Y1 reading groups, no 1-to1 reading, low expectations…should I raise concerns?

[EmberStar]

Any Primary teachers can give me a view on this -

DD is in yr 1, November born so nearly 6, and pretty bright. But she is quiet/shy; it’s something we’re working on!

Her reading is pretty great (or at least I think - it’s hard to compare) She has all her core phonics and happily sounds out fairly complicated words (eg today with mummy it was ‘sometimes’ and ‘beautiful’). I have introduced the concept of magic e, and she got it straight away.

My queries -

-The phonics book she is sent home with is so simple, it feels reception level (still doing basics sounds, ck ea ch etc)

-She says she is in the middle reading group - some of the children are in a higher group - maybe it’s because she’s so quiet?

-She hasn’t done one-to-one reading with teacher or TA or anyone at ALL yet this term?! Only small groups.

-I write in her reading diary but it hasn’t been acknowledged/signed by a teacher/TA since week 1.

I’m a bit disappointed, am I over thinking it? Do I ask for her to be bumped up a level or is that pushy mum territory? Do I just keep teaching her at home and not worry about school so much?

Generally it’s a lovely happy little school, and she’s happy there - but I do hear a lot of “we watched a video about mindfulness today” or “we watched a video on online safety” and I think…shouldn’t they be focusing on literacy more?

I don’t think ds (same age) has done the magic e yet and he is still doing those sounds. I think this half term will consolidate a lot of reception stuff. Do you know which reading programme she’s doing?

Yes a child that age should be focused on literacy and maths, not 'mindfulness'. It does sound disappointing. I would expect some one to one reading and reading diaries being signed regularly. That being said, it sounds like you're doing a great job at home.

Thank you

They do ‘Read write Inc’ and she’s currently on Purple level

By Year 1, ours were in small group reading. It's not just about sounding out phonics it's VIPERS as a whole (vocab, inference, prediction, explain, retrieve, sequence). Kids can sound words out great but it's about comprehension as a whole. When you read at home, do you talk about the above or just focus on phonics? Small group reading encourages peer to peer learning for comprehension.

That said, small group reading would still involve signing the blue book.

I am wondering if your child is at our school as the Year One teacher is notoriously shit AND they have blue books for reading diaries 🤣

I hadn't heard of VIPERS, thanks - she is certainly articulate and writes/acts out her own stories a lot, so I'm fairly confident these things are coming along well.

I haven't seen a 'blue book'; is that a statutory thing? Her reading diary is yellow.

In her old school (before we moved) reading diaries were used to write any messages from parent to the teacher, and therefore checked & initialed every day - it was a great way to feel in touch, and like the home learning was being monitored/encouraged. We also always had 3 story books to choose from the book bag at any one time!

The class teacher now is delightful, very popular with the kids.... I'm just less wowed by the literacy so far... but maybe there's better things to come later in the term...

I'm under the impression that nothing beats 1-1 reading, but at this school I don't think any parents go in to do that, like they did at our old school.

My daughter is also a little ahead for reading (high fives for beautiful and magic e!) and the books she is getting home are below what she can comfortably read. She won't get any harder books until they reach that bit of the scheme at school, so we get her library books when it seems like she needs a challenge.

Looking up RWI, it looks like purple is the limit at this stage of year one, and you won't get the next colour up until close to Christmas. So moving reading groups won't help. Of course you can always ask (email if the book didn't work), but they are likely staying loyal to the scheme and I wouldn't expect them to change things.

I'm just letting the school do their thing while we supplement with our thing. With the school books I try to ask lots of questions, or say "use your story telling voice", or challenge her to a timed read. Once she decided to change the word "monster" to "giraffe" all the way through. It IS easy but she's reading more and more fluently and I do think she is still getting value from reading well within her ability.

in Read Write Inc they do an assessment around every 6 weeks. Going up a level is dependent on how they score on that assessment. ideally the school should have lots of groups so that children go up when they are ready and not just when the group is ready. I think accuracy is most important in the earlier stages and later on they are tested on fluency/ speed of reading. Books that are sent home have to only include the sounds they have been taught (government advice) and so often will seem relatively easy for them. To be honest we read the school books once or twice each week and otherwise they read other things with me.

Both my daughters were taught Read Write inc and the majority of teaching was in small groups unless children were having individual interventions. I found it very effective at teaching them to read. However, I think children who make slower progress can be stuck with the same books and it can get boring.

Thank you, this is fab advice

I love the 'use your story telling voice' - will steal that!

She tends to shrink herself a bit for school. They seem to drum into them all the time the need to be 'good' and 'gentle' and 'kind' - understandable as behaviour levels are at best mixed! - but if anything my Dd is so 'good' she struggles to express herself like she can at home.

Hopefully parents evening is soon and we'll get to chat more directly to her teacher

Thanks, that's good to know there's an assessment schedule in the program

Yes we mainly read other books now, as the school ones are too simple. And it feels pointless to write in the reading diary if nobody is checking it!

