Do you think it matters how often your child reads to the teacher?

[singersgirl]

Just wondering this as a friend with a DS in Reception in a small private school says all children (class of 16)are heard read by the teacher every day.

DS2 in his Reception class of 30 is heard once every 10 -14 days. He can read well already and reads to me daily, so this is fine, right? Why do I feel obscurely cheated that other children are heard once a week at the same school and by parent helpers as well?

I wish that ds1 (Yr1) had an adult listen to him read more often but it wouldn't bother me if the adult was someone other than the class teacher. The children are only allowed to change their books once they've read to a member of staff and so ds1 regularly has the same book for 3 weeks or more. I listen to him read at home but it gets to the point where even 3yr-old ds2 can recite the text word-for-word.

My DS is in year 1 and his teacher has never once signed his log book or as far as i am aware heard him read. Its a big problem within his class and i am not the only parent who is shocked by it. My friend who has a son in the same class was actually told by the teacher that it is the teachers job to provide the tools and the parents job to teach their child to read! Currently we are awaiting our children school reports and alot of the parents have all agreed that if the teachers makes any comment on our childrens reading ability we are going to confront her. I did approach a school governer who confirmed that parent helpers listen to the children read but the teacher does not, well im sorry in my opinion how does another parent who is unqualified know how to assess my son? I am a qualified child carer and am more qualified than some parents to judge my sons abilities. It is disgraceful that teachers dont hear children read atleast once a fortnight minimum. I understand how much paperwork etc is to be done but surely the basics are important too.

dd (Reception class of 16 at private school) is heard by teacher or assistant pretty much every day and changes her book which she'll have read at home. ds in Year 3 is about once a week

Was just going to make the same point as coppertop. I was going to ask if reading to the teacher determined how they progressed in their material. This happened to me in school (admittedly a while ago now): the teacher didn't seem to like me - I'd entered mid-year, having previously been at school in the US. He never seemed to listen to me reading, so despite being a competent and avid reader, I never progressed and other people moved past me in the series. This was disheartening - and at the end of the term, I was marked down for it.

If that's still the case (in this day and age... ), then I'd say it does matter.

WOW I feel so lucky .Seems like my sons school are doing really well then . WE have a fantastic (I tell you the woman is a god ) teacher who in a class of 30 split into five tables ,she reads to one table a day a TA reads to another table ,I as a parent volunteer resder (20 mins a day ) do another table .And on occasion there is another parent in as well . This is a state school . I feel in year 2 I know when the child is ready to change the book .There are rules that you have to follow and you know the less abled ones need a bit more help . So all in all we are extremly lucky .

As an ex-teacher I am shocked by this!!!!

I used to listen to all the children in my class read once a week. Some of them would also read to my teachers' aide (the weaker ones), so they were heard twice. When I didn't have a teachers' aide I would try to listen to the weaker ones at least 3 times a fortnight - unfortunately the weaker readers were often the ones who did no reading at home at all. We also had group reading sessions once a week, so in reality I probably heard some children read about 3-4 times a week.

One year I had 36 pupils in my class - I still managed to hear them read once a week - I didn't have many cups of coffee in the staff room that year!!!

I taught Year 5 and most of the children were pretty good readers by the time they came to me. I probably didn't need to listen to some of them read, as they were excellent, but it was still important to keep an eye on them IMO.

So, surely it's doubly important that while they are learning the basic mechanics of reading that they are listened to regularly by the teacher.

My DD - in Reception - has so far read once a week to the teacher - there have been previous complaints about this teacher not being very 'quick' at changing reading books. Maybe it's because she knows I'm an ex-teacher that she's been so on the ball with DD.

Bonkerz, that is shocking! DS1's Y3 teacher only ever signs his reading record with the words "Guided Reading", which tells me at least he has read once a week, but not what or how well!

When DS2 was in Reception at another (private) school abroad, he was heard twice a week, and then in Y1 they were heard 4 times a week, twice by the teacher and twice by parent helpers.

DS2's experience is so different - he hasn't been heard at all since last Tuesday (10 days). To be fair, he does get his reading books changed twice a week if I sign that he has read them, so he always has new stuff to read.

My dd in reception has only read with the teacher 4 times since September. The rest is with the TA or one parent helper who goes in. I've complained to the head about this but things aren't improving as much as I'd like.