AIBU to have had it with reading diaries?

[cakefanatic]

Wondering which way this one will go - I’ll probably be flamed.

Family life is busy, it’s busy for all of us. But this morning I am totally sick and fed up of filling in the reading diary. I read with/to/listen to my kids read all the time. Every day, in fact, and have done since they were very small. It is totally mandated by school that we have to record in their reading diary every day and it’s the one thing that’s just slipping. With the laundry and the cooking, and the never ending activity drop offs and working full time I just never quite get round to it.

School make a big deal of it, and the kids get stressed, but honestly, unless there is a problem can’t they just ease up on the bloody diary? We’ve been filling it in religiously for years now but just lately I can’t handle it.

It just seems like one of a never ending stream of requests from school, including eleventy billion fancy dress costumes, donations to worthy causes, random pieces of fruit for maths class. I could go on...

YABU - reading diaries are crucial to life on Earth
YANBU - enough already, I read with my kids and that’s what is actually important

I think getting him to write it would probably turn it into a chore for him. Reading should be something people do because they want to understand some more about something, or for pleasure. But really daily reading has become a box ticking exercise.

My eldest is year 5 and fills hers in , i just have to comment once a week so they can see they also read to an adult sometimes. To be honest she rarely reads to me but she does read every day so i have no issue with that.
Youngest i don't fill in every day as sometimes she is too tired to read and she's doing great with her reading so again not worried.
I do think they are annoying but they do need to make sure parents are reading with kids as i'm sure not all do.

As a TA I love people who fill in reading diaries, even if it’s just p.5 next.
Loads of reasons.
One of which is nothing to do with me and it’s the one I agree with least - we need to show that we are engaging with parents and encouraging reading. It’s useful as evidence.

However, for me, it’s useful. I can see which children read regularly and which don’t. I try to hear every child in my class read once a week. If I have time to hear a second round, I can then make sure I prioritise children who don’t get heard at home.
When a child sits next to me to read and say they have no idea what page they have got up to, I can check. Which means if they can’t remember the story I can look back with them because I know where they got to - helps comprehension which is just as important as sound the words out.
Some children tell me they’ve finished a book, but there is nothing in the diary. I then don’t know for sure. That’s frustrating because it won’t help their comprehension if they only read half a book each time, and then they go through the books quickly and then tell me they’ve read every book in the box. I know at least 2 children in my class just love going off to change their books and would happily tell me they have finished when they haven’t...

Extra comments are lovely but even just what page they are on next is great - shows they are reading at home and allows continuity between home and school.
And if it’s a book from home, we note down that they have read a ‘home book’ - don’t need to know how many pages etc, just that they read.

One of which is nothing to do with me and it’s the one I agree with least - we need to show that we are engaging with parents and encouraging reading. It’s useful as evidence.

So might it be that say at OFSTED or parent teacher or report time that the teacher or TA would read all the comments in a reading diary in one go? I never thought of it that way. From my POV, I was filling in the darn thing as requested and never getting anything back (either the teacher leaves a comment or just signs it).

Y5!!! They stopped about y2 in our school, but I’m also shocked at children only reading once a week at school!!!!

Oh I feel the pp on the many different apps and webpage log ins.

Over two schools we have five apps, mathletics, google class rooms, times table rockstars, some coding page, the test register for the school monitoring and the gov covid test registering. Plus reading diary’s and actually carrying out the homework and reading. Then the hey go for a walk collect some stuff on your walk and make a picture, also bike to school this week, by the way thursdays a dress up day. Oh and year four now need to come into school in Pe kit twice a week not once oh and we changed the days. Then the million emails from primary about various nonsense and do we need any tadpoles or don’t forget to follow them on Twitter. Then a million notifications from Twitter because each class has its own page plus the school page plus the pta page.

Secondary leave you alone a lot more it’s peaceful.

@Demelza82

I love doing my son's reading diary but then I don't see supporting my son's education and the work of a school trying to improve themselves as a chore.

Thats a bit harsh The OP said she reads with her children, but going into the booking to find the diary and write in it is a chore. That isn't helping her child's education- the child won't forget to read if it isn't recorded

I have the opposite - was more than happy to fill in the diary but gradually lost the will to persevere with it as we never got anything back from the teacher!!