I guess I know my own kid will do ok one way or the other because I'm very invested in it and words are my 'thing' :)

Surely a school doesn't stick to a scheme rigidly. My DS went into reception and was a free reader by Christmas. He read separately and then in Year 1 when everyone else had small group reading he had a Year 6 come and do reading with him as a "reading buddy"

It's always worth having a chat with them if you think things are too easy, and working with them to find the right level. When DD was in y1, the TA was fantastic in helping facilitate this.

For reference in my sons year one class they have three reading sessions with the teacher a week and three new books a week as well as a library session on a Friday so yes I’d be disappointed that they don’t seem to have had a reading session with their class teacher

Wow, that’s excellent. Is it a particularly small class?

(I believe there are 25 in DD’s class, approximately 50/50 year 1 and year 2)

I teach Y1 and group reading is what we do too, and I think it is the same in a lot of schools now. The children are assessed regularly and grouped by current attainment into small groups of 1 to 6 children. They read 3x weekly in their group with the teacher/ TA - we don't write in their home reading diary. The only individual reading we have is with volunteers. The children honestly do seem to learn to read really well with the group reading system!

You might find she whizzes up book levels soon, as they quickly learn lots more of the phonics code in Y1!

Have you or has anyone else offered to go in to listen to readers?
I teach a class of 26 year 1s and I would absolutely love to listen to them all read 1:1. However, I have no TA and no additional support so it’s impossible to do so.
I rely on reading volunteers and parents reading daily at home.

I expect it’s because due to a long legacy of underfunding, TAs are working primarily with SEND children now. The classroom TA in KS1 is a thing of the past in my experience. They will be working with children with no SEND funding. The teacher does not have time to read with 30 children for 5 mins each once a week. That’s 2.5 hours a week or half a day. There is no time and not enough adults 🤷🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

@EmberStar yes there are only 12 of them. 25 is still a good size though, I think they have been very small for this year group because of Covid

Dd's y2 class has 1 f/t TA per class, plus two others that split their time between the two classes, to address SEND needs. No idea how the HT finds the money, although I know the PTA are a finely tuned operation to help ease the budget. They still rely on volunteers and parents for one to one reading, though!

I have no idea how you do it with 26 y1s and all that entails- you're amazing. Y1 is tricky enough at the best of times!

I would ask the teacher directly - ask for five mins after school, ask when your dd reading level will be reviewed, explain she is bored witless with the school books and ask why she isn’t moving up. There WILL be a reason - either they haven’t had time to assess her or there is something she needs to secure first.

Meantime just read with her at home at whatever level she’s at. In the end I totally ignored the school reading from my dd - she was at an “outstanding” (but actually really crap) school. She was free reading at home and school still had her on Biff and Kipper’s bloody magic torch. I would get her to read one page and then sign it off and then she’d read her “real book”.

Don’t worry too much - by year 4 it won’t matter and she’ll be racing ahead.

In a busy state school you can to expect reading diary to be checked daily. My dc is at a good school and just started year 3; his reading diary was checked once so far this term. There are 33 kids in his class.

My child is in year 2, higher phonics group and still reads 1:1 with TA weekly.

There is massive push on fluency within reading not just decoding. When she reads is it the same speed as if she was talking?

i think sometimes you need to be the squeaky wheel as otherwise your child (especially if they are well behaved and academically fine) can get a bit lost in the crowd as far as the teacher is concerned. I would not advocate going into school regularly, but occasionally it is importantly to speak up. For example, I could see my son was the best by miles in his swimming group but he was not getting the nod to move up to the advanced class. I encouraged him to go and ask the coach what he needed to work on to get to the next level (he was older than your DD!). A couple of weeks later, he was moved up.

For your DD, if you have parents evening coming up I would suggest raising it then but otherwise have a quick word with the teacher in the playground. Hopefully then they will listen to her read and possibly move her into a more suitable group.

Adding a different perspective, what you describe is exactly what we had in year 1. In the first term they wouldn't even have been bringing books home yet, and 1:1 reading with a TA happened about twice a year. No acknowledgement of what we put in the book either.

BUT DS progressed brilliantly and has consistently been "greater depth" in reading and writing since (year 5 now).

So I guess I am trying to say that even if it doesn't look great from the outside, it doesn't mean they are not actually learning properly in the classroom.

Probably just too busy to be ticking a reading diary every day for 30+ kids, which is fair enough!

Thanks everyone for the balanced comments

i think if we hadn’t previously been in a school where reading diaries were used so thoroughly as a constant stream of contact between home and school, I wouldn’t be questioning it as much

I think my overall feeling is of a little sadness that an important link between home and school is missed; maybe less for homes like ours where we are reading lots anyway, but as a way to encourage parents who are less enthused…

I definitely don’t want to criticise the class teacher, my DD is happy in her environment which is the main thing for me at this stage! Academia can come later :)

The Screen time thing is less than ideal. DD mentions watching videos a lot. I know from home that it’s not a great way to keep kids engaged with the teacher…and that even if it does buy you ten minutes breathing space, the disengagement/worsening behaviour afterwards isn’t worth it!!

As others have said, parents evening is coming up, so we can ask gentle questions at that point

In her old school (before we moved) reading diaries were used to write any messages from parent to the teacher, and therefore checked & initialed every day
I don't think spending 30mins - an hour every day looking at and commenting on a reading diary can ever be considered good use of a teacher's time.