No reading books sent home throughout primary school - how unusual?

[TalkingToTheWoodlice]

My dd's(6) school have no home-school reading programme. A very dull and antiquated reading comprehension book is sent home with questions to be answered each week from yr1 to yr6 and that's it for reading. No reading record. No reading scheme. No pupil chosen book in school. The children do group reading once a week with a teacher in their lunch hour. It seems odd to me.
I don't see how this setup is meant to inspire or encourage a love of reading. Does anyone else's school do anything similar? Wondering whether I should rock the boat over this at school.

Go on, tell me it's an outstanding school. I can take it.

No. It's "good". Small school. SATs obsessed head. Middle class parents. Coasting.

Thats the kind of school the new ofsted head wants to target. They should be quaking in their boots!

Ours start taking books home in reception. Reception, year 1 and 2 they are heard read in school at least three times a week (daily for struggling readers), key stage 2 at least twice a week (daily for struggling readers). All children have fifteen minutes a day quiet reading time.

It's so important that a child can read confidently. If they can't read, they can't access anything. I'd kick up a fuss.

I know it's not right. Thing is I'm a bit of a coward. How do you go about changing the culture of a school that's convinced it's found the perfect formula? They do get very good league table results but for me that is at the expense of inspiring learning.

Are you sure there is no reading programme higher up the school? If your DD is 6 I assume she is in Y1 and that is no age to be pushing children (many aren't ready to read, be pushed or both) - it will put them off the whole thing before they get started. Our infant school head is not pushy but askes a bit more in Y1 - the school still gets good results.

However, no reading books at all seems strange. In YR we had one every couple of months, which DS refused to read. In Y1 we had 1 per week which DS refused to read. Now in Y2 we have 2 per week which I make DS read. DS is an average reader but would never choose to read a book for himself still. I have tried everything!

asks a bit more in Y2, not Y1 - sorry!

Can you go to the library and find books that your DD likes to read (the bigger libraries should have plenty of early readers and ORT books. Do your own reading routine with her.

Sounds unusual, especially with MC parenting! At our school I have heard of reception parents demanding 3 books for their child instead of 1. I never used to care about all that but various things have sparked my interest in years 1 and 2 and even laid back little me is more tuned in and involved so I'm surprised that noone has complained before now

Agree with gabid you can read with DCs yourself but I would be asking teacher how often they read in school.

DD is in Y3 & has never brought a reading book home. Despite this (& me making no effort to teach her to read) she has a ridiculously high reading age & loves books - we went to the library this morning & she's finished one book already. She has started having to complete a reading journal this year which I like as it makes her think a bit more about what she's read.

DS is now in reception at the same school, & brings home a reading book every week. Having never experienced Biff etc I am now thoroughly sick of them.

The school has been using Read Write Inc since DD started but they still use ORT books unfortunately.

There's definately no reading programme throughout the school. DD (yr2) is a strong reader and loves books so perhaps I should stay under my stone and leave things well alone. I'm not a big fan of homework and would be overjoyed if they knocked the 20+ year old comprehension books on the head. But sharing books at home and having that valued by school seems pretty fundamental.

Wow - my Y1 daughter gets seven reading books a week and a "free choice" book for us to read to her. More reluctant readers do get fewer, the teacher upped the volume once DD wrote a few notes to school (herself - not me!) saying "more books, please". I think everyone in the infants gets at least three.

My son (in the juniors) gets two books a week, but they are much longer (ORT level 15). He could change them as often as daily, if he wished, but can only discuss/change level once a week. They have silent reading of non-scheme books every day and they also like us to make a note on the non-school books they are reading in their reading record. e.g. he went up to level 15 after I noted that he was reading The Hobbit at home and they quizzed him on how he was finding it.

Both classes also visit the library and local book shop for stories and book recommendations and chats (actually the local book shop owner was more impressive than the librarians in terms of book knowledge). There are regular times when they bring in favourite books from home to chat about, author visits, parents going in with their favourites, display of student/staff favourites on the walls, breakfast reading sessions with parents, book fairs, etc, etc.

I think what you describe sounds uninspiring, especially the comprehension books. Do book-loving activities happen in school? What would happen if you were not from a home like your daughters where books are valued?

In some ways, it would be quite refreshing not to have the vile parental competition of reading levels but I guess you still get a competition of where the children are in the comprehension book though!

I presume they have a phonics system that works brilliantly in KS1, and then start sending the comprehension home once the children can decode well. Good text work in literacy could encourage a love of real books, without having to suffer any boring reading schemes.

Lottie, your school sounds lovely. None of that stuff goes on at our school.
I'm struggling to think of book loving activities. World book day was celebrated by a reading somewhere strange photo competition. Fun but not actually much to do with reading. I worry about the kids that don't live in book rich households.

Well, if your DD is a strong reader and it works so well for all the DC in the school then - wow!

I wouldn't complain.

While I do completely agree with everyone about having a huge variety of books and making reading fun, I'm finding that little reading comprehension goes on in my DCs school. So i'd really appreciate getting a mixture of Talking to the Woodlice's school and also allotmentlotties. Perhaps I'm greedy.

I"m fascinated! How has your child got to be a competent reader?

Love of reading shouldn't come from school it should come from parents.

Why? I mean, I totally agree if it comes from home that is great. But cannot it/should not it also come from school? (especially for those children whose homes are not book-loving).

Riverside mum - My son is a testament to the fact that you don't need to read widely to be a competent reader - he reads when made to and never otherwise, he doesn't enjoy it, to my chagrin. He's a good reader and has good comprehension. But apart from his school books, he does not read and never has. I try to enthuse him every now and again but so far he hasn't been hooked.

I think the DCs school tries quite hard to enthuse them about reading. And that's a good thing, parents can't do everything, and some do extremely little.

The mechanics of reading books might well come from the school. But unless the child is inspired by the reading/English teacher, or any teacher for that matter, and clearly not all children are, then I think it's a bit much to expect children to get a love of anything from school, (apart from the love of being on holiday.)

RiversideMum my DD started school as a reader as did a number of other classmates I think. Phonics, phonics and more phonics seems to be the way that competency is gained. For a friend?s DD who didn't seem to be making much progress through this method in yr1, the school started muttering about dyslexia and external assessments. When her mum did a bit of intensive work with interesting books at home it clicked very easily - no indications of dyslexia at all.
Anthonytrollopesrevenge, I agree that comprehension is important but the kids could at least have inspiring texts to comprehend. I have to fight the urge to scrawl all over DD's homework book "No one cares!" in answer to all the boring questions about the boring stories.