South African kids going to Grade 1 in Aus - Reading

[Maligso]

Hi all. We land in Oz on 2 Feb 2014 - with our three boys aged: 4 year old twins (2 Mar 2015) and my 7 year old (25 Apr 2105).

I have heard the kids in Oz are ahead of our kids as they start school earlier. I'm not concerned about the twins really as they will slot in at a good age. Me eldest however is starting grade 1 next year and in SA that is when they really get taught on reading. I am worried that he would be held back due to this. I don't mind my kids being held back too much - I only did my degree and articles at 31yrs, but he is old for his class already being 7yrs in April, and at this young age the gap could be a big issue for him if he was held back with much younger kids.

Has anyone had a similar situations and could you please share your experiences?

We are thinking of getting him reading lessons over the next two months before we fly...

I am hesitant to try teach him myself as I'm sure there are certain ways to approach reading that I am not qualified to do and I don't want to do any damage!

Thanks in advance for the feedback!

[Kath]

My 7-going on 8 year old started Grade 2 at the beginning of this year when we arrived in Perth. (He was supposed to be in Year 3, but I had decided to put him in Year 2 as he had been in Year One in SA the previous year and an entire two years just seemed a crazy jump).

First thing the school did was to test him extensively (every day for a week). This was to assess the year that he should be in. They agreed Year 2 was correct, but later provided (at no extra cost) one-on-one daily reading assistance of 30 mins with a reading specialist for a period of a term to help him catch up. The programme was called Reading Recovery (they told me that the recovery rate of getting children up to speed on reading is about 80% success- it's an amazing programme and in our experience, it WORKS).

This is at a private school (Catholic) in Perth. Not sure how the public schools would handle this, if this is your choice.

If I was you, I would put him in Year/Grade 1; tell the school your concerns, and see what happens from there. If he needs to be moved up or down or do catch-up, they will most likely arrange it. Extra reading now may just add to stress, I think (just my opinion). Might also confuse new methods that he might have to get used to.

This is just our experience. I'm sure there are many teachers on the forum who know the ropes in this regard.

Good luck with the move

Edited November 27, 2014 by Kath

[Maligso]

Hi Kath.

Thanks for the reply. I've also heard they are very helpful like this over there. Was the issue mainly to do with reading?

There would be no point trying to sort the reading out if he would be behind in all areas. I also think your point of different methods might be a good one.

[Kath]

The school only identified reading as a problem (this was also a problem in SA). I have also thought that the level of maths here is lower than in SA. He had already done a lot of the maths in SA in Grade 1, so it seemed like revision. But, I could be wrong.

[leeferg1]

When we arrived, we put our boys in the grade they would've gone to in SA - my youngest grade 1 and my eldest grade 4. They were both too old for their grades over here, but I was concerned they'd battle having missed a whole year, especially my youngest mainly for the reading.

After one term, my eldest was moved to grade 5 - they did some tests first though. When we moved towns and started a new school, the principal suggested we try my youngest in the correct grade for his age (grade 3). Other than 1 week of extra spelling to get him in line with his peers, he has not had any issues whatsoever. They are both A students, even after both missing out on a grade.

I would speak to the principal of the school you choose, raise your concerns and take it from there. Keep in regular contact with their teachers so any problems etc can be dealt with. If they do go up a grade, I can assure you, they will have the help and facilities to get them up to speed pretty quickly.

Good luck.

[heidim]

If you have time, you could sign up for Readingeggs on the internet. It's a program they use here and they start in Kindy already. It will be a great help if he could spend an hour a day on Readingeggs. You do pay a fee, but it's worth it and your other two could use it to.

What State are you going to? Starting ages for each State differs. Here in Qld my daughter has to start Prep the year she turns 5, but in NSW they start a year later.

If you're coming to Qld it may also be helpful to read up on "sight words". That's probably the most important thing they drill in reading. If you can start getting him going on sight words that would be a great start.

