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Original poster

am I right to remove my son from reading scheme?

50 replies

jamiesmum2001 · 06/01/2011 16:54

Can anyone advise me whether I can withdraw my son from his primary schools reading scheme. He is not brilliant or exceptional (except to us!) but loves reading. He has been reading books since he was able to hold them,he is just 9 and has read all the Harry Potter, Chronicles of Narnier, Famous Fives etc. At home, he will also read the paper and anything else he can, however the school will not budge on his place in the reading scheme. He has recently been given a book that took 62 pages to get from "a dog" to "a blue dog sat in a car". They say that because he won't discuss the book he doesn't understand what hes reading. He can discuss the plots, characters etc in home books ok.He was so upset at this that he has said he won't read anymore as there is no point.angry what do you think?

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StewieGriffinsMom · 06/01/2011 16:58

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BoysAreLikeDogs · 06/01/2011 16:59

I would be interested in why he won't discuss the books at school

Does he speak out, or raise his hand in class say in maths, or RE?

If he does not demonstrate comprehension at school then you need to unpick why

What is the name of the 62 page book?

Original poster
jamiesmum2001 · 06/01/2011 17:07

his teacher hears him read once a term, and ho only reads once a week in school for 5mins, the rest has to be done at home. He has tried to explain why he finds them boring but is told to read them anyway

OP posts:
pozzled · 06/01/2011 17:09

It sounds to me as though there is a big underlying problem. Is he willing to discuss anything that he has read at school? What about Guided Reading time or whole class work based on texts? What happened in his previous class- has he been on this scheme all the way through primary or has he recently moved schools or something?

I can't understand how this could be happening unless he is extremely shy or has a huge problem with his teacher and does not participate at all in class.

Either way, you definitely need to have words with the class teacher as a matter of urgency. In order to 'prove' that he has good understanding, I would ask him to write something about a book that he has read- who was his favourite character, which part did he most enjoy and why, what was the funniest part etc. The school might refuse to accept this on the basis of it being done at home, (and therefore you could have helped him) but it should at least make them think twice. I would also make the suggestion that they allow him to complete a SATs type reading test in school time (even if he has to do it in lunchtime), as that would also demonstrate his understanding.

Hope you manage to resolve the situation.

SE13Mummy · 06/01/2011 17:17

I'm not sure 'withdrawing your child from the school reading scheme' is either possible or helpful. It's fantastic that he's such a keen reader at home but if he is unable/choosing not to partipate in questions about a character's feelings/predicting what will happen next/discussing why an author has chosen a particular phrase etc. then he may well be missing a lot of the plot of some of the more complext books he's choosing.

To a certain, if he enjoys being able to read the words without really 'getting' the intricacies of the story, it doesn't matter that much. However, at school we teach children to interpret texts and to read between the lines. I have a child in my own Y4 class who can read pretty much anything but processing problems mean that she struggles to tell me what any sentence actually means i.e. 'a blue dog sat in the car' - I ask, "where was the blue dog sitting?" and the answer may range from "nowhere" to "I don't know" to "somewhere..?". As we don't use a reading scheme for children who are independent readers the child in my class isn't limited to reading only the books she can understand but, when I assess her reading I obviously have to give her a 'level' that reflects her limited understanding.

Was it you, or your son who was told that 'because he won't discuss the plot...'? It sounds as though it would be useful for you to have a proper meeting with his teacher and possibly the SENCo with a view to seeking a referral for speech and language therapy (if the school believe he is struggling with comprehension).

In the meantime, when he reads newspapers at home, try asking him questions along the lines of, "why do you think X did Y?" or "what do you think would have happened if the Police Officer hadn't been nearby?". Ask him about characters by saying, "if you were Harry and you had to choose to be friends with either Ron or Hermione, which one would you choose...give me three reasons why".

