’s joy in reading.
I’ve heard so many stories like your dd’s where they can read quite well but get stuck month after month churning through the same dreary texts because they’re not quite fast enough or don’t tick the boxes on the day.
I have every sympathy for your dd but all you can really do foster her love of reading by finding fun, exciting things for her to read outside of school.

It may because her ‘speed’ reading of words is not speedy enough when tested
that she is in the lower group, keep doing what your doing and read whatever books she likes alongside school books , if your school is like ours we aim to reassess / regroup every half term

This

They won’t be doing this out of spite Op

trust them

Read whatever she wants to at home. School reading is school reading, the teachers make that decision, and frankly many of the phonics schemes seem designed to put kids off reading! Get whatever she wants to read at home and encourage her to read it.

Why would you read the set 7 RWI books when you know your child will have to read them at school? Read higher level books at home by all means but if it’s going to be phonics books, at least use a different scheme. You can’t blame the school for your dd being disengaged with reading if you’ve gone out of your way to make it even more boring for her.

RWI is designed so that children can move up and down groups as they progress or not, so the school is not wrong there. It’s not a perfect system, but it works for the majority.

I take a RWI group.... and I completely agree.

But also OP read what she wants to read at home. It doesn't need to be "reading books" at all!

RWI is the pits. It was used at DC1’s old school and they still hate reading as a result.

Just read your own books outside of school. I bought the Julia Donaldson school reading books from Amazon

The school will have found it much easier to have agreed with you and put her on the level you wanted. The fact they didn’t shows they really don’t think she is ready for it.

Read with her at home but don’t do the books she is going to have to redo with school as that’s just going to cause your daughter problems.

Why is she going to go onto controlled drugs soon without a diagnosis? I’d be very careful who you talk to about that because if school find out they will have to report you for safeguarding purposes.

My son was behind at the end of reception.

He was small for his age and just exhausted by school so we didn’t do reading after school as it was too much for him.

In the summer holidays I got him a few sets of reading booked that were recommended by a teacher friend and we went through them. He has just got a 9 and an 8 for his GCSE’s English exams.

It just took him longer to get there. People say they all learn at different rates and I think. Parents sometimes think that means some are slower and will always be slower but I don’t think that is always the case. My son did actually have an English tutor to help him. £30 a week for 2 years. Money well spent.

My other son was behind socially and emotionally and suffered badly with anxiety and he is now 18 and doing amazingly. Yes it took him longer but he is now doing a degree with the open uni and has a good job. He is happy, no longer anxious and he isn’t behind other 18 year olds.

So I appreciate your situation is different but I would let the school put him in what group they want but also do your own learning with him but maybe do odd bits in the holidays rather than trying to cram it all into term time. They do all have different schedules and may not be where they are “meant to be” at times but it doesn’t mean they won’t do well.

She has seen an NHS pediatrician for two years, who is prescribing. The "formal" diagnosis through the CAAS pathway that would enable school accommodations at a later date, can only be arranged through the school. And the school are well aware of this and have copy of pediatrician's reports on this. No safeguarding issue.

I’m surprised the paediatrician is prepared to prescribe it without passing it on to a psychiatrist.

School accommodations don’t need a formal diagnosis at all, just a need.

this makes no sense

You are correctly surprised
why?
Because they would not prescribe controlled drug at such a young age without a diagnosis

fact

Thank you for the inputs on the reading question, much appreciated. I am relatively new to the ADHD issue and I don't necessarily have the right language. I can only go with my understanding of what the pediatricians (yes, there is more than one specialist involved) and the school deputy headteacher are saying. I may start a different thread - or actually start by looking at the existing threads, which I'm sure are bound to be plentiful - on ADHD questions.

As someone with ADHD and with two children diagnosed with it, I am confident that your chance of actual ADHD meds being prescribed to a 6 year old without a diagnosis and by a paediatrican are non existent in the UK.

Exactly

Not sure what’s going on here with the OP

BS