To wonder if DS’s teacher is a bit crap

[traingal]

I don’t actually mean that, as think at worst it’s a symptom of teachers being overworked and under resourced but.... DS is an August boy, and by May of Y1 he was at reading (biff chip) level 5. I asked one morning what he needed to do to move up, as he had been on that level since Oct and said he was bored, and easily read the books straight through with me at home. The teacher said she would try to read with him and check, and after that moved him up to level six. Two weeks later I had the same conversation and he was moved to level seven. One week later the same and moved to level 8. One week later the same and moved to level 9....
Is that normal? Do I need to keep pushing (totally goes against the grain, also will be v hard as I usually work FT but was out of work for a couple of months) or do teachers normally notice?

I think teachers hearing children read less regularly is going to be the norm as budgets are cut and less TA time available.

I took mine if the biff and chip books, they were a huge source of resentment towards both my boys, they were “boring” not challenging enough etc... because it was homework I made the my children read them... due to this they then refused to read any other book... as I was taking the enjoyment of reading out of them

They literally refused to read anymore.

One day I wrote in the diary to advise they would not be reading the books, after many a meeting with the school.

The head then asked for a meeting and tried to bully me in continuing with the books, I they could read the books at school however at home they would be reading other material which I would write on their reading diaries.

She wasn’t happy as my children were then setting an example for others to do this...

I advised that my children were individuals who had individual learning paths, and was she advising that my children be at detriment because the school could not provide more challenging and engaging reading material.

The next year, in his age group, the reading books were scrapped for his year, more books brought and children were also allowed to read books from home. Parents also donated their “used” books to the school library.

To answer the poster who queried why the teacher doesn't have time to hear every child read and mentions an hour a day reading time.... There are probably only four hours a day actual teaching time by the time you've taken out lunch and breaks, register time, assembly, general transition. If they read for an hour that's a quarter of the day. When the teacher hears individuals, what are the other 29 doing that's actually productive, rather than just busy work?
Every school I know has cut support staff unless they are one to one, so the few TAs they have are already busy.
The home reading books and hearing readers is not how we teach reading, so they can slip down the priority list when we are overstretched. Filling in reading records also take valuable time, even if it only takes a couple of minutes to find the page, read the parent's comment and respond and make mine, but times that by 30 and that's another hour I could be actually interacting with children and teaching.

Are there other things you are concerned about the teacher, because saying they are totally crap based on is a bit like me saying someone is a crap parent because they rarely read with their child or the child doesn't get a bedtime story every night - which is totally rubbish as I know there are many reasons this happens?

In my first job I worked for a HT who insisted that we hear every child (29) read individually every day. None of them were in groups as she felt they should develop at their own pace