AIBU school library

[QuickThinkOfAName]

Old timer but name changed as I don't want to be linked as the situation is quite unique. Cancel the cheque spangran etc.

I just want to know if i'm being unreasonable. DD is 6 and just started year 2 in an infant school (so this is her last year here).

Not a stealth boast honest but she learnt to read when she was 3 so when she started school she was labelled a 'free reader' so instead of being given 'green' 'red' or 'rainbow' coloured books to read at home she could choose whatever she liked from the library. Fine in reception. Now however she's 6 and frankly there are only 2 fiction books in there that I've seen that are in an way challenging (and I don't even think they should be in the library as they're adult books!)

I've spoken to his teacher before (deputy head, highly experienced etc) and I said i was concerned she was being left to choose her own books and thought she needed guidance to make sure she was being challenged/getting the right level. And she said, well that's her challenge isn't it, to make sure she gets the right book.

I feel like I'm going mad as it's like banging my head against a wall! I don't have a problem with her being given 'a choice' etc but she's effectively been put in charge of her own reading education.

• Just because she has the reading age of an 11 year old or whatever, doesn't mean she has the emotional intelligence of one, she's 6! I don't think she should be responsible for her reading education.
• It's a different life skill being taught to choose appropriately and being able to read. I'd be happy if she had free roam of the library to choose AS WELL as being given something level appropriate.
• There's just not much in there for her level. I appreciate they're not going to have much but I've asked for what sort of level she's at so we can get stuff for her at home and they've been very dismissive.

Am I BU? She is an experienced teacher but I just feel a bit like because she's ticked all the boxes of skills to be learned they're just letting her coast. (Apologies this is a massive post...)

Can you contact the governors and share your concern about the lack of appropriate books in the library? If they need more books then more funding needs to be allocated and that's the governors' decision: at the school where I'm a governor we all gave half a dozen books we chose to start off the new library at the invitation of the headteacher.

The 'issue' isn't confined to reading, go onto the education threads and you will find loads of parents complaining that primary school isn't able to stretch their child in advanced Mathematics.

Schools are not set up for outliers. They cannot cope with a six year old who reads like an adult or needs to be doing A-level maths. The problem is entirely of your own making, deal with it outside of school.

I was this child. Our school used to let me visit the feeder junior school once a week to select a couple of books. I loved this and the themes on the book were much safer than if I had gone to the local library.

Okay point taken about hitchhikers. It has been a long time since I've read it. She's reading it with DH, so I'll get him to replace it.

Thanks for all the replies. Again, trust me. We are using the local library. A lot. And again, I'm really not asking the school to get in special books for her. I totally understand the lack of funds and it would be a complete waste to buy books only one child would use. I'm more than happy to bring stuff in, get books they recommend etc. I'm just concerned at the lack of support and advice.

She has to read a school library book every day and I have to fill in her reading report every night. So yes unfortunately she can't just ignore their books and do her own thing.

And yes, she does have a good comprehension of what she reads. She brought back a Time Hunters book tonight and we discussed the Egyptians, mummification etc. It is the only way we can make school reading interesting. She likes to go off and investigate things she has read. I don't like to use the word gifted. But I think she has a natural aptitude for reading and language and I would hate to see it wasted. Every time I have spoken to this teacher (I dealt with her in Reception too) it is the same response and I get no advice.

walkingdeadfangirl - what an odd choice of phrase! It's a problem of our own making? How so? Having a curious child who loves reading?

Hi OP

Agree with PPs that the issue is really that the school needs to let her bring in her own books.

But I mostly wanted to add some reading suggestions, just to share the love of some favourites! Others have suggested children’s classics or more ‘old fashioned’ books - i’d agree with that, as I think they provide complexity of language and plot without being too adult in content. I think I was probably quite similar to your daughter - and loved the following (far more than most more modern kids books!)

The Blue Door books by Pamela Brown (first one is The Swish of the Curtain) about kids who start a theatre
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome - there are about 12 of these and they’re nice and long.
Old-fashioned school stories - there’s hundreds of these if she gets into them - I used to get them from secondhand bookshops - Angela Brazil is a good start.
If there’s a particular genre she’s into then that can be a good source too - I liked pony books (pullein-Thompson) and theatre books (Noel stretfeild, the saddlers wells books - tho maybe they’re a bit older). Also, oddly, Biggles...

