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?

That is a staggering amount of work for even the most academic, NT students.

This and it will limit time for reading for pleasure for those kids who actually enjoy reading for pleasure.

For a child who likes reading this would be very achievable tbh but it’s really not fair for your daughter. I knew girls with ADHD or dyslexia who were top set English and avid readers. This head might be assuming that all presentations look similar and if one can do it all can.

Your DD shouldn’t be exempt from doing it entirely though. As much as it will be frustrating for her, you don’t want a teach her that avoidance is ok. Learning to tolerate frustrations and work hard even when things are very challenging builds resilience. You never know, if you can get them to move the focus of the report away from the book and use it to reflect on hard she’s worked and persevered (and they praise her for it) it might really build her confidence in this area. For now that might be more important for her than analysing the content.

They need to acknowledge that she will need adjustments and they should work with you to agree a challenging but reasonable plan. Can you get some advice from a specialist SEN tutor? She should definitely be able to choose at least half of what she reads as long as it’s at an appropriate level. I still remember trying to get through Catcher in the Rye and it was hell.

For a child who likes reading this would be very achievable

It really wouldn’t! Especially not when there is other reading and writing homework that has to be done for GCSE subjects!

Can you get some advice from a specialist SEN tutor?

A specialist tutor would simply advise pitching the reading to a child’s reading ability and concentration span. Something at the right level that they will enjoy is all the better.

I still remember trying to get through Catcher in the Rye and it was hell.

And yet doing the test above, for an average reader, it should take less than 5 hours! iI agree that for a teenager, it would be a very tedious book.

This wasn’t my experience. I managed to get through multiple books a week and achieve good GCSE grades BUT I realise this isn’t the case for everyone. It wasn’t just classics though, it was things like Harry Potter and His Dark Materials.

Admittedly, I wasn’t really allowed to watch loads of TV and didn’t have any active extra curricular activities so reading, drawing and seeing friends was all I did.

For a child who likes reading this would be very achievable tbh
No, sorry, but that’s nonsense.

I know it’s may be the longest on the list, but The Count I’d Monte Cristo would take the average person more than 30 hours to read (and that’s before writing a report on it).

Crime and Punishment is more than ten hours.

If they trimmed it to just the shorter novels, it may be achievable, but that amount of additional homework would still likely have a negative impact on grades in other subjects.

I’d also imagine a child who already enjoys reading would want to have some free time to read some books of their own choosing.

Everyone loses here.

This is appalling (and I LOVE reading and have been known to read 4 novels in a week sometimes). I feel stressed on your behalf. Year 11 is horrifically stressful anyway, and this would absolutely destroy her GCSEs, even if she didn’t have SEN. The workload in year 11 is already crippling. This bonkers teacher must be stopped. I am not a complainer by nature, but this would have me writing to the head, then the governors , then ofsted, and if necessary I’d actually resort to Daily Mail sad face for this. That’s how serious I think this is. Get on the parent WhatsApp group and get everyone onside.

I think other people on this thread (who think it’s ok) may not have had direct experience of being a year 11 parent. Nothing comes close to year 11 for workload and stress. I simply cannot believe any teacher would be so fucking stupid. Make sure you tell the maths and science teachers at parents’ evening. They won’t like it either. Godspeed OP, I hope you can sort this out.

The majority of posters on this thread think the idea is idiotic for a variety of reasons for any teen let alone one with SEN.

This is one thread I hope the media picks up.

Neither of my dds had dyslexia or ADHD and this would have been unachievable for them.

There’s nothing reading for pleasure about this. It’s another homework under that guise.

I would be contacting the school and letting them know that she won’t be partaking. Full stop. It’s bloody ridiculous.

@CecilyP count monte crisro, war and peace 😱 metamorphoses... And others.

My kids' school has set them a challenge of reading 100 books over the 5 years of secondary school. That seems more reasonable, it's a challenge not compulsory, there are more modern books on it and the books are all shorter. My most enthusiastic and regular reader read 20 books last year which is more than double the average adult. More Percy Jackson than Dostoevsky of course.

Personally I'd say while some teenagers will love the adventures in Dumas nobody should read Dostoevsky until they are much older. I wonder what the English teacher would think of the online discussions where people read War and Peace over a year. Reading fast is not always the best way to read the great classics and 15 is not the best age to appreciate them either.

In some ways I wouldn't worry because it's not going to take many weeks till even the most enthusiastic readers fall behind. I'd say less than 1% of adults could manage this, teenagers have no chance.

In a past life I was a secondary school librarian and I think this is a terrible idea. Firstly, that volume of reading would be unreasonable for even the most enthusiastic readers. But more than that, being able to choose what you read is the key to being more likely to actually want to do it, especially if reading is already difficult. So no, YANBU - I would tell the school to do one!

GCSE English lit is already guaranteed to turn off the most avid of readers. This scheme will turn young people off reading for pleasure for life.

Our local secondary has a reading scheme that works. It's half an hour three times a week in tutor time, the students choose their own book. It gets them into learning mode for the day and hey enjoy it. Job done.

But not all children find Dickens "boring crap." A lot of them are intelligent.

Can anyone suggest who exactly i would need to approach to raise a complaint with regarding the head of English? As the latest message basically says my daughter "just needs to focus and practice to overcome her disabilities." I was trying to work with them, make suggestions of how i can help my daughter to engage within her abilities, but that disgusting ableist bullshit has tipped me over the edge

Even "intelligent" people can find the likes of Dickens boring crap!

My son has a First in Maths and hated reading the classics like Dickens and Shakepeare.

I'm educated to Masters level and find that kind of book boring. I'm an avid reader, but would rather pull my own teeth than read historic fiction etc.

My son was an avid and enthusiastic reader throughout primary school, but secondary school "teaching" (if that's what you call it) turned him off and he's not read a single book since year 10, not even his set texts for GCSE but he still got high grades!

"Intelligence" and reading classics aren't directly linked. True, some "intelligent" people like to read that kind of thing, but lots don't!

Oh FFS. 😂

Sounds like it's time to contact the head teacher with a copy to the chair of the governors. The attitude of the Head of English simply isn't acceptable and if you've got those words in writing, then share them far and wide as they shouldn't be in that job!

Lol are you trying to suggest I am not intelligent?

Goes back to the original point of many posters on this thread. I was made to study Great Expectations for GCSE. Being made to study books often takes the fun out of them. There I have a right to say they were ‘boring crap’. See also: Macbeth, Othello and Death of a Salesman.

She doesnt currently have bluetooth ones, just the basic NHS ones as we were seeing how much she wears and tolerates them before paying for bluetooth ones. With the ADHD she struggles with sensory overload with the hearing aids if she is in a noisy classroom for example and has to take them out so she doesnt use them all the time in school. The hearing specialist that did the in school assessment suggested she would be better seated next to a wall at the front of a class, but that hasnt happened and teachers refuse to change seating plans. But bluetooth ones are something we are considering getting once i can afford them.

Suggest they read a dictionary and find out the meaning of the word "pleasure"

I can't be believe they are being so ridiculous.

Urgh my dyslexic kids will never read for pleasure. One has got to the point where he can read but it still takes so much mental energy to do it.
I'd ask the school for you dd to be set one book a month and for it to be an ausiobook. She can read along woth hard copy if needed

OP I would echo this. Contact the Head Teacher and also mention you will contact Ofsted with your concerns if it isn’t resolved.

Now I LOVE a bit of Dickens. Read most of his novels I think. Sobbed my eyes out at A Tale of Two Cities at the OP's DD's age. But @JaneyGee that is a ridiculous comment and the exact sort of thing that puts young people off reading the classics!