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No reading book a week in, advice needed!

28 replies

40notTrendy · 12/09/2011 19:22

DS been in Y1 a week now. No reading book (other Y1 class have reading books). Do I wait another couple of days (as I said to myself on Thursday last week) or approach the teacher and ask?
Enjoying the break from the trauma pleasure of reading but it is only the 'pleasing the teacher' that gets him to read with any focus, so am quite keen to get him started.
What do you think?

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embles76 · 12/09/2011 20:13

I would ask especially if the other class has them - maybe she is just a bit disorganised! You have every right to ask politely when he will get one!

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racingheart · 12/09/2011 22:39

Ask. Don't be shy. You could say what you said here, that the teacher's encouragement is a big incentive.

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LittlePushka · 12/09/2011 22:43

Have you no books in your house........?
Cant you just tell DS to ask teacher for one......?

Cant see a need for advice here, surely!!!

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Isla77 · 12/09/2011 23:04

Bit brutal LittlePushka. I would also be concerned if my child was not getting a reading book straight away in Year 1. Should not have to ask but I would in this case as if teacher is the disorganised type she/he needs keeping an eye on.

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LittlePushka · 12/09/2011 23:21

Brutal it may be, but it is just common sense:The teacher wont bite the parent and the child has a tongue in his head and in the meantime get reading at home....just does not seem to me something upon which advice would be required.

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cat64 · 12/09/2011 23:26

This reply has been deleted

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40notTrendy · 13/09/2011 18:15

I asked for advice to level my judgement. I know how to support his reading thank u Grin.
fwiw, I asked this morning to be told he'd be getting a book this week.

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TheOnlyWayIsEnfield · 13/09/2011 18:27

She might be doing running records with them all to make sure they are given a book at the right level for them. This can be time consuming.

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sugarandspiceandallthingsnice · 13/09/2011 18:56

Has he got a reading record that you could be filling in? That way he would be able to show her? For what it's worth, as a teacher I used to send books home immediately simply to appease parents, but I would often have to change levels etc so in reality I would have liked to have given them out later.

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40notTrendy · 13/09/2011 19:17

Sugar, we've had nothing. I think that was what made me wonder. We got a term planner yesterday but nothing hmm, personal ?Confused iykwim? from the teacher. It's been a very different start to Yr 1 compared to Reception. And I understand that starting school needs more communication but I jest u not when I say we've had nothing, I didn't even know what she looked like til the first morning. Hmm

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sugarandspiceandallthingsnice · 13/09/2011 19:41

Hmm, that doesn't sound like the best start. Could he draw some pictures of characters from his favourite books and talk to you about the story? Start your own reading record and then stick it into whatever is given?

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CailinDana · 13/09/2011 19:46

Thank god I'm not teaching here any more. That is all.

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simpson · 13/09/2011 19:50

DS has been back for just over a wk (he is in yr2)

A notice went up yesterday for all the parents saying that no books would be going out till 19th sept as they are still being assessed.

I have just got him some books from the library and we are working through them.

I would find out if anyone else has a book in his class first.

IIRC DS did not get any books until about 3wks in when he was in yr1.

Once we did get them though the books did not stop coming and it felt like we had a new one virtually every day Grin

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40notTrendy · 13/09/2011 20:18

Ooh, like the draw characters idea sugar. He'd love that. His experience in Reception was so personal and attentive, I'm really hoping Yr 1 turns out the same Smile

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sugarandspiceandallthingsnice · 13/09/2011 21:29

Hope he has a lovely time in year 1. Have you got any friends who have had this teacher and can say when he might get a book etc?

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40notTrendy · 13/09/2011 21:44

No, unfortunately the older siblings of friends dc had the other Yr1 teacher! All I've heard is that she's lovely and a bit bonkers, still not sure if that's a good thing or not!

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choccyp1g · 13/09/2011 22:13

Here is my suggestion to get over the perennial problem of the first half-term of every school year being used to assess the pupils, despite the fact that they were all assessed and "levelled" at the end of the previous year.

Why don't the year end assessments get done by the following year's teachers? Then they could get straight into work at the start of September. Obviously some DCs would advance or slip a bit over the summer, in some subjects, but that would soon be corrected by the teachers ongoing asssessment as part of their normal routine.

Alternatively the new teacher could just trust to last year's assessment until they get round to checking each child's level, which of course may have changed over the summer.

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sugarandspiceandallthingsnice · 13/09/2011 22:27

Love the idea in theory choccyp1g but a lot of it is ongoing assessment and would be hard to do. We do pass on lots of info and do the best we can - I tend to take last year's as correct and amend my assumptions as we go along.
One thing a previous school did which was useful was to spend an evening looking through QCAs etc and working out as a class what needed to be worked on etc. Very handy.

Personally I do little bits during the first week, depending on age of child (taught through primary age range) and then it is all guns blazing in the first full week!

40notTrendy if it helps I can send you some things I made for y2 reluctant readers - wrote them stories using their names and what they were interested in - they drew the pictures. If you want to send me a message am happy to do this for you??

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teacherwith2kids · 13/09/2011 22:32

We do reading books out on the first day based on previous year's end of year levels, then adjust as necessary as we read with the children.

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40notTrendy · 13/09/2011 22:54

Thanks sugar! Need a hug emoticon! If things don't progress I'll take you up on that. I think reading is one of the important links between school and home and even if the book (if it ever arrives!) isn't quite right it would have been good to see that little comment in a reading diary 'good reading' etc in the first day or two. Will see what tomorrow brings!

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sugarandspiceandallthingsnice · 13/09/2011 23:10

No problem, more fun than the pp I am currently in the middle of!

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IthinkIamUndecided · 14/09/2011 07:12

You two sound like hard work.

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DownbytheRiverside · 14/09/2011 07:17

'Ooh, like the draw characters idea sugar. He'd love that. His experience in Reception was so personal and attentive, I'm really hoping Yr 1 turns out the same'

Our reception have gone from a class of 24 with a full-time TA to a class of 30 with a TA in the morning. The curriculum has changed too, a lot less playing and more lesson-type activities. You can do personal and attentive more easily if it's OK for half your class to be playing with lego or dressing up.
Less so if they are all supposed to be reading, writing or arithmeting. Smile

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40notTrendy · 14/09/2011 09:20

Ithink and downby... What point are you making? Hmm

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Mumleigh · 14/09/2011 10:17

My DS has been in Y1 for a week too and has also not brought his book bag home yet. He has told me that he has read to his teacher and we read at home every night so I'm not too worried. He also did the local library reading challenge.

I think the first week or so is all about settling the children the children back into a routine ( at our school they have been splitting the class between the old reception classroom and the more formal Y1 classroom to give the children a smooth transition between the two settings)

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