Realise this wasn’t really what you were asking for but couldn’t resist!

Both my girls were free readers from year 1, book work family so no surprise. Books they loved
Mrs pepperpot series
Enid Blyton books
David Walliams
Roald Dahl
Harry potter

But I think even if she's reading The hitchikers guide, she is not actually absorbing it as she would be questioning you regarding the content, so maybe work with her to go more in-depth in more age appropriate books, really get her thinking about what things would look and sound like that will aid her imagination and keep that love of books going.

All my paragraphs seem to have been zapped in that post sorry.

Op, We hardly ever read the actual school book, but as long as they read something, I still tick the box that they have. I thought that was standard.
Also, I would suggest that whilst your dd is clearly a good reader, she will no way be 'the only one' year in and year out reading at this level. It isn't the norm, but there will be one child or two per class reading like this.

But surely reading one book a day that she has chosen that isn’t at the absolute top of her reading level isn’t doing her any harm? She can read plenty of other books as well. My children were both very early readers and even now at juniors I see them reading Horrid Henry or similar. It doesn’t make them drop down to that level. If you must just sign the record and let her read what she wants.
While her knowledge of non fiction and her understanding of language may be fantastic, things in books aimed at older children often include themes like adult relationships and emotions around adolescence and other things that she just isn’t old enough to understand. Also some books may be frightening for her.

PorkFlute - No I agree, one book that isn't challenging to her isn't a problem. But she isn't given anything else. The school don't give her anything to challenge her as they don't have anything.

This in itself would not be an issue if we were able to support her at home with the school's advice but they seem reticent to do anything. I feel like she's been treading water for two years at school.

What advice do you need? Just let her read. Books, magazines whatever she wants to read. Her profile will be unusual. No matter how good her comprehension is her phonic ability will be far higher. They probably wouldn’t be able to give you an accurate level.
Discuss what she’s reading with her. That’s all she needs to develop.

I don't know what advice I'm after. The teacher makes me feel like I'm crazy so I just wanted to see what others would do in the same position. I guess I'm just disappointed with the school. Just some pointers in what we could be doing to help her would have been great.

I've had more useful advice from MN in one evening than from two years of school.

I was in your DD's position WRT reading age (free reader at about 3; I'm hyperlexic), but I went to a regular primary school that taught children up to 11 years, so it wasn't so difficult for me to get books. My family also bought me books. Some old fashioned types of children's books with more challenging language may interest her. Suggest: The Borrowers, Paddington Bear, The Hobbit, The Silver Sword, The Little Princess, The Secret Garden. Also perhaps Back Home & Goodnight Mister Tom. I was also reading the James Herriott books by the age of 7-8, I'm not sure how you'd feel about those for her? There's some fairly detailed descriptions in those, but they aren't gruesome, & the books overall are lovely & quite funny.

There's some things in Hitchhiker's Guide that I wouldn't necessarily want my 6 y/o DD to be reading. It's an adult book, not even marketed for teens (although I read it as a teen as I had read everything in the house including the cereal boxes by about 14 y/o).

Are you after suggestions for High Ability Low Interest reading? (that's low interest age, of course!)
I think you could google it. I'd imagine that, as PPs have suggested, classics would be helpful because of the complexity of language and grammar combined with younger interest themes. Things like Wing in the Willows, Five Children and It, even the later Paddington stories are fairly 'difficult'. But there are plenty of modern authors too. It's hard for others to advise if they don't know what your DC's interests are!
Accelerated Reader's Bookfinder tool may help you- it assesses books for their 'Reading Age' and 'Interest Level' so you can check out their suitability even if you haven't read them yourself.
www.arbookfind.co.uk

My sister had the same trouble with her dd. Alot of the books arent suitable for her dd due to the contact even though she could read it. Theres a huge gap for the early reader. Her dd is now 9 so its got alot easier but for a few years she read everything. Agree reading should be fun but a 6 year old shouldnt be picking up books on ww1 (hitler stole by bunny etc) so guidance is needed.