@Alleycat02 not necessarily opposite actually, in the early days I did do it religiously, but now I have two to do, two black holes to write into with very little back, and perhaps worse I haven’t even seen my youngest’s class teacher because I have to drop him off and pick him up with my eldest as part of school bubbles

@cakefanatic It's sad isn't it, I would welcome the chance to have it as a useful dialogue with the school but it just doesn't seem worth the effort as a box-ticking exercise! That's such a shame about not being able to see the teacher yet, are they offering parents evenings via Teams etc??
I have YR / Y2 siblings and they won't mix the bubbles so I either have to be in two places at once or always be late for one

How much are you being expected to engage with in the diary? We get given 4-5 books at once and have been asked to simply just tick the books we've read so they'll be replaced, and the unticked ones will be left in their bookbag until ticked. Have been told to only add comments if any concerns, or if we think the child is finding the books too hard/easy. DD (yr1) ticks off her books herself as she reads them, so I don't even look at the diary anymore!

@5zeds

Y5!!! They stopped about y2 in our school, but I’m also shocked at children only reading once a week at school!!!!

I'd be happy with once a week! Now there are no volunteer, WHO Is supposed to read?

A teacher cannot spend 10 mn x 30 children, what is the rest of the class supposed to do?

I honestly don't think people are realistic about the dangerously low levels of funding.

Just initial and date it. It shows that you've complied.
Comments are great as we can see how your child cooed with the text .
Maybe do one line per week.
It's really not much and you can do it while your listening to your child.
Maybe just write 'great sounding out'
He/she enjoyed this.
He/she found the vocab tricky'

It really isn't much.

English teacher here. Make it up and sign it. As long as you read regularly, you do not need to be policed like a child.

I'm a teacher and agree it can be onerous (when I read with the children in my class I find myself flicking back to the last time I read and checking I haven't written the same thing before!) but it is useful. When I read with a child (not as often as I'd like but I'm fortunate to have an amazing team of LSAs due to SEN needs in my class that have capacity in their timetables to make sure each child is read with at least once a week) I always give a next step. If parents read that they can look for it when they read with their child and write a comment back for me. It means we're both supporting the same aspect of reading and that child can make more progress. We also send home a list of questions parents can ask to support comprehension whilst reading and a different book each week so it doesn't get too repetitive. I also don't care what my children read- recipes, magazines, back of a cereal packet! I just need them reading- so many are below where they need to be that it's a case of as much reading all the time. So, if I can see they're reading at home lots and still making no progress, I can then speak to my SENCO and see if there's other support we can offer.

So it appears that it is not just me! But I think we are all in agreement that literacy is important and it does benefit children if teachers know that home reading is happening. It also appears that reading diary requirements vary drastically between schools.

Although I framed this around reading diaries I think my issue really is to do with the amount of random busywork that comes home from school for parents. Everything from reading diaries, to btw every child needs an orange tomorrow morning, to suggestions on what item to buy from Amazon (!) for next week’s project, or a purple t shirt for the class play - I don’t even object to the money in that case (though I think it is crass in a pandemic). I would much rather just give the money upfront for a budget for these things. If they want 30 purple t-shirts wouldn’t it make sense for someone to buy them instead of 30 individual parents scrabbling around to find one in a pandemic and inevitably just making Jeff Bezos richer when they reach for the ubiquitous Amazon prime...

Id also say. If there is something like this that is winding you up, and if not doing it is not an option, i'd be saying to my DP please take responsibility for this. Its a minor thing but would really help keep me sane.

Also ditch the comments. Squiggle
A signature. Or my kids just write 'mum'.

And yes i agree-some terms are a nightmare. Easter one maybe with world book day, comic relief, easter bonnets, boiled eggs for egg rolling etc etc-feels never ending! Always something to remember. Since its all gone electronic its got worse as we get more ad hoc things!

My children's school had spellings and meanings every blooming night was a terrible chore to make them write out word and copy the meanings into a book. They had loads of these every single night. They're all grown up now and very articulate so...

Your school sound bonkers. I would be having a word.

Our school haven’t done reading diaries for the past year because it encourages germ transfer during pandemic and more importantly they think families are stressed and don’t need to extra thing to do. When they did them before, all we were expected to do was write the name of the book and if finished or not.

Really annoys me when schools think they can tell parents what to do during home time. They can set homework but it should always be something the child is capable of doing unsupervised.

Also worth googling the government guidelines on homework for your year group - it isn’t supposed to take much time, if it is, complain to school.

Can i beg you all, please just write in the bloody diary.

Chances are , the teacher will get grief if children's diaries are not being signed. We have to fill in a spreadsheet showing who has read at home/had their diary signed. We then have to provide evidence that we have tried to get parents to engage etc
It is a massive chire- much greater than writing in a diary " jack read to p17".

Please. Just do it.