Does your DC have to read every book in a stage before moving up a level or are the posters that have said this liars?

[diamondage]

Oh dear I've really gone and done it now. I posted in AIBU to ask about this issue and someone stated that they doubt any primary schools have a policy requiring DCs to read every book in a stage.

Clearly the implication is that parents raising this issue are liars.... I just don't believe it. Surely no one would lie about this?

Please tell me I've not been hoodwinked, getting twisty knickered (where's the slight tongue-in-cheek emoticon) for no reason because 0 primary schools in the land actually have this, in my opinion, daft policy?

If I have been hoodwinked I'll ask HQ to remove my AIBU as it would be entirely moot! (Keeping fingers crossed for some rightfully outraged mums stating that this policy does exist)

[Jinsei]

Our school doesn't make kids read every book, they can skip entire levels if appropriate.

However, I have no reason to believe that anyone else is lying! :)

[LadyStark]

Don't have to read every book in every level here, DD moved up one level in just two weeks.

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

Our school do not make children who are ready to move up read every book in a level just for the sake of it. DS1 has skipped whole bands.

[diamondage]

Bless you both, this is also my experience with DD

I am, however, hoping parents with DCs in schools with the aforementioned policy will post soon.....

[Quangle]

Yep that annoyed me too OP. it's happening to us right now and no ds is not barking print and no it's not about his comprehension (the books are at the 'look at the cat' level so he's hardly being called on to do much comprehending and no it's not about matching reading with writing and other support stuff.

And it's not about enjoying genre. These books are too dull for that.

It is apparently about a teacher not seeing where a child is and being so busy blocking out parents' voices (because they either lie or are too stupid to understand the scheme) that the child is being given inappropriate reading materials with the result that the best advice available on MN is to ignore the school/teacher and get own books. I will do this but what a waste of time and resource.

[diamondage]

Ali, crossposts, please consider yourself included in the both!

[Shimmyshimmy]

We had teachers with this policy of making the dcs read every book in the box, but it wasn't the school policy because one teacher did the complete opposite.

[avocadoadvantage]

I have worked with teachers that insisted on this but it is not what I would do. There's only so much Biff and Chip one can take!

[TheGruffalo2]

We never make children read all the books in a set at my current, previous and any school I've come into contact with. I've knowledge of dozens of schools as a parent, teacher a 8 different schools, friend of teachers and been a seconded LA advisor of literacy. In fact we sometimes only read one, then decide the child needs a different set and often jump sets and stages altogether. This has been common in all the schools I know of.
Is it the usual case of parents demanding harder books and teachers saying they need to finish the set because the children actually need to and not race on to a higher level, rather than slavishly working through sets? Many parents claim their children need a higher set, but when assessed are not reading a high enough level of accuracy to warrant it. I've seen parents read with the child (with the child echoing the parent a split second behind them) and claim they can read it. I've seen pupils sounding out every single word and unable to talk about the story as it has taken so long to decode. I've even had parents listen to their child with me and been adamant their child is getting words correct that the child is mis-reading (and these are academic parents not limited readers themselves). We, as teachers, get comments like this so often, that you can see why we are sceptical when a parent says their child needs a harder book. And before people comment about we should explain to the parents; we have a reading log where we write extensive notes about targets and what we need to see, we have annual "how to support your child with reading" meetings during school hours, straight after school and in the evening (all with crèche), the same information is in a leaflet we send home termly, we have the information on our school website and we run family learning workshops during the day, evenings and on a Saturday (just once a term for Saturdays rather than a six week block for the rest).

[BikeRunSki]

Ds is in Reception. His school makes you read every book in the stage before moving up. Very tedious, but I asked fir him to get 2 books a week now, so it's going a bit faster.

[Sparklingbrook]

I really don't get all the reading level angst. I have had two DC go through primary. First one went slowly up the levels, second one zipped through and was free reading early on.

But now at 14 and 12 it doesn't matter. I believe they all get there, so I hate seeing all this worry.

[pushmepullyou]

Yes, mine does. Very frustrating as it means DD is reading books that are far too easy for her and isn't being stretched at all at the moment. The school listen to her reading twice a week and she has always had her book changed but is still on ORT 1+ because there are bloody millions of them and she has to read them all.

[TheFowlAndThePussycat]

Yep, at our school they have to read every one. DD goes through them pretty quickly and there is lots of opportunity for 'free reading' so it hasn't held her back as such, but she does have to read every damn B,C & K to an adult, then bring it home to read with us.

[Sparklingbrook]

I can't remember if they had to read every book, I could never remember what colour was what either.

[TheFowlAndThePussycat]

What's worse is that DD1 is in yr1 and DD2 in reception, so we are getting them all 2nd time round again...

[ShoeWhore]

They don't have to read every book at our school. No idea about other schools though.

[LittleFriendSusan]

Ours does - every single bloody book including all the non-fiction, etc. The odd teacher will ignore and bump them up a stage when they are clearly competent, but unfortunately not those DS has had for the last few years.

