To think that their teachers are being unfair?

[AquaBlue79]

Primary age DC need to read 4 times a week at home as part of their homework, We have done this since the beginning and never missed a day.

This week we read Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and we were busy Thursday so I told the DC we will do the other read Friday after school.

They both came home upset and said that they have to stay in at lunchtime on Monday to read because they've only read 3 times.

This was written down in their reading book that they will be staying in from the teacher.

AIBU to say something? Once we had completed reading on Friday that would have been 4 times that they have read this week or am I missing something here?

I tend to be really lax when implementing these ‘rules’ for not reading at home/filling in reading diaries because personally I don’t like these systems. I doubt they will be kept in long on Monday though.

What I would probably do if I was you though is just make sure you read 4 times between Friday - Thursday each week.

There can’t be one rule for your children because you’re usually good about reading, and one rule for the others.

Yes there can
The rule is you clock those that don’t get the opportunity to read much at home and make time for them to be heard and encouraged in school, not as a punishment either. And you give the others a bit of slack if they miss one reading ‘tick’ the odd week and say ‘don’t worry lovely I hope you were doing something fun, try and get 4 in there next week!’
The whole point of teaching is adapting to individual children’s needs and catering for them, which is why I hate these stupid blanket home reading rules which only every benefit those children who would be heard to read at home anyway, and turn it into a chore and a form of punishment for others.

How old are your dc? Can they read independently or do you have to listen and help them? Is it their only homework?
I’m a teacher & would never punish a child by making them miss playtime if they haven’t done something at home if they’re young. It’s not fair at all, as parents are often busy & family life takes over.

Just make a reading comment up. Or read once and spread the comments over all 4 days.

This is the kind of shit that makes children hate reading, such a pointless rule.

A lot of people who don’t read with their kids won’t give a shite about them being kept in a break 😨 it’s harsh and no child should lose their entire break especially for that.

@PineappleUpsideDownCake

We sign the homework diary anyway.....

Yes we do too... unfortunately dc could t hand in his record last week as I filled the next week pages, and he didn’t want the teacher to catch on.

Remind the school that any form of homework in primary schools is not compulsory and you do not consent to their loss of any playtime.

They are not old enough to read by themselves so I do have to read with them.

It's nice to hear your opinions, I thought it was harsh. I've wrote a comment explaining what happened so hopefully they'll understand.

This isn't their only homework, we had completed all the other tasks that were set and due to a busy Thursday I thought it would be okay to read with them on Friday after school as that would have been 4 times reading during that week but they checked it Friday morning and wrote the note that they will stay in Monday.

I hope you have filled it in for Sat and Sun too so that they can see you actually read 6 times last week...

My children are in Secondary school now but we always read every day. Even 5 minutes is enough. If you can't spare 5 minutes then something is wrong.

Our dc school is like this. My two read every night before bed, but I once wrote one entry in for half term explaining they read every day as I didn't want to waste the paper to write all separate entries seeing as it's all the same thing. They got kept in as punishment. It's infuriating as it's homework for me!!

When I was teaching I regularly gave up break and lunchtime to hear cilldren read but that was on a voluntary basis - me and them.

Doesn't this way of managing things just encourage parents to lie in their children's reading logs? I was always a faithful reader when my DDs were little, but I wouldn't have put up with that - and sometimes events just overtake the schedule.

I would definitely say something about this, and I’m normally pretty relaxed about letting the school get on with their business. If you want DC to do something you make it very clear what you want them to do, you don’t say one thing then change the goalposts when the way they do it doesn’t suit. They are teachers, they should be more than capable of clearly articulating what they expect of pupils.

What a terrible system. Next time just lie. Also, they should have specified that a week is fri-thu instead of mon-sun

It's creating a whole level of fear around reading for the children too :) These kind of teachers wreck my head, especially at primary level. It's not the kids' fault is it.

@ExclamationPerfume really!?

I’m pretty aghast at the expectations here. I was a faithful reader as a kid and kept a log of the books I had read rather than ‘times per week’.

What with parents working full time, seeing family, hobbies like swimming, this seems really over the top and just another stick to beat parents with really.

I would argue it’s much better to have a solid chunk of time twice a week devoted to reading with a relaxing environment and attentive parents than four times a week five minutes in a rush before bed.