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It's only a signature. Sign it, send it back. It's not like they'll be able to check you have actually sat and listened to them read. It'll take you 2 minutes and it keeps them off your back.

Yabu

All you have to do is put a sentence about the kids enjoying the books and sign it

Takes less than 10 seconds

Yes, I agree. This annoys me too. But DD gets stickers and certificates for regular reading and DS loses golden time if he doesn't so I have to do it every day. BTW both schools insist that the child reads aloud to us regularly and I do think this is a valuable skill even in better readers so you might want to consider doing this at least once a week?

I have perfected writing "reading completed" with an illegible signature. Once a week I'll write a more detailed remark.

Just sign it and send it back. No biggie

YANBU - I hate them! My DS is Yr6 and still has one. Shocking waste of time and effort for all concerned.
I make him fill it in and I try and remember to sign it once a week with different coloured pens.
It's just a bloody box ticking exercise... stop it!!!

YANBU!

It must be clear to your DC's teachers that they read well for their ages. Personally I would write a note to the effect that both dc read extensively without prompting, would seek help if having a problem with comprehension or pronunciation and as such you see no reason to make reading at home a chore (it will probably become one soon enough when they get to secondary school if the lousy books we had to read is anything to go by...but that's another issue entirely!).

As you say, the diligent, concerned parent who have already taught their dc to read will be the one doing extra work whilst the one who don't care will continue as they have been.

In that case just put "please be assured that dc reads everyday and the lack of signature is just a sign of forgetfulness on my part"

I fucking hate these, they make me rageeeee.

They know they can bloody well read because they read the note and tell the teacher you don't need to write that note.

I've caused a furore with the school because I have my signature as a stamp (for my business) and I've just stamped the bloody thing right the way through, I then sent a letter saying they are always reading and you know I have a life and the lives of 5 DC to deal with so I will write when they don't read because that will actually be a noteworthy event. Otherwise assume they are reading.

At our school, when the children move to KS2 there is a real shift in the approach to reading.

The children are expected to take much more personal responsibility for their reading and for choosing new books. Parents are no longer expected to sign their reading journals (because reading is the child's responsibility rather than the parents IYSWIM).

Before the child can choose a new book they are required to complete an activity relating to the book in their journals, they have a list of activities (such as "write a book report", "write a description of a character", "design a new cover", "imagine you are interviewing a character, what questions would you ask them?" etc. etc.) Most parents are involved in encouraging their children to read, complete the tasks and get new books.

It seems to work well, although it does take a bit of getting used to at the start of y3.

Just sign it to keep everyone happy. No big deal.

I agree. I wrote the teacher a nice letter saying that dd2 reads every day without fail, often when we're waiting for her dsis to come out of an activity, and I don't have the reading record. So not signing does not mean not reading. Was told that I had to sign three timesevery week.

I tried just signing, then got told I had to write down exactly which pages read and then when I did that was asked to comment.

On the basis that my main comment on the reading is that the books are way too easy and they don't pay any attention to that, I feel this is a bit silly.

So I'm not doing that, in fact that's one for the things I'm going to bring up with the head of literacy when I go in on a few related matters.

Oh, I am so glad it's not just me! I find it so pointless to sign these things, but I must say I don't recent it so much, I just get it done. But yes, it does seem that teachers love to send things home that involves a lot of fiddling an writing for parents. I guess they think that all mums are SAHMs and that all kids really want to spend their free time doing home work.

hahaha, I feel the same about DSyr8's planner which I am supposed to sign weekly even though I don't understand what signing it means, and I prefer a different system for being sure he's done his homework. I should be grateful it's only weekly signing, I guess .

YANBU I feel the same about DS2 Yr11's planner which I am supposed to sign to say he has done his homework. Well, as he has never had a detention, behaviour point or any other sanction for not doing his homework, I would say it is bloody obvious he has done it!

Pre-fill?


TBH, if they are fine with their reading, you can simply sign it as another ritual you have to perform every night or morning, like brushing teeth.

People buy a stamp. Such pleasure I had steaming through the various books and diaries and journals and other admin such small children apparently need.

My children's school lets the fluent readers fill in their own reading record and they get team points if they do. My DD who is in year 3 has been doing this since year 2. Can you ask your school if they would do this?

Well OP, I used to feel peeved about this because my DS is a fantastic reader and a complete bookworm so couldn't see the point of the signature. I discussed it with his teacher who told me that for advanced readers, it wasn't so much about listening to them read or acknowledging that they had been reading, but about discussing what they were reading in terms of author's intention, comprehension, intended readership, inference, etc etc. My head started spinning and to this date I still don't know how I could discuss what my DS reads in such detail without first reading the book myself, and second researching on all of the above.

I did fill the bloody thing in, for years. Then Y3/4 came around and I knew they knew his reading was just fine. They choose their own books and a class asst or teacher reads with them weekly at least.

So why oh why do they feel it's important for me to think of some banal thing to write in and sign? I don't get and never have had a snotty note, but weeks can go by and I don't look at it, then I remember and go in and sign in out of a sense of duty.

It's a waste of time if all's fine with their reading. I know it's easy to do, and should be treated like any other task a parent with school-age dc has to do, but I just don't get WHY.

I write 'All ok' and squiggle my initials. YANBU.

Welcome to a small taste of the acres and acres of pointless paperwork teachers have to do all the time! Absolutely everything has to be documented and recorded, even if it's totally unnecessary, that's what teaching is all about these days. Mainly to keep OFSTED happy, because as far as they're concerned unless there's a written record of every minute of work done, it didn't happen. The reading diaries are a case of teachers off loading a small amount of pointless admin onto parents, which isn't really fair but does give teachers an hour or so extra to fill in the thousands of other meaningless records.

It doesn't matter what you write, as long as you fill it in.

They need to learn to forge your signature, my brother and I both regularly forged DM's signature on our homework diaries so that we didn't get into trouble