That homework diaries are a bit Big Brother?

[carocaro]

DS primary school seem obsessed about having comments from parents about reading, what they read, when they read, how they read etc etc. And I get it, they want us to read at home and we do, but what I don't like is feeling like I have to write something snippy and gleefull every week or day.

Teachers are public servants and provide a service for which they are paid and are therefore accountable. As a parent I am not accountable to the school and I refuse to prove myself as a parent helping my child to read with notes in the homework diary.

As if you don't write anything you don't care. I speak regularly to his teacher and do write in his diary and he reads stuff from school books to text on TV to magazines. Do I have to tell them that every second? Are they going to use it against you?

I cant see why there should be a problem in having communication between yourself and the person who your child spends more time with during the day than he does with you.

You talk sense Carocaro. Totally agree with you.

No, they are not going to hold it against you if you don't fill in the reading diary. With a very small child the reading diary is useful because you can let the teacher know that a book has been finished and if there were any problems with it. A child who can write could be filling in the reading diary themselves - recording their own thoughts on the book.

I have plenty of communication, as I said I write in the diary and more importantly speak to the teacher and TA regularly.

p24-27. Done.

My son isn't allowed to change his reading book until I have written in the diary saying that he has done so. I only discovered this rule after he had had the same book for about a month!

I just write "we have finished this book. Please could we have another."

I'm a teacher and I agree. YANBU.

I have decided today that I am sick to the back teeth of homework (2 primary children). Can't they just do school work at school and have fun at home?

I hate homework.

Completely agree OP. The school has no right to set you homework!

My DH once wrote the following in DS's book:

He sat in the corner
Like Little Jack Horner
And read it from cover to cover.
A trait he must share
(If mention it, I dare)
With his Grandfather, Father and Mother!

I'm a bit at your "public servants" vent, though. Did you really mean all that guff?? If you did, then yes, I do think YABU.

Maybe opening up a whole different issue but it seems to me that chidren have far too much pressure and aren't allowed to be children. The pressure on year 6s in some schools at the moment in the run up to SATS is horrendous/ridiculous.

It's a motivation thing in DD's school.
If they read at home they get moved up a chart.
I don't have to write anything snippy or gleeful just that she's read.

It doesn't take much to let them know how much of the book has been read so they can pick up at the appropriate place. When you ask a 5 yr old 'where did you get up to at home?' the response can be really random and time consuming, so yes YABU

That's true AP.

But AP that's not why they're asking. The teacher is hardy going to start reading to each child in turn at the point his / her parents stopped.

They are asking as they're checking up on you.

That is true AP, but it's not acceptable when you get a snipey comment home when your child hasn't read for a few days after doing so religiously for the past 5 years or when they've been away from school ill, as I've had. Should be respect/support on both sides from parents and teachers. I wouldn't dream of questioning the teacher for missing a reading session so, IMO, it is a bit 'big brother' as the OP has stated. YANBU

I would quite like more written information from dd's school. I am fed up with her coming home with the date written at the top of her jotter pages and no question. Then ensues upto an hour of me trying to get a 5 year old to remember her instructions. I then have to sign to say she has answered the question asked. It bothers me because I have no idea if she has or not.

But Rhinestone that is why I'm asking. I do as much 1-1 reading as is humanly possible in class and I want children to expect their reading to follow a narrative, hence I want to pick up from the point they last left it.

I also want my TA to be able to see at a glance if a book has been finished at home, so that she can change them over asap.

However, boobum i agree with you 100%, 'snipey comments' never acceptable. We need mutual respect and not a culture of bossing, bullying, checking up on etc

well AP, you're a fab teacher and I take it back!

Please don't make me stay in at playtime!

The diaries are a home/school communication method which parents complain there is not enough of. What a very cynical life you must lead if you think it is purely to check upon you! Jeez as if I don't already have enough to do.

The children fill it in at our school.

Even the reception children can write

1-4 read

surely

The communication should be two way.

When DC were little, their book would come home every evening and I'd read the teacher's/TA's comments. I was interested.

Then I would listen to them read and put my own comment, often little more than saying what page we got up to, or perhaps a question.

Good grief, it was hardly onerous.

I have never seen the reading diary as set homework for myself. It certainly takes me much more time to actually listen to Dcs going through their pages than it takes to writ "done" on his diary.

Maybe to make it fair, teachers should write as well what the Dcs have read in school (when they read aloud to teacher) so we have a better idea of what actually goes on in class?