to not force my teenager to read a book a week?

[milafawny]

My 15 year old daughters school have initiated a new reading scheme that states every child must read a book "for pleasure" each week and produce a written report on it for every Monday.

I have a few objections to this.

Firstly, this is not "reading for pleasure", this is enforced reading with follow up home work each week.

The selection of books isn't open, they have to read books provided on the app on their iPad, again, making it not "for pleasure" when they cant select the book.

The smallest book in the selection is 300 pages long. Most are longer. The largest has 1200+ pages. Expecting a book of that size to be finished weekly along with a completed report, on top of GSCE level homework, is a big ask.

Specifically regarding my daughter, she is diagnosed with both dyslexia and ADHD. She has already be informed in school that this scheme is expected of her too. Reading is not, nor has it every been, an activity she does for pleasure. Its takes her time, she gets frustrated and upset when she cant understand or stay focussed. We have tactics in place for when she has to read, usually breaking it into smaller sections but this doesn't allow for reading longer texts, but these tactics are not enough to have her motivated to read a different book every single week. She cannot read something aloud at all. She still find its difficult to focus attention long enough to watch a film. In something she has no interest in, namely reading, she's not even going to manage 5 minutes. I have bought her many many books over the years that are ones she has expressed an interest in - most are non-fiction biology books. Ive tried with books of things she has shown interest in, such as horrible history's that are more factual. None of the selection of books are like this, they are all fictional story based. We have tried harry potter and hunger games as we broke the films down and watched it as you would watch a tv show, i think she managed the first chapter of book 1 of harry potter in a month. She gets no enjoyment from it.

Would IBU to email school and state my daughter is not participating in the scheme, and expect this not to result in a weekly detention due to the reasons i have outlined?

@milafawny Late to this thread, but my son is a private tutor for GCSE English. I asked him what he would suggest - he says 'little and often' is better than one 'huge read' a week, and that it's breadth that also matters.

Essentially my son suggested 15-20 minutes max, 5 or 6 days a week, from a selection including:

« Read a daily newspaper (hard copy, or online), or a particular section of it that interests you

« Read a magazine which relates to a subject, sport or hobby you enjoy

« Dip into a fiction text from the school library (e.g. read the first 5 or 6 pages, then put it back)

« Read a poem written by a poet you’ve studied at school, or one you have heard of

« Do some online reading/research about your favourite celebrity, hobby, sport, or sports personality

« Actively read any class readers you are given in class – a chapter, or a few pages a day

« Research the life of someone (contemporary or from history) known for an extraordinary achievement.

« Re-read a favourite book – or read a book someone else has recommended to you

« Read a book someone else has recommended to you

« Read an unfamiliar text by a writer whose work you previously enjoyed

My DS says his students find these suggestions much less onerous that 'read one book a week, or else...' (which is what the OP seems to be saying her DD's school is saying!)

He also says she often has to 'break' bad habits from his student's own teachers which are simply not helpful habits to encourage in the average student!

Oh OP, please let your next communication with the school be: Please point me towards your official complaints policy.
You need to make 2 complaints, one about the discriminatory reading policy and one about the shocking unprofessionalism of your dd’s English teacher.
Teachers are measured and judged against official teacher standards, and this teacher falls quite short of the standards that should be upheld by the profession.
If a teacher in my department ever made similar remarks they would be in deep, deep trouble.
Honestly, WTF kind of school is that?!?

Never mind SENCO.

How about the Campaign For Clear English?

That's needlessly jargon-filled. Sends the message "we are better than you and don't try to argue".

Cultural Capital my arse. Jesus wept.

Another Oxbridge graduate with a "good" job who hasn't read the majority of books on that list.

Honestly OP, I am SO mad on you and your daughter's behalves. I actually can't believe the school's behaviour on this.

I don't think being compelled to read on an app is acceptable either - I don't want to read on a screen so why should school children.

I am actually an avid reader. As an adult I started getting to the point where I felt like I should only read "worthy" books. The amount I read fell off a cliff - I was tired and didn't have the brain power after a long working day to concentrate on complex literature. One day I decided, do you know what, I'm just going to read whatever I feel like, whatever it is that makes me read. Sometimes that is non fiction, sometimes it's fantasy or cosy mysteries or mediocre chic lit or even children's books.