[McCabes]

Sorry Heidi but I'm going to disagree - phonics are far more useful than sight words - to start off with! Until they have the letter sounds and phonics firmly established, sight words can be a problem as kids might learn to "guess" the word based on shape/size etc, which has proven problematic once they move onto higher level reading - whereas if you have phonics, even sight words can be worked out. My son would start to sound the higher level sight words out and then realise he knew the word but you say it a little differently to how it's spelled, and he'd "autocorrect"

Personal opinion? see if there is an edublox centre close to you, and sign him up for a holiday course - if they will take him as the one close to us only takes them from grade 1. There is also a home program you can buy and do yourself if you're confident you will spend the time.

Edublox trains the brain and gets it ready for learning so that when they start to learn, they can tackle it far more easily. It builds cognitive skills like concentration, focus and memory.

That said, I have only ever heard good things about the amount of support you can expect, and that the schools will first determine what, if any, help is needed, and then offer that help.

I have heard good things about readingeggs, but I would do the free trial before buying - my kids hated it!

If you don't want to spend bucks, just do a lot of "what sound does x start with/end with? what sound is in the middle?" get letter flash cards or fridge magnets and play memory games or matching games with them. Look up kindergarten literacy on pinterest - LOADS of home-based activities that you can try, usually multisensory which is more effective.

There is also something I heard of recently called "The writing road to reading", I'm thinking of buying it as the research on it is incredible.

Hope something in here helps! But ultimately I don't think you need to worry

Edited November 28, 2014 by McCabes

[Maligso]

Thanks for the advice guys ... much appreciated. We are thinking of sending him to the grade 1 teacher he was going to go to next year if we weren't emigrating for reading lessons over the holidays - depending on how expensive she is! We reckon it can only be good for him and we know he will love it. She has let us know she is available so we will phone her and chat next week. We are laid back parents as in I don't push my boys to learn and rather let them enjoy being boys and let them learn at the correct pace. Emigrating however has now raised this issue and if we need to prepare him a bit to ensure his happiness that side I think we should try now rather than wait for the school to try and get him up to date. We have 2 months before we go so he will be home with his two 3 year old brothers Dec and the whole of Jan so I think he will enjoy the time alone reading classes! Thanks again!

[followmylead]

My son skipped year 1. So he went from pre-primary to year 2. He could not yet read or write apart from very basic words. He is doing brilliantly and is reading at a far higher level than my other boys did when they were in year 2 in SA. He is the youngest in his class.

They really do bend over backwards to help the kids.

[Craig01]

We came over with my eldest daughter going straight into Year 1. We had similar concerns as she was virtually unable to read (despite going to an eye-wateringly expensive private school in SA!) before coming over and, like Heidi mentioned we subscribed to reading Eggs. It made a big difference to her reading and although she was not on par with the other kids, it helped.

In hindsight, it was probably not necessary because she lifted her game automatically and within 6 months shot up through the ranks ..... she is in year 3 now and is in the top 25% of her class in all areas. I am guilty of it too but I think we worry so much more about our kids than we need to. My daughter goes to a state school and we could not be happier .... I truly wonder why there is a need for pvt schooling in Oz .... that is a totally different debate though!

Good luck with the move .... you son will be fine

[heidim]

McCabes, I see you're still in RSA. Here in Qld the curriculum doesn't support phonics in the prep phase. I was shocked as I also believed in phonics. They teach them the sounds, but they do not teach them to sound out words, they teach them sight words. If you're coming to Qld DO NOT do phonics as a starting point!!! They drill sight words whether you like it or not. It is all memory based.

Students get ranked (passed) based on how many sight words they can recognise. Whether you agree with it or not, that's the way they do things here....

[ABC123]

Hi heidim,

As a teacher I was very interested in this thread and was very surprised that you said they do not teach phonics in schools. I work in an international school and have taught with many Australian teachers who have all used phonics to some extent as part of their approach to teaching reading. I have been doing my own bit of research and am trying to familiarise myself with the Australian curriculum and it explicitly states that by the end of Yr1, Yr2 and Yr3 children need to "navigate, read and view texts with illustrations and simple graphics" and as an example: "using and combining knowledge of layout, context, vocabulary, grammar, phonics and visuals". I find it difficult to believe that children get passed on how many sight words they can remember - there is so much more to reading than simply being able to repeat back words that you have memorised. Not saying I don't believe you, just wondering if this approach is specific to your child's school or the area that you live in. Like I said, I want to make my self as familiar with the education system as possible before we go over. Would really love it if some other parents or maybe someone who is teaching in Australia could shed some light on the matter. Could be different for different states?

