School 'winding down' before hols and half terms

[MrsTruper]

My daughter's school seems to do a lot of winding down prior to every holiday and half term i.e. one week before each hol or h/t. In this time they do lots of colouring/"activity village" sheets etc and none of the usual numeracy/literacy classes. This is in addition to the usual mufti/sports/celebrate this and that days, which again are, as my daughter says 'just playing'. My dd says she wants to do more learning.

She has just completed year 2 at (state) school.

Are all schools like this? Is it just the state sector? Does it get less as they get to older primary.

Please do not tell me that "children learn from everything that they do blah blah" as I know that. She does lots of puzzzles, colouring etc at home - I expect her to be TAUGHT at school.

So do you not still decode when you read a word you have never come across? Do you have to find out what it means? Decoding is not 'merely' something they have to do....but a skill in itself but if you read with a child who is just about phase 3/4...ask them to read a sentence and then ask them what it is about - by the time they have finished reading it (as it takes them that long) they have forgotten what the other words are! As for giving an appropriate text....this child had read all the books in my key stage and in our library! He had to go onto other books from further up the school which took a lot more understanding as they are geared towards the older end of the school.

Slipslider - the thing is, these are all problems for which reading practice IN SCHOOL is an entirely appropriate remedy. I don't understand why so many teachers disagree or seek to downgrade its importance. I think you are doing the right thing (though I still think the thing about the Indian story).

Yeah practice in schools helps a lot, as does practice at home. The more a person reads the better they become. Education is a partnership and parents need to put in the effort they do when the children are younger - I often get told we had no time to read this wknd, we were out all day at the park?? What not even ten minutes before bed? Teachers in general agree with its importance and would love the time to do more but as they have a million and one boxes to tick to show the gods from above what their kids can do in a variety of formats then it is not always possible. I am not sure about other schools but our school development plan focuses on reading and improving reading which is why it is such a huge thing in my class. I don't get your beef with the Indian thing - the objective was that the child could understand how another person feels from what they say or do and he could not tell from the pictures/ the language used in the story what the characters felt and could not use the clues in the text to understand this? I could not tick that box for him that day...as he could not put himself in the position of the characters or understand the predicament he couldn't answer the questions about the text!

Can I ask what age the children are slipslider?

Mine are 5/6 - the HA child is actually an AGT child working comfortably at level 3 age 5.

so Y1?

Yeah this was an exceptional child....and the only example that came to my head at the time! But 50% of mine were LA so retelling were the norm for mine!

"Education is a partnership and parents need to put in the effort they do when the children are