I do think reading is important, but I also think wanting to read is the most important thing. I would accept if they wanted one off that list per half term. Or if they said 45 mins a day of reading a book of your choice - textbook, graphic novels or whatever. But making you read their reading list and then write about it honestly seems like it will be incredibly counter productive.

This is far more likely to make them never want to read a book again!

I was going to post about the book challenge my DDs are doing for comparison but I think that's irrelevant having read @milafawny latest update. That teacher is atrocious. Someone should tell her following her logic that if she read more then she'd be a head teacher and not just a departmental head. Bet she wouldn't like that.

I'm another saying this needs a formal complaint to the school and governors now. This person should not be teaching. Your daughter has a strong advocate in you but some children won't. Do it for them as well as your DD.

@Papillon23 I don't actually think you can ask someone to read for 45mins. Certain individuals could easily stare at the same page for 45mins while daydreaming about a million other things.

What would be a much more realistic option would be to ask kids to read "something" every day.
That something could be

A page of a book (if it's decent they'll want to keep going)

A newspaper or magazine article.

A nonfiction chapter.

This is absolutely formal complaint territory now. Head teacher, Ofsted, board of governors. Absolute ableism and also shockingly bad teaching for any student

When will teachers have to learn the basics of sen

Formal complaint time for sure. Escalate to the Head.

I asked a friend who works as a consultant in this field her advice is:

If she has diagnosed conditions, they're protected under the disability act of 2010. Contact:
1st SENDCO
2nd Governors
3rd SENDIAS and
4th IPSEA
Make it clear this is discrimination.
At each level, insist that the child is exempt because her disability makes reading incredibly challenging.
If the teacher tries to enforce, take it up the chain.
Sue as a final step. SENDIAS and IPSEA will provide legal advice on this

What @Magenta82 said. Complain now. I suspect this will be a project the Head of English has dreamt up alone.

Id suggest keeping every bit of evidence in a folder. Even if it’s just observations of your child’s struggled but any emails, transcripts of conversations as best remembered, anything from professionals.
Ive had friends that have had to fight for their SEN children in school and they’ve gone armed with a folder full of evidence and they haven’t had a leg to stand on through it all.

There must be a contact with the local council regarding SEN but also write to the governors and send a complaint to ofsted.

Just to update, the whole scheme has now been changed to "aim for 1-2 books per half term" for all children in the school with no expectations or consequences for not doing so in the time frame. The still "have" to read from the supplied list, but as long as they are engaging a small amount, theres no consequences

Im taking this as a win.

Thank you for all the supportive messages. I am still awaiting a meeting with the SEN and will bring up the language used in response to my questioning of the scheme and hopefully the SEN can educate the teacher in question regarding this.

That’s somewhat good news. I suspect that you weren’t the only parent to complain.

YANBU, I agree that it's hardly for pleasure if it's forced, you're expected to write a report on it and the books you can choose from are limited.

I'm curious as to why a school thinks this will expand the love of reading

I'm glad they've acquiesced at least somewhat.

I don't think trying to engage - i.e. reading the odd bit, listening to other parts etc seems like an unreasonable expectation - hopefully this will be okay for your daughter?

My mind still boggles that they originally thought children should read war and peace in a week though !

That is definitely a win and no, you wouldn't have been the only parent complaining. I agree the Head of English needs educating on learning difficulties so definitely pursue that.

We have agreed on a page a day at the minute, which takes her longer than average, but is manageable for her to do. She has started with the lion the witch and the wardrobe

This was inevitable OP. It wasn’t a realistic target for anyone and was always going to fail one week in.

And a page a day sounds great. Achievable.

Great news OP.
I suspect you weren't the only ones who complained. It was totally unrealistic for anyone.

Good news so far. Hope the teacher who dreamt it up has had things clarified for them.

A book a week was unrealistic for anyone. Especially with a book report. Even without sen. 1-2 book per half term is still a lot ofandatory reading from a pre set list but at least slightly more realistic.