@ Magigso, don't worry too much about where they will be placed and how they will cope. Our school has a high turnover of students that come from all different types of education systems and that begin school at different ages. We generally place children within the correct age group and then work at getting them up to where they need to be academically if they are behind. We do assess it on a child by child basis though as each child is different. We start teaching reading at age 5 and have had many South African children going straight into Year 2 here having never had any type of formal schooling. Generally, they are up to speed within 6 months - it really is remarkable! From the sounds of things, the Australian schools seemed really geared up to accommodating each learners individual needs and I am sure they will be able to give you sound advice for your children. All the best for your move over!

[Sunnyskies]

The method of teaching reading is definitely different, but it is not just teaching them to read sight words.

I think that the difference is that in South Africa there was a lot of emphasis on phonics, and that being the foundation of reading, together with spelling words the children had to memorise. I still remember my son having to memorise a myriad of sounds (can't remember the program anymore, but he and I both struggled with it and he struggled with reading in grade 1 in South Africa). He went into grade 2 here and my daughter started prep here. She never had the same pressure of memorising a whole lot of sounds, she was given simple books (they have a specific range of books that are ordered according to reading ability and the children can choose their own book to take home to read). She started reading in prep within a few weeks of starting, and once the pressure to remember a whole of phonics was taken off my son his reading flourished.

The emphasis on phonics spilled over into writing, and for the first couple of years (up until about year 4) the school was very forgiving if the word was spelt incorrectly but with the right sound. Drove me batty as it really retarded good spelling habits in my children. Interestingly, my son worked out how to spell quite quickly once the schools emphasis moved from simply writing an approximation of the word to writing the word c orrectly (and I used to sit with word lists drilling him on them), but my daughter was much harder to get right. Fortunately at her current school they have a whole programme teaching how spelling works and giving the children different techniques on how to work out the spelling of a word, and she has improved dramatically this year.

[heidim]

Thanks ABC123. All I know is what my daughter has been through Prep. Yes, they do phonics, called jolly phonics. In term 1 they teach them how each letter looks and then how each letter sounds. They also do Casey the Caterpillar to help them remind how each letter is formed. But my daughter never sounded a single word in prep (and this is the year they start to learn reading in Qld). This feedback is based on the OP's question that his child can't read, and I'm saying they put a lot of emphasis on sight words and if you want to prepare a child who cannot read, then get them to do sight words if coming to QLD.

I have another daughter starting prep next year and at orientation last month all the teachers were telling us (or rather teaching us) is how to effectively help children with sight words. My daughter in Year 1 is now starting to break up words (long words and it seems like she's getting a feel for sounding, so they may be doing it after they have established sight words).

Children in class got placed in groups based on how many sight words they know. They had red, yellow, blue and green. The blue group was the top group of the class (it was displayed for everyone to see), and it was done colourwise so that the kids won't get discouraged at being in the bottom group. Each week they got tested on their sight words and they moved up or down a group based on how many sight words they knew. They don't pass students ONLY on sight words but students who do not know enough sight words get extra classes to progress to the following year.

So my answer is based on the question - if you're coming from RSA and your child can't read, then the best thing would probably be to teach them sight words. Please keep the context in mind.

Edited to add: I think phonics is the better way to go, but unless I do home schooling, we're in for another year of sight words! AARGGHH!!!

Edited November 30, 2014 by heidim

[Sibella]

Funny I can't really remember how my middle daughter learnt to read here. In the UK it was phonics as well which worked well for my eldest as she started reading books by herself within days of starting Reception. But my middle daughter really struggled with learning to read in the UK and I think phonics was a bit confusing as it they had a character connected with each sound so she had to remember the character and the sound and then there was a word like 'the' which made no sense at all!

At her current school she still receives reading support in Year 2 and is doing much better, she now reads simple chapter books by herself. It is definitely a combination of sight words and sounds as they also use Reading Eggs at school.

