To think this is not good enough?

[Feelingdisappointed2024]

My child is in Year 1 in a state primary and is given 1 reading book a week in a green book band. She is being told to read said book every night. It is SO boring so we've stopped doing it, and I've spent a small fortune on supplementing the school reading with other phonics books. Sometimes the reading book is repeated, and last term we had the same book for 3 weeks!

Am I being unreasonable to expect the school to provide more books, or is this just what everybody has to do in the state system? Is one reading book a week really recommended at this age? The local independent school gives the children a book a night!

The pace just seems so pedestrian and it's taking so long for her reading to progress. Is this normal or am I just being pushy.

Ours have to read a book and return it every day, and they then get given a new one. This was the case up until year 2/3 when they start giving them longer chapter books, which they read each night, and return the next day with the reading diary to show how much they've read, then the teacher sends that same book home until it's completed, with the expectation that it should really be completed within the school week. Still have to return it everyday to be checked though. They then move to "free reading" around end of year 2-3, and then take in books from home, or choose from the school library. They still want it to be recorded and checked everyday though, and books need to be taken in everyday. It's quite intense along with homework and after-school activities, sometimes we don't get around to reading on an evening so they have to do it on a morning while eating breakfast/practicing spellings/finishing off homework/making sure they have everything for that day 🥴

Have you tried getting your DC to read the book in a different style each night?
I know it sounds mad, but my DC absolutely loved doing this, and it developed their articulation, too! We had a “Stars in their Eyes” grand introduction (Tonight, Mummy, I’m going to be… Sooty/Grandma/Auntie Jane) followed by the reading aloud with lots of giggles…

Phonics may be a ‘fantastic’ way to learn to read but it’s not the only way. It doesn’t work for everyone and can actually be detrimental to some in my 20 years teaching experience. Phonics themselves are not the problem. They are very useful. The problem is the current rigid and narrow expectations for how schools teach reading.
Phonics reading schemes are dull and crap.
Asking a child to read the same book 5 times in a row is dull and crap.
What frustrates experienced teachers is the lie that we are being fed that phonics is the only way, it is the solution to everything, if we all do it this certain way then all children will magically be brilliant readers. It’s bollocks and I can guarantee that in 5 years time something new (or old) will be being touted as the best and only way to do it. Thousands of pounds of phonics reading books will be languishing in the back of the cupboard!

Apologies I’ve quoted the wrong person! 😱

Completely agree-as a teacher of over 25 years, we know phonics is great. It’s hardly new!

What the government (and Nick Gibb and the now extremely wealthy and decorated phonic adviser from RWI, Ruth Miskin) have pushed is ONLY phonics, which is extremely unhelpful to a growing minority, particularly with SEN. Their attitude is ‘if you don’t get it through phonics, what you need is more phonics’. And ideally by buying a very expensive scheme.

Whereas Labour released Letters and Sounds-which was a free publication that you could ask for as many copies as you want and didn’t make a selection of hand-picked companies (owned by…?!) very rich.

@Ihatethenewlook I think you've misunderstood me. My daughter has hundreds of books at home and we also go to the library once a week. A love of reading is something that we all share. She is also at the top end of her class in reading (not free reading yet but doing well).

My issue has been the rigid repetition of the school reading book which is entrenched in the school's system of learning to read. We have thus far done what we've been asked in terms of reading the book to death but she is now at a point where she reads the book fluently on day one (bar not knowing a few words) and it is so boring! I want her to have more access to books from the same scheme to back up her phonics knowledge and firmly embed it so that she can move away from decodable books.

She cannot move up a book band until she passes the phonics test for that level. And although she spent the summer reading lots of everything, her pure phonics and ability to correctly read "alien" words did not match her reading fluency, hence why I'm keen to follow the school's phonics scheme. (And it was also suggested by her teacher when I questioned why her books seemed too easy for her).

Is this a state primary? It sounds brilliant - I wish this was the case for our school! My daughter enjoys her school reading books, so if there were more of them we'd all be very happy!

@Banrion this is a very strange reply. Of course school should be supporting all its pupils in their learning. It sounds like one book a week was ideal for you child who read 2 pages a day, but nowhere near enough for the quick reader.

What about those parents who can't afford to purchase extra reading material for their children or don't have access to a local library, or quite simply aren't engaged enough to care because there are other things which are more important to them?

Schools can't do it all, we got books for our child as well

Wow- that’s a big change from when my kids were that age 10-15 years ago.

Their school had books from multiple reading schemes which made things more bearable as they had a non-fiction one day and a Project X the next.

They still did guided reading but home reading books were different.

I think op’s question is very sensible. Her dc has 1 book a week, her peers in private have 1 book a night. Op knows her school has poor reading outcomes.
It sounds very likely the school have gone over to one of the new fad systems hook line and sinker to appease ofsted. Maybe other local state with better reading outcomes haven’t felt the pressure to as strictly adhere.
Op sounds like she is doing lots to support but I think it’s a sensible question to be concerned with school’s approach.
Op is clearly willing and able to support and no doubt her dc will soon be flying. Pity the other kids clunking through same dull scheme book x 7 before it is swapped if no other reading at home.

But of course children with unengaged parents do worse from an educational perspective - is that really news to you?

Even the children in private school will do better when there is a parent at home doing enriching things, or taking an interest and encouraging them. It is obviously sad for the children whose parents don’t value education or who don’t make time for their children, but that disparity will exist regardless of what the school does.

My reply is pointing out to you that schools can only do a certain amount and the parents need to look after their children's needs too. I said that I had 2 children. One who read the 2 pages a night and one who read the book in a night. It never occurred to me that the school should change their system to suit my children's individual needs. I adjusted myself.
I find it strange that you won't do the same. If your child does her assigned reading too fast, you supplement.
The only other thing you can do is speak to the teacher but I'm not sure what you expect them to do.

Blame the government for making all schools change their phonics scheme, telling them books now need to be fully decodeable based on what's been taught in school and giving them no money to do it.
Oh and by the way the reason they are so dull is because there aren't actually that many decodeable words in the English language so writing the books is a near impossible task.

Join your local library and your DC can select the books she likes to top up.

Edit because I sound like a dick from not having RTFT. I see you're talking specifically about phonics books, sorry

(My daughter can read chapter books already -sounding like a dick again 😂 - so I didn't think)

My daughter gets 1 book a week (Reception), but she's got a bookcase of books at home. We've always read to/with her, which I think is partly why she's ahead of her peers. Do you genuinely not have books at home already?

A book a week is probably sufficient for the majority of children/parents. If a child was getting a book a night someone would be posting another thread to complain about too much pressure!

Books are cheap and easily available. Borrow from the library. Our libraries lend up to 30 books at a time now. Go to the charity shop. Look on Freecycle. Check eBay.

I'm an old gimmer and my primary school never set homework back in the day but I used to ask if I could take work or books home.

It's not difficult to find a solution if you feel you are being sold short by the school. Failing that, pay for the service you expect and send them to private school.

As an ex early/infant teacher can I say reading those books with a class of 30 kids is soul destroying!! So I get where you are coming from.
Reading, recording and changing books with young children is extremely time-consuming and difficult especially with high curriculum expectations on schools nowadays.
School budgets have been so stretched many infant classes no longer have full time TAs , having to share them across classes or they work with high needs children, supporting others if they have time.
Speak to the teacher and ask about getting additional books and how they suggest you can help at home (even though you are doing stuff already).