Reception children given e-books instead of reading books for home reading

[Randomname83738]

My daughter is in reception, and we’ve had a message today that instead of being sent home with physical reading books, children will be given a login to Collins hub to access e learning books to read at home instead. I absolutely HATE this as a concept - is this common now? We don’t have tablets, so it would be on a phone screen. I’ve looked at purchasing the books for the scheme he’s doing and it would be hundreds of pounds (presumably this is why they’re doing ebooks instead). I’m actually so disappointed in this and if I knew in advance it might have influenced my choice of school.

Our school didn't do this but only sent one book home a week which DC memorised after 3 reads. I bought the ORT Songbirds reading scheme books which weren't too expensive.

That's exactly what I would OP. I'd email and say that my 4/5yr old child does not have access to any devices and to please send a print off.

I'm very laid back about pretty much everything but that's a hill i would die on.

Get to your library and pre order the books

With my two older children I made a real issue out of this when they were both in primary school...but now it is common place with my two youngest. They all have to read online now. No physical copies of books. The reasoning behind all of this from the school is that it's to help with comprehension whilst they read the books. Easier to do this online with each pupil to assess.

Lots of really cheap phonics books on vinted. I bought loads from different schemes for under a pound a book (panicked as I was told dd was behind in reception, she was fine very quickly though). Don't worry if it's not the official collins scheme, just roughly match the level she'd be expected to be at and then move up when she's finding it easy.

Then you can resell them on vinted afterwards and get some money back (i intend to) meaning that the total net cost will work out as pennies per book

We had hundreds of traditional books in our home, but our reception age child also had her own kindle paperwhite. They are wonderful for reading at bedtime, especially if you have a child that struggles with falling asleep. The lights can be kept off and they just drift off naturally as they read.

We know that using e-readers did not harm her reading or writing.

I would not be thrilled with a poorly designed app, but e-readers in general are not evil.

Don't fear the label if you are right!

This 💯

It will be a budget thing.

so many reading books get defaced or not returned. We lose more and more as the year goes on. Schools don’t have the funding to replace these things so will have to make the decision to go online instead. I am a ta shared across two classes and barely have the time to piss nevermind swap 50 odd reading books twice a week.

so on the flip side, it is also parents responsibility to support their kids education and there is nothing stopping parents from going to the library or buying books from charity shops if they can’t invest in buying new books themselves .

i had a parent moaning the other day that they want their kids reading book changing more than twice a week. I felt like saying there’s nothing stopping you reading other books inbetween 😡

Is it really that much of a problem? My Y1 is on Biff Chip and Kippers that are as old as I am.

But yeah I’d refuse OP and if the school won’t supply paper just buy your own set of Songbirds or ORT or whatever. If by chance you’re in London Farah second hand bookshops are amazing but Vinted can also be good and there are even pre loved books on amazon now.

I would too. I refused pretty much all ed tech for my eldest throughout primary apart from My Maths, which wasn’t too gamified and saves the teachers marking. Y6 now so we’ve nearly made it, no issues.

Hoping to do the same for youngest, but sure it will be worse and pushed more, plus not as naturally academic as my eldest so I do worry about pushback.

I would hate this too. I hate the way this world is going

Completely wrong for the school to be doing this. If I remember correctly, there has been research done in about tablet books v proper books. Reading proper books comes out as a more successful way to learn to read/read.
As the reading comes secondary to 'playing' with the electronic device!
See if you can get hold of the reading scheme list of books and try to source them through the library or second hand. Ask around locally to see if anyone has some available. You shouldn't have to do it but sadly the school is leaving you with limited options.

It will be a budget decision. Reception reading books get a lot of wear and tear, when ds was at primary school, a group of us volunteered in the library and spent hours mending reading books but they can only be repaired so many times. I’d guess the old stock of actual books were reaching the beyond repair stage and so replaced as economically as possible. School budgets are woeful.

Not normal round my area, none of the schools do this. We get one phonics book and two library books sent home each week. I would be refusing to do online books at home. And why are they not getting much one on one reading time? They should be getting 3 reads a week in school I thought?

Annoyingly it’s the Collins big cat scheme and from what I can find it’s not easily available second hand. If I have to switch schemes to get paper copies I will though!!

DS school only change their reading books once a week. I bought the Oxford reading tree (biff, chip and kipper!) levels 1-6 which are about £15 each but obviously didn't have to buy them all at once and just read through those. No way would my reception child be reading anything on a screen

I’d be upset enough about this to complain to school. Tell them that you don’t have tablets at home and therefore can’t access the books unless they provide copies.

Does the school have a PTA? This is the sort of thing they could pay for if there is one.

The Julia Donaldson songbirds books are easily obtainable and cover most of the sounds so would be a good option to have at home to read alongside scheme books.

That’s awful. I would be really upset.

my son is year 1 and in reception we also did some of the Julia Donaldson phonics books alongside the ones school gave (very very battered and old)

theres absokutel loads of Vinted phonics bundles! Such good prices

When my kids were that age we subscribed to Reading Chest so we could get a better variety of reading scheme books than school could provide.

This is so sad. There's something magical about a child turning pages to see what's next that they won't get on a screen.

Our local library has lots and lots of banded books - red, yellow etc. While it might not have a whole scheme, across the many different schemes there, I’d think you’d get most sounds etc covered. We’ve always used them as a back up to the one or two books sent home by school each week.

I’d be very frustrated by online only too. We also don’t have a tablet. I think I’d be asking for a print out!

From my experience it’s not that he school can’t afford to buy the books in the first place, but more the obscene amount of lost and damaged books and the huge amount of time devoted to trying to get books sent home back. Unfortunately, that’s the reality for many schools, and there isn’t the budget for continually replacing lost and damaged books. So I can then see why many schools are choosing to mitigate those losses by using ebooks for home and keeping real books for in school. Unfortunate as that is.

I don’t think it matters does it? Just get him any stage 1 first readers set and do those. They’ll all be based on the usual CVC words.

This is terrible! I think you are going to need to source your own. You might not find the exact school books, but can try and work through the various levels.

Our local library have reading scheme books, all the colours. During the summer holidays they are always popular, but seem to be plenty in term time. We also have an oxfam second hand book store in our town and it always has phonics books, biff and chip series etc, have also seen earlier readers series on FB market place and vinted.