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 take your point, but I think the positive effect it had on making parents feel their home reading was also monitored and - dare I say it rewarded - was really significant?

Encouraging learning at home has to be a major part of a school’s remit in this day and age - we constantly hear how children are inadequately prepared to start school, and how teachers aren’t always supported in their efforts - and I believe this system worked really well to keep parents engaged

But yes, teachers do not have enough hours in the day, so I get that hard decisions have to be made

It only is read by those parents that are already actively involved already though. Not those who don't read with their child.
As a teacher I would actively prioritise those dc who have parents that choose not to, or aren't able to support their child's education at home. I'd know your child is already getting that support.

Be careful using the term 'magic e' - that is quite outdated now and chances are your child will never hear that at school.

I would honestly say not to put any emphasis on school reading levels and just to read, read, read at home. Fiction non-fiction, everything...

And an odd comment about the video - teachers don't put a video on to get breathing space! They're not videos to watch just for fun (unless at wet play, lunchtime etc.) - they will be educational videos with a discussions/work after. Your DC may just be mentioning videos a lot as that's their favourite part and it sticks in their mind more :)

@EmberStar Schools must have an assessment schedule for maths and literacy. If they don’t, how do they know what progress dc are making in any area of learning? The school should give parents details of their assessment policy: they will have one. You can ask for details. I don’t think schools have ever done loads of 1:1 reading but they do monitor reading records and progress in other ways.

OP, I have a year one child (April born) who is at a ‘read write inc’ school and she’s already been assessed this term and she reads with a teacher three times a week as part of the small group work. She is on grey books (having started school last year with no prior reading experience). Whenever I have felt she was finding her books easy, I have spoken to the phonics lead at the school who was very quick to do an assessment and moved her as necessary. This a bog standard single form entry London state primary, but they have a very strong focus on getting all kids to read fluently as an absolute priority, and I couldn’t fault them in their approach. I say this to try and give you confidence in being ‘that mum’ when you need to be, because I don’t think you are over thinking it at all and I would be disappointed. Speak to the school but if they aren’t responsive, all the read write inc books are available to buy on Amazon, so I would crack on at home supporting her as you are.

@sexnotgenders Do schools not have reading logs any more? I signed off books in the log and certainly commented if they appeared easy. That was before the phonics is the only way diet, but we also had loads of books at home. The teachers certainly read the comments.

Assessment is a school policy. It’s not a reading scheme policy. Op needs to ask about the assessment policy and how it’s implemented.

Thank you - your school’s approach seems more aligned with the last school we were at

I appreciate the encouragement to speak to her teacher and also to get our own phonics books - our local library has some lovely phonics story books (not read write inc but one of the other programs) and I’ve started getting those.

@OuiOuiMonAmi thank you - looking into it I think maybe they do ‘split digraphs’ after Christmas. I just find ‘magic e’ is a lovely accessible & easy to understand approach, that won’t really conflict once the school explains their version

These comments have been so helpful thanks everyone

@EmberStar I would strongly suggest you don’t just borrow phonics books. They are largely boring. Most libraries should have a young reader or emerging reader section. There’s a much wider diet of reading material than slavishly sticking to phonics. My DDs by y1 were enjoying poetry and quite a wide range of free choice books from the school
library and visits to the local library. The joy about not learning phonics as it’s taught now was the much wider range of books available snd I’d never heard of a split digraph! I guess my dc could master them because they were good readers and understood what they were reading.

Just some basic maths: a teacher needs 5 mins to listen to a dc read. 30 in the class and that’s 150 minutes a week. That’s 2.5 hours - a whole morning. This is why is more often done in groups and teachers spend time teaching as it’s more productive. You should do the checking but you can easily increase reading materials to keep up enthusiasm.

A couple of things that might help alongside what others have said:
Reading aloud to her still matters at this age. Picking books above what she can decode herself (richer vocab, longer stories) builds comprehension and vocabulary, and the school books can stay "easy and fluent".
Since she loves acting out and writing her own stories, you could get her to write little things for real reasons: a note to put on the fridge, a shopping list, a caption for a drawing. Using phonics to write is the other half of learning to read, and it often gets overlooked.
And on the school side, rather than asking for her to be "bumped up", you could just ask the teacher in a friendly way how often she reads one-to-one and when the next assessment is. That tends to get a straight answer without it feeling like a complaint.
It sounds like she's doing really well, and the fact she's happy at school is a big thing at this age.

Hi OP. I just found your thread as was googling similar! My son is in year one and the approach seems similar to your DD’s school. From what I understand, he has group reading sessions a few times per week. The school moved to a new phonics scheme over summer, and the old reading diaries have been scrapped. We are now being sent home with books that are similar to the level he was getting in the first term of reception - I think the aim is to promote fluency, but they are so basic we realised that he has memorised them by the time they come home, and can recite the whole book with the cover closed. I am keen to discuss at parents evening, but in the meantime I just ignore the school books and mix it up at home with Biff, Chip and Kipper and more fun books.

I stopped filling in the reading diary on year one as it never got checked. I reckon he read 1:1 about 3 times in the whole year. We encouraged him at home though and he had plenty of his own books. When he got to year 3 his reading level was year 6. In the EYFS he hated the books because they were so boring! I would say support at home and don't sweat too much about the school reading scheme.

I am not a primary teacher but I am an LSA in a primary school. Although I can’t be outspoken about this at work, much of what I see going on in classrooms led me to think there must be a better way to teach kids. This is when I found this book which now appears to be on sale on Amazon. It was a fascinating read and some of the techniques for helping your kids at home worked wonders for my two children.

Thank you that’s really interesting, I will look up the book