[ABC123]

Hi Heidi,

Ok, that sounds more like what we do here. Our Reception classes begin with Jolly Phonics. After that we do use phonics, but it is not heavily emphasised. We split the class into different reading groups based on ability (much like you have mentioned above) and each group has their own levelled readers and are on a different level of sight word recognition. Relieved to hear that it is not totally foreign!

@Sibella, it sounds like the school in the UK was using Letterland. It is a prime example how every child is different and learns in different ways. Some children thrive using Letterland as the visuals and stories help them to remember the sound. For other children, it is as if it is just too much information to remember and they end up being confused. So important to treat each child as an individual and use a variety of methods and approaches when teaching. My own children are a prime example - one took to reading easily and never looked back. The other not so much - and they were both taught in the same school by the same teacher. It sounds like they will all be in good hands though in the Australian education system.

[McCabes]

sunnyskies that sounds like THRASS, and I've always thought that was just ridiculous... they tried to "simplify" reading by teaching every combination as it's own sound, so instead of kids learning 26 letters and the relationships between them, they have to learn 44 (or more?) combinations and the relationships between all of them - the spelling thing also never made sense to me. Yes, maybe in victorian times you could spell however you liked as long as you used the right letters to create the "sound" you wanted, but since the first dictionary was published, we started with spelling standards... good or bad thing, it's the way it is, and teaching kids that they can spell it however which way as long as the sounds are kind of right is unrealistic - in the working world that's not going to be seen in a good light...

Heidi, there was research done some years back where they "proved" that reading is a "whole-word" exercise based on the amount of time (minimal) college students took to recognise/read a word. It had brain scans and other fancy stuff, and their (mistaken, in my opinion) conclusion was that we don't spell each word out every time we read it, but instead recognise the whole, and as such, we shouldn't teach reading as a "these are all the parts, this is how they can fit together" exercise, but rather just start as they will end up - and so the "whole-word" method was born. I think there's a basic fault here in that they didn't consider the possibility that actually, our brains get really fast at decoding words, and in a way, we may end up with a "whole-word" impression after many, many readings of that word, but I don't think our brains start off that way. They just get really good at recognising the patterns of words when they keep appearing the same way over and over again after many years of reading - it was after all, a study done using college students; not on kindy kids just learning to read.

I realise that it may feel like a waste of time to get them to learn the phonics when the emphasis in school is just on sight words, and it may lead to short-term gains as your child may be in the higher group. But in the long run I still think this is doing kids a disservice - if you can, try find a copy of "Why Johnny can't read" - it was by a teacher (I think) who did a whoooole lot of remedial training with kids in america who went through the "whole word" method, and he discusses how it affects them when they hit grade 4-6, because while kids may initially be fine and be able to memorise the shapes of the easier sight words, it gets much harder when they start being faced with "friendships" and "friendless" - more or less the same length, same starting and ending letter... now how do they work it out? It ends up with kids who can read school "readers" quite well, but never quite manage to move onto chapter books that don't follow the same style/format - like Roald Dahl and other classics which use proper english words, not just ever more sight words.

I guess I just mean they need to work out to what ends are they teaching kids to read - to successfully recognise all, what? 220 sight words (depending on whose list they use), or the few hundred most common english words often used by immigrants to ensure they can communicate effectively (if very simpy)? Or are they teaching towards the end of having kids who can pick up anything they want to and read it successfully - and who have the tools to be able to tackle any words they encounter that they've never seen before.

Sorry... I ended up teaching my son the basics at 5 because he was SOOOO ready and they school here did not want to know and actually laughed at the idea that kids could be ready to read before officially starting grade 1. He knew all the Letterland characters (thanks to his nursery school - I didn't do any of that!) by the time he was 3.5 or 4, and then started walking around the house going "mmmm-aaaa-nnnn, maaaan, man!" Since he already knew all the phonics, I did start teaching him the sight words that are oddities - like "the", but I also used the letterland stories to explain the most common combinations like sh, ch, th etc. we then went on to the free books on Mit, Mat, and Sam (a mouse, lion and friends) that are available online (copyright expired), and used that for a while. He was the only child in grade 1 who started the year already reading (which I only found out later from his grade 2 teacher). In grade 2 we were told at the beginning of the year that he would easily be able to read the end of year books, and now at the end of grade 2 he is happily working his way through Horrid Henry, Roald Dahls, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and Horrible Science books. Every time he hits a word he doesn't know, he stops, breaks it down phonetically, then puts it back together before he matches it to words he knows from spoken language - or if he really hasn't heard it before he'll come and ask, but then the next time he remembers. I have never tested him on the lists of sight words he was given this year, because I know he has known all of them for at least a year now. Less drilling - YAY - but also, to me it's better that, to him, there are just words, there are not "more important words" (like sight words), and then all the rest... Don't know if I'm explaining that right - if it sounds wrong, take it the other way.

