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.

I doubt the school will have the budget to make paper copies or have anyone with time to do the copying. Perhaps something for the PTA to raise money for more books for the school library?

Yes, this ‘fidelity to the scheme’ has a lot to answer for. It was the same reason given why my daughter who was reading chapter books at home still had to have books from level 3/4. ‘We haven’t taught her those sounds yet, what if she came across a sound she didn’t know?!’ I’m fairly sure the teachers thought it was bollocks but have to be able to show fidelity to the scheme for ofsted purposes 🙄

And yes, as you say it also explains why schools are using e books - they have had to completely replace their old books as they don’t fit the current scheme perfectly. And again, the children might accidentally see a digraph they haven’t been taught yet, which I think we can all agree would be an event worthy of wide-spread panic.

As a Reception teacher, I would be horrified if my school did this. It's not acceptable. Ebooks can
provide additional reading for those who can access them and want to access them, but they absolutely should be the only reading sent home.

I understand the people who are making excuses for the school by commenting on school budgets are coming from a good, understanding place. You are indeed right that school budgets are shockingly low these days and many schools are struggling to provide the basics. However, physical scheme books are a must and that is a hill I will die on. This is not ok.

It sounds like this school are taking 'fidelity to the scheme' literally. I'm guessing they've started a new scheme, and have decided they can't afford to buy all the books. They've wrongly interpreted Ofsted's 'fidelity to the scheme' guidance as they are unable to send home any book which isn't Collins Big Cat phonics. This isn't correct. Children should (according to Ofsted - not my personal opinion) only receive reading books at their current phonics level, containing only taught sounds. There is nothing to say home reading books can't be supplimented with other phonics books the school own, as long as they only contain sounds the child has been taught. The companies themselves will tell schools otherwise. Of course they will, they want to make money out of them. Ofsted see nothing wrong with mixing schemes for home reading, as long as the child has been taught all the sounds covered in the book.

We send home a variety of scheme books. My school doesn't teach Little Wandle, but we send home several of the Big Cat books they use early on because we have them and it would be wasteful not to use them any more. They contain exactly the same sounds we're teaching at this very early stage, so it's fine.

There are ways and means and this school are failing their Reception children if they're not providing any physical reading books.

OP, explain to the teacher that you won't be able to read the EBooks as you don't have a tablet and have no intention of buying one for your 4 year old. Take it to the Headteacher if you need to. The school need to hear from as many parents as possible who are not ok with this in order to change their mind. You'll likely find that the teacher is in complete agreement with you.

I don't agree that parents should have to source their own scheme books for their children, but I do agree with people saying check the library, charity shops or Vinted if you wish to do it as cheaply as possible (you could always sell them on again in a few months to fund the next level, and so on). Please take it from an experienced Reception teacher, it really doesn't matter what scheme you read (no matter what the school and Ofsted say). They are all much of a muchness.

Nope we don’t have to accept it at all. Screens and pages affect the brain differently.

@modgepodge this is absolutely mad to me. My DS is now in Y1 and reading chapter books at home. School send through a book every week which is still part of a reading scheme and not much of a challenge for him. We obviously read it anyway and write "he can read all the words" in the log they send home. They are at least often non fiction so can promote some kind of discussion about things he doesn't know about.

At this point he can basically read most things with a bit of help and I'm not sure what use sticking for a phonics scheme is? The school he's at has very high progress 8 scores and an outstanding Ofsted so I'm guessing there approach is pretty standard but I just felt from day one the stuff they were sending home wouldn't encourage him to make much progress and bought heaps of books myself/have also borrowed from library.

I kind of knew this would be the case but I kind of feel that unless you supplement the reading/maths etc they are doing with loads of stuff from home the will be bored witless if they are quite capable.

As an ex librarian and someone who now works in a primary school I am appalled at this. My school uses a reading scheme which uses physical books. They have a daily phonics lesson in groups according to ability and the groups can change every half term. All the children have a library day when they can choose their own books every week, no matter what the level or topic. They are guided to something age appropriate of course.

