Help and advice needed

[CoopeyMum]

DSS Mum has said to my DP that he can only read the book which has been provided by school, no other deviations from this book is allowed.

DSS is in year 1. His school life experience, like many other children has only ever been with covid in the mix. A lot of stuff wasn't easy last year, due to being closed & isolating etc.

Apparently, DSS has a RWI test coming up soon & mum knows that he will 'massively fail' this test if he doesn't constantly read these books provided by school over and over again.

Can anyone relate to this? Is this something that would be seen as good practice before this RWI test?

Have you posted this already?

I read your original thread (I assume it was you as this sounds identical) but didn't respond then.
You can just read other books to him surely? He doesn't have to physically read them himself. At that age reading the book from school is usually the only thing the child actually reads and the rest is being read to at bedtime etc.
But really it would be impossible to have him avoid any other reading - signs in the supermarket, adverts on bill boards etc. Words and reading are everywhere !!
His mum needs to chill. He can't 'fail' at test at that age. I'm not even sure what the RWI test is - they did a Year 1 phonics test in my daughters day (all of 8 years ago) is this the same thing?
Surely this is a test to see what level he is at so the school can see where he may or may not need help.
To be honest you and your husband do what you want to do with regards to reading in your house and his mum do what she does in hers. How would she know?

Huh? What's that got to do with a 6 year olds reading test?
Ukraine is important but I want to stay away from the threads about it thank you.

I have reported this thread now.

This forum is terrible for adverts, I'm having to type my responses in a text box, copy them over and the paste it into here.

I thought I'd pasted my response, but I obviously hadn't & that was a response to a family chat on WhatsApp

You probably won't believe me, but the sheer volume of times I attempted to respond & the keyboard disappeared and I then clicked on the trending discussions was rediculous.

This is what I was meant to say:

Exactly Lego, it's the same 'none test' you are talking about. Mum is constantly trying to make my DP look bad, by trying to trip him up for one & then equally trying to put the fear of God into DSS (especially if he reads anything other than this book). I feel its her only element of control she has left as we're towards the end of family court, surrounding child access etc.

The thing that makes the whole situation worse is the fact that the children are scared and will just go along with whatever mum says. This is to the point whereby DSS won't even read billboards and the likes you have mentioned, it is expressley that book from school.

As for how she's found out that he read a few words from a book that wasn't school supplied (easy words from a bedtime book, which I knew he'd know) I don't know. Unless hes innocently mentioned it to her on another occasion.

Myself and DP were met with shouty messages from mum about this the day she received the children back.

But now that the thread has been reported, it's probably likely to be deleted.

Apologies to you if that was a odd copy and paste. You could report the post yourself just to get that part removed.
As for the reading. I suggest your husband has a chat with the school for advice and the school can in turn maybe talk to the mum. I seriously doubt the school are insisting on one book only and nothing else.
Also if the children are scared of their mum then that's more of a worry than reading. Their Dad needs to contact the school about that for advice. I don't think he is going to be the one 'looking bad' if he talks to the school about his concerns.

Thank you Lego, how do I report a specific post to get it removed? I'm not very clued up on here & people are very quick to respond to the negatives (previous post with the bio mum thing )

Dad has spoke with the school on several occasions & they're fully abreast on the situation. However, rightly or wrongly they just sit on the fence (or it appears that they do) It's so annoying.

DSS when encouraged to read things actively says things like "no, Im only allowed to read my school book". This is when he's encouraged to read things like billboards or signs in shops (which we know he'll know).

As for the children being scared of Mum. We've been down that road & there's no concerns apparently from safeguarding.

I'm hoping that things will all come out in the wash when we're next in court. It's so stressful when children are involved.

If you click on those 3 dots next to where it says 'bookmark' you can report.
Hopefully once the test is done his mum might chill.

CoopeyMum the bit of your post that wasn't meant to be there has been deleted but I am giving you a bit of a bump so you hopefully might get a bit more advice.

Cheers Lego.

Unfortunately, knowing mum there'll be another thing we're doing wrong after the RWI test.