I'm strongly considering teaching both my younger kids to read before they start grade 1 (if we are still here by then), because I really don't like the whole-word or the sight-word emphasis.

All this said, please understand that we had a truly horrible HORRIBLE experience with my son's primary school (much better now after moving him to a private school) - and that had a lot to do with how much research/looking up I did on reading, and why I feel the way I do.

I don't think it's good to do all of this too early - I am wondering how I might start with my middle child as she hasn't been at the same nursery as my son (his nursery started with letterland with the 2 year olds, and took it very, very slowly, building familiarity with those characters over a few years with no pressure and lots of fun) - he had a really amazing foundation. [that nursery changed hands and just went downhill, hence us not using them anymore]. I don't think I would have walked this path if it hadn't been for this pretty unique set of circumstances - you are highly unlikely to meet the same reaction we had from the school here (disbelief, being brushed off, being stonewalled, then eventually them taking every opportunity to prove to my son that he "wasn't that good" until he basically developed a school-based anxiety disorder and refused to "perform").

Anyway... sorry for the long post!

[RYLC]

Please be aware that EVERY STATE IS INDEPENDENT and does things differently. South Australia uses the phonics method with sight words only for the ones that don't work with phonics.

[Sunnyskies]

Yes THRASS it was, and was our nemesis for 2 years. Stupid songs and stupid sounds. At the time I spoke to my sister who is a remedial teacher in WA and she said that THRASS was used here but had gone out of vogue. Wonder if it is still used in SA. I remember as a child (back in the 70s , ahem) having to write phonetically when I first learnt to write and then had to learn to write correctly a few years later. That method was discredited due to the confusion it wrecked with our spelling.

I taught my children letter land before they started school and they were pretty good with that and I thought the principles it teaches are sound. I think THRASS confused my son and set him back.

My advice is not to get too stressed about it and don't put your 5 and 6 year olds under more stress. It will work out once you are in the system here. Make sure you have an open discussion with the school and get their guidance on how best to support your child. Even if they are not the best reader when they arrive with some parental support of what the teachers do and you will be amazed how quickly they improve. All I good time, they are just little, let them find their feet.

[Spider]

another good program to look into for reading is jollyphonics

[Sibella]

Yes each child is different and learns differently but they do catch up. I was still really worried about my eight year old middle daughter (think I feel guilty because she is the middle one!) as I thought she was still very behind with her reading. And she always forgot to bring readers home to read.

So one day I went to 'complain' to the teacher about the fact that she doesn't bring any books home. The teacher told me that my daughter said that she reads 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' and 'Roald Dahl' books at home (which she does) so there is no need for her to take books home as she is the type of child who needs to read stuff that she's interested in and able to choose herself. Soon after I found her asleep with a book on her face . So despite my disbelief in my own child she was actually reading well. But I must admit her teacher is amazing, she's a different child this year.

She also gets all her spelling words right every week, which really amazes me as she is a terrible speller! Apparently she only learns the words for the test and forgets them instantly afterwards . I told her that she needs to put them in her brain forever as she will need to know to spell those words in the future! Kids are so weird sometimes...

[Sunnyskies]

Lol Sibella, my daughter did the same thing. Learnt her words for the test and then did forget how to spell them. Drove me insane as we would spend time learning them. Fortunately she has now worked out she does need to remember them.

What I find amazing in trying to provide that extra bit of guidance is how things I learnt at school and thought long forgotten come back to you as your children have to learn what you did 20 years ago. Makes you realise how everything you learn is stored somewhere in your brain.