IAmReallyFabNow · 06/01/2011 17:20

I have a 9 year old and no way would they be reading books that take 62 pages to go from "a dog" to "a blue dog sat in a car" if their reading was competent.

pointythings · 06/01/2011 18:48

I have a 9yo too and she is coming home with books by Terry Pratchett and Cornelia Funke from the school library - either this school is very odd, or they think there is an issue with your DS's reading. I'd discuss it with them as a matter of urgency, the books you describe are what my DCs were reading in Reception...

maypole1 · 06/01/2011 18:57

The problem is their is no use us a parents saying we know t Indy can do it sadly they actually have to prove it in class if he won't talk about the book you have to make it clear this will be the result him reading spot the dog at 9 I t hink he is old enough to understand this

Can you imagine at Gcse level him not doing his working out on a maths paper than you running in saying he dose it at home please give hime the Mark

I would concentrate on why he won't show his understanding simply taking him out of the class will not do any good because as I said when he has exams sats Ect he will fail them unless he his willing to verbalise what has understood and know amount of you going ip the school will change that

mrz · 06/01/2011 19:07

Reception level reading scheme books don't have 62 pages pointythings but the text suggested doesn't seem to match books with that number of pages either

BodleianBabe · 06/01/2011 19:21

Really confused. Can you give us a title and author so we have a better idea of what the actual book is??? I can't understand how a book can be 62 pages long yet only go from 'a dog' to ' a blue dog sat in a car'?? Confused

My ten year old reads HP,Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams.

PixieOnaLeaf · 06/01/2011 19:23

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HaveAHappyNewJung · 06/01/2011 19:26

WTF? A 9 year old wouldn't be given a book like that surely?

NormaSnorks · 06/01/2011 19:33

His reading ability sounds normal (DS2, aged 8, is reading Harry Potter/ Narnia etc)

Agree with others that there is something weird going on at school here.

If you 'withdraw' him from the reading scheme (not sure HOW you do that, or what that means in practical terms?) then you will likely just get the teachers' backs up for being a stroppy cow awkward parent

You need to arrange a proper adult-to-adult discussion with his teacher to talk about how you work together to solve whatever issues/misconsceptions there seem to be...

cornshilk007 · 06/01/2011 19:34

a book took 62 pages to get from "a dog" to "a blue dog sat in a car" Hmm

GrimmaTheNome · 06/01/2011 19:44

I think if it was my child I'd tell him to buckle down and discuss the dratted book with the teacher, prove he understands it and then he can move on.

Children have to learn to deal with boring stuff and do what the teacher says. Its part of preparation for real life as much as the actual reading.

lovecheese · 06/01/2011 19:49

lovecheese dreams of withdrawing her DD from the school's reading scheme......

cat64 · 06/01/2011 20:03

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homeboys · 06/01/2011 20:10

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HaveAHappyNewJung · 06/01/2011 20:14

I am admittedly out of touch but I assumed that reading schemes were only for infant school children? Unless maybe they were struggling.

mrz · 06/01/2011 20:18

No there are reading schemes for all ages and stages and levels of ability

poink · 06/01/2011 20:26

i'm with grimma. work the system. just keep up with the more challenging reading outside of school

asmallbunchofflowers · 06/01/2011 20:29

Excellent posts from SE13mummy, grimma and cat64.

You cannot "remove" your child from the reading scheme. That isn't your decision to make.

ruddynorah · 06/01/2011 20:31

yes your ds needs to learn to work the system. there in lies a huge lesson in life.

pointythings · 06/01/2011 20:41

Mrz,

Sorry, badly worded bit there - meant to say that my DDs were reading simple books of broadly that length in Reception, and so were quite a few others - 4 or 5 sentences on a page in big print, an illustration on each page, actually very enjoyable for that age group. I'm just a bit Confused as to why a school would give something like that to a 9-yo unless there was a problem - and if there was, would it not have been there for quite a while, and would the parent not have been told long ago?

mrz · 06/01/2011 20:46

None of our schemes (we use 6 different ones) have that many pages until beyond lime level (level 3) I would be interested to know what scheme the OPs school uses

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