I understand your frustration, but the schools hands really are tied re budgets. Can you help with a fund raiser? Book drive/swap shop to help the school thus helping your dd? One of our schools wrote to a local author and asked them to do a reading, they brought books to sell to the children and donated a few to the library. The kids loved meeting someone 'famous' and they are proud of their library. As for your dds books in the mean time i suggest the local.library or book shop. Some times schools dont realise how crap their resorses are until some one donates some good things!

Be careful with Goodnight Mr Tom. We listened to it on audiobook during a long car journey and turned it off since the child abuse stuff is quite harrowing and there are some incredibly sad parts. They need to be a bit older and more emotionally mature to deal with it. TBH I'd say year 6 at the very earliest.

IntheNavy - thanks for this. Will look into it. Sounds perfect.

Zitouna - so sorry I think I drafted a reply to say thanks for the suggestions and forgot to send! Will look for these, they sound great.

Shouldof - It's not really the frustration at lack of resources more the lack of help. I offered to bring in KS2 books and was told it wasn't a good idea for her 'read ahead' for next year's books

cloudtree - thanks for the heads up. DD is generally quite level headed but certain things obviously upset her. She watched a film where someone got shot and asked how they filmed it, what effects they used etc. But she saw the original superman film with Christopher Reeve and got very upset at the thought of the little baby being sent into space on his own.

I’m not sure this is a budget thing as much as it’s an attitude/subject knowledge thing. Unless the kids are completely trashing the books, it’s not like they’d have to be replaced every year. There should be at least some books that would be suitable for an able 6 year old reader.

Unfortunately, if it’s an attitude issue, you won’t get far with the school. It might just be a case of ticking the box with the required reading for 10-15mins a night and then ditching the school books.

Your school PTA needs to do a fundraising event and then buy for the school some box sets of Puffin Classics, Jacqueline Wilson (The ones like Tracy Beaker), Tom Gates, Usbourne abridged versions of things like Dickens and Shakespeare, How to train your dragon and Narnia type books etc. £200 or so from somewhere like The Book People. Sorted. This may shock you but I seriously doubt she is the only kid that the school sends home with Biff and Chip but would happily read - and can read - Narnia /What Katy Did/Swallows and Amazons/Wimpy Kid /Whatever at home.

Try the old fashioned children's books with her - I still have a shelf of them in my house, called the 'goody good shelf's and I still read them! Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, Little House on the Prairie, What Katy Did, the Chalet School - all of these are series so you'll find there are loads if she does get into them.

The thing is when you are a competent & avid reader as a younger person you may get a totally different meaning from a book than you would when you are older. I have re-read things I read as a child and found them to be completely different because my understanding is different (Alice in wonderland)
DS read Roald Dahl at 5/6 on his own and then again last year with the class at 9 and found it a different experience.
We always went for a mixture of fact and fiction and mixed up subject matter / theme so that there was breadth to his reading and so he could work out what he liked.
He really liked the how to train your dragon series when he was 6 and although they were quite easy to read they had a nice flow to them with a progression through the series a bit like Harry Potter but more age appropriate.

I’m not one of those who thinks a child needs to understand every word, theme, and reference before reading a book, but I do think the triple breasted whore from Eroticon Six alone would be enough to put me off recommending Hitchhikers for a six year old

I was a similar child, I had a reading age of 12 or something when I was six. There are so many books out there that are not adult but are challenging, for a six year old it’s such a shame the school library hasn’t got them. All of Noel Streatfeild, Little Women, E Nesbit, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Tom Sawyer (not Huckleberry Finn), Anne of Green Gables - I read all of those at her age, didn’t understand all of them but enjoyed them and learnt a lot of new words, you read a reference to something don’t necessarily understand it at first but then read it somewhere else and get it.

I wish my DCs school let them move to free readers earlier. I think they have invested massively in reading scheme books and insist on them reading them whatever the reading / comprehension age of the child.

I totally get where you are coming from with finding suitable books. The book trust website is really useful as it gives an interest age for books and a bit of a summary. If school are open to DD bringing books in you could look for ideas here and see what you can get in your local library. Being an infant school they probably won't have the range of more challenging books that a combined infant /junior school would.

Commonsensemedia.org also gives some parents reviews of the suitability of children's books and gives an idea of the content so you can decide if your child can handle those issues.