I am appalled that some schools are not doing things the same as my school. Ebooks which completely replace hard copies of reading scheme books are simply not ok. I agree that it sounds like some schools are misinterpreting Ofsted guidance and I think it's all too easy for schools to get swayed by the marketing these big companies do, or to want to be the specific SLT who bring in a fancy new phonics scheme and then claim success for it. These books are overpriced due to lack of open-market competition amongst the publishing companies.

Honestly, if we can't teach our primary-aged children the absolute basics such as learning to read using actual books, then it's failing as a school in my opinion, and failing the pupils in it. It's not ok. As a parent I'd be wanting to know what ARE the things that the primary school is spending on, if it can't even provide the basic such as books.

But sadly, I think this may be how education may be going in this country. I see some young teachers coming in who might be great with behaviour control, teaching PE, Art, or who put on a great Nativity, or who handle difficult parents really well, but they have disappointing spelling, grammar and really quite appalling general knowledge. And yes, I do think the decline of reading amongst young people in the last 12 years or so has a lot to do with it. Someone who has not been an avid reader themselves since childhood is not going to advocate for the need to have hard copies of books in school.

It's sad times when parents have to teach their own children to read because schools don't have the resources to do it.

I agree the school has misunderstood the guidance about fidelity to the scheme, or else SLT are thinking it's easier. This won't be due to cost savings. Books are very, very cheap compared to interactive whiteboards and suchlike that schools buy, and schools can buy books in bulk and second hand.

At my dd's school, she gets sent home with different books every week from all different schemes including biff, songbirds, and those monstery ones and loads more. (They are often dog eared and sometimes very retro looking, which is fine.) The teachers recategorised them to match the school's chosen scheme, sticking a new label on the spine for which category it goes in based on which letters and digraphs are present in the text.

I've no doubt this was a huge chore that a teacher must have done during a summer sometime but it can be done and it's not expensive.

Op's dc's school won't be saving much doing it this way as they'd be paying a subscription to Collins. They just don't want to invest the time to recategorise all their old books, or don't have staff willing or able to do it, or they think Ofsted won't accept that.

Could a school have a 'museum of old books?'

Basically a couple of shelves in a library or classrooms for children to borrow?

I would have absolutely no qualms with my child bringing home "retro" reading scheme books. They taught generations of children to read. Far too much money is wasted in schools on absolute nonsense.

Have you got any idea the pressure primary schools are under financially and have been for a number of years? Rather than just complaining which is just so easy to do what are you actually doing about it? Are you personally fundraising for actual books to be provided? Or are you lobbying your local MP? Or are you suggesting we all pay more taxes to fund greater expenditure on education.

I’m guessing none of those are true. And you’re just whinging outside the playground or on MN. Until people do something about it public services are going to be on their knees. It’s easy to blame the government or immigrants but really it’s the people who systematically voted for austerity for years plus Brexit that have resulted in the problems we have now. We’ll spend years trying to get ourselves on an even keel before people decide they want to pay less tax for the following ten years and the whole sorry saga starts again.

We’re having consultations to close schools near me and you’re moaning about online reading. Buy your own books or raise funds yourself.

Can you contact school and ask for the reading curriculum? I'd be furious and I'm encouraged others have opted out before. But obviously try and either catch up at home with physical books of the same level/phonics at least.

I am a teacher (secondary), hate screen time being imposed esp for primary kids!

Tell the teacher you understand that the school has its reasons for switching to this format, but your child will not be using a screen for reading.

Look up "I Can Read" leveled readers, or other series, and see if you can lay your hands on some. You can sell them on afterwards.

You can buy Bob books at Scholastic UK. Each little book features a specific sound.

But move your child forward at the same time. Read to her a lot, and move your finger under the lines of text as you read. Your child's brain is capable of learning to read in multiple different ways.

I agree. When the guidance first came in, we had a massive scheme book overhaul during a training day. We all split into teams, tackling books in different key stages. We reorganised them all into books which matched each unit in our new (at the time) scheme and relabelled them all. It was a long hard slog but it's definitely possible. It's so wasteful when schools get rid of all the scheme books they already have each time they introduce a new phonics scheme. When funds are already tight, it's crazy how taken in some are by the company's marketing ploy of 'you can only use our books'. That is not what 'fidelity to the scheme' means.

I've seen ridiculous things like schools selling old scheme books for 10p each at summer fayres etc. So they won't officially send them home, to avoid Ofsted telling them off (which they wouldn't anyway), but they'll let parents buy them to use at home anyway. Make it make sense!

This is very unfair. Parents can understand the financial struggles schools are going through, while still finding it unacceptable that online books are the ONLY option offered by the school to support home reading. As a teacher, I totally understand how underfunded schools are these days. Yet I still find this situation totally unacceptable.

It's natural and actually positive for parents to politely voice concerns about poor educational practices.

Thanks everyone, I initially posted this as a bit of a self sanity check because I hadn’t heard of this before but everyone’s comments have actually been so helpful.

went to the local library this morning and they didn’t have much but I’ve ordered the little wandle phonics flash cards and some starter phonics books from other schemes - I know what sounds she’s been working on (and can read short words using those sounds), so based on most people’s thoughts, I should be able to carry over. I am going to message the school just to see if there’s another option (i.e. if they have a small reserve of actual books?) but if not, we’ll read the allocated e-book once and I’ll use it as a basis to coordinate actual books from other schemes that we’ll have.

I’ll update with what the school say next week! I also expect that a large number of parents will be requesting the same…

I mean, I only got the message this was happening yesterday! And since then, I’ve been to our local library, ordered phonics flash cards from the correct scheme and some early phonics reader books from different schemes to supplement the home reading being offered by the school, since I’m not convinced I’ll be able to support the school in teaching my child to read off a phone screen. I have worked exclusively for public sector organisations for the past 12 years and currently work in the civil service, so I do understand budgetary pressures but I do also want my child to learn to read from physical books and think it’s important for the school to know that preference.

im also not wholly convinced the reason is purely budget, as they’re currently fundraising for equipment for a third play area and they’re only a small village primary school!

I’d just ignore the assigned books from school and go use the ones in the local library instead. Ours has a great selection and that’s what I did as my son’s reading scheme was absolute pants!!

It’ll be to cut costs. Schools have to be signed up to an official DfE approved phonics scheme now (thanks Tories - that’s a whole other discussion!). The cost involved is astronomical because all of the resources and books are so expensive. Books get tatty quickly because they’re being used constantly. This being said, children should be reading real books particularly when learning to read.

I would complain. It might change things, might not. Either way, get on vinted as there are always lots of set of phonics scheme books going.

And don’t forget that schools are judged on how many children can pass the phonics test. So phonics is pushed and pushed rather than actual reading and understanding what you read.

Wow I'd be so disappointed if my child's school was doing this and would definitely push back on it a lot.
I'd be sourcing paper books if possible myself.
It's not the same reading on a screen as in a book and it sounds like the app difficulties actually complicate and take focus from the reading.
We also don't own tablets as we do minimal screen time but reading a book on a tiny phone screen seems so much harder for a child than holding a book.
Where are all the books they must have used previously for teaching phonics?

Just to add that last week I gave my reading group books and asked for them to be brought back in today. Out of 16 children, 7 returned their books. Hopefully I’ll get a few more back over the week.

DD's school have started this this year too, I hate it. I think iPads and tech have a place in learning but certainly not for reading. DD gets so distracted on the iPad, making the font bigger and smaller, skipping ahead to other work, flicking through pages, so homework actually takes much longer as it takes her a lot longer to process the information she has just read. i plan on raising it at parents night in a few weeks time.
It isn't very inclusive, we do go to the library every other week and have books at home but what about those children who don't and don't have access to technology at home?

@Randomname83738 I don’t agree it’s a funding issue. Schools make choices. What happened to their old books? They cannot have lost all of them? Have they decided to change reading scheme? I’d be absolutely furious. I also dislike slavish adherence to phonics too. So, go to the library. There will be other books there. Braden her diet. Schools should not be adding to screen time like this. It’s appalling and someone needs to look at the overall spending at the school. How many highly paid staff do they have? Who made the decision not to use the books they already own?

@MeetMeOnTheCorner , you do understand that a “slavish adherence to phonics” is an essential element of teaching literacy in EYFS/KS1?