DS is Y4 and thoroughly bored with the reading scheme books; we now only read the scheme books once or twice a week and instead he reads his own books and I note this in his reading diary. Not a question of lack of comprehension or anything like that - he is top of his class for reading and literacy and reads aloud well, with appropriate expression, etc. He loves reading but being forced to read some of the Treetops drivel was pushing him the other way...

DD was around the same level of reading as DD but changed from a different school with a much more sensible policy, so she flew through the earlier levels in Reception /Y1. Then a sensible teacher in Y2 (or maybe 3?) put her onto free reading. Which should have happened to DS probably last year too... the thing is he's so reluctant to read the school books now, he's not likely to have worked his way through them any time soon!

[Lonecatwithkitten]

I don't think it is a school wide policy, but I do think you encounter individual teachers who allow it to happen to individual children. For whatever reason the individual child is overlooked either in getting the help they need to progress or in just listening to them to assess that they move up. This happened to my DD school policy was that a teacher heard each child read once per week and a TA heard them the other 4 days. There was a parent who made a tremendous fuss in DD's year 2 class and to give herself an easy life the teacher heard that child read everyday and my DD being at the end of the alphabet lost out massively. She spent the whole of year 2 on the same book level, with the teacher saying 'ah well kitten's reading', but no suggestions as to how to help and support her to move on.
Move into year 3, 5 book bands in 10 days. Yes I know it could be argued that year 2 teacher laid down ground work, but actually you know when your child is being ignored. Sadly the attitude it created about literacy still leaves DD believing she is no good at it in year 5 even though actually she is now above average.

[diamondage]

Thank you so much for confirming that there are indeed teachers, and even schools, that do insist on DCs reading every book in each stage (assuming you're not all lying of course ).

I have yet to hear of any sound justification for this approach, although like my other thread, there is always the view that it's the parents that have it wrong.

Of course some parents do indeed get it wrong .... being happy to accept that, I'm also happy to speculate that (whispers quietly) so do some teachers ... being that we are all human after all I hardly see this as controversial.

Currently my view remains that a "read every book" policy is fundamentally wrong and goes against the good practice of differentiating for each child appropriately. Not to mention the idea of having an accurate assessment of each child's abilities.

I shall go and check the other thread now to see if any teachers have provided a killer argument that has passed by my lay persons brain

[Slackgardener]

Ds worked his way through the reading scheme - reading every single book, it's wasn't just ds, it was every single child in the class and I know because I was a parent helper that year and the instruction was that they read every book - it was a job share and both teachers were as crap as each other.
We moved school the year he finished the scheme and ds's only question to the new HT was - will I have to start at the beginning of the reading scheme again? He was and still is an enthusiastic reader and couldn't face going through it again - so if it does that to a child who loves reading what effect does it have on a struggler?
I really do believe joy of reading is the most important factor in learning to read - some of the approaches taken to ensure all objectives are met seems to suck the joy out of reading - who does that help? I don't think pleasure in reading was ever given much consideration in infant school.

[LittleMissGreen]

DS1 went to a school where he did. Stupid policy - teacher was giving him 6 books a night to get him to the level he should have been reading at.
The boys current school they most definitely don't.

[Galena]

DD is in Reception. She had school-assessed reading age of 9y0m in Sept/Oct, and a comprehension age of 8y9m in Nov/Dec. She reads beautifully, with fluency and expression (I was a y3 teacher for many years pre-Dd, so I know what good/bad reading looks like).

The first book she brought home in November was from the red book band. I was told that they knew she could read well, but that they wanted to develop her inference skills. Very difficult because there wasn't enough story. I did ask them then to reassess, and they put her on green. She progressed through green and orange and is now on turquoise. Each time she changes level her TA says to me 'I've moved her up a level because she's read all the books in the box'.

During orange level she brought home a book from gold level which had been put in the wrong box - she read it beautifully and with expression, able to answer inference questions, etc. I mentioned this to the TA and she smiled, and put an orange book in again that evening.

Now, I could get cross and push for her to move through the levels more quickly, but I'm not going to. She is enjoying the books and it does give us the chance to talk through the bones of the story and the subplots with quick reads. We read other books (library, Book people, charity shops) at home to keep her interested. We do get school books changed daily though, if read. 1 a week would drive me potty!

The thing that does slightly frustrate me though is that the school staff have written in her reading record just 3 times since September. I know they hear her read throughout the school day, but I'd like them to tell me what to work on, etc.

[noramum]

Not DD's school but friends have their DCs in a primary school who has this policy.

Saying that I also know that some parents pester enough and the child then gets moved quicker as they could take home more books during the week, so progressing the level faster than the usual 1-2 books per week.

We now have the problem that DD's box at school doesn't contain enough books she hasn't read already. While I don't mind her re-reading books in some cases she knows them by heart so it just takes a brief look and she can answer everything about it.