Another question about reading schemes

[katiestar]

At my kids' primary school the only reading scheme they seem to use is ORT.
But with all the buzz being about the importance of phonics -shouldn't they be supplying the little ones with phonic readers ?

They probably can't afford to replace ORT

some ort levels also have phonics based books

Would be very expensive to replace all the class readers. But they should certainly be teaching the children phonics in class. Our school does not supply phonic readers, but since reception and year one formally introduced phonic teaching in class a few years ago the children's reading achievement has measurably improved.

I think a combination of both is probably best (and has worked for us fine).

ORT books are dull...(Biff, Chip, Floppy etc)

BUT

Phonics can be even MORE dull in my view, and the story is often 'forced' to fit the phonic

E.g. "That is the mat on which I sat" said the Fat Cat.

We are gradually changing ours over to phonic based ones-we have started at Stage 1 and are up to stage 4! But it is very expensive to do, a pack of 36 books-six of each in a pack - costs just under £100 and you would need several packs in a class! Nor do we just want ORT books, children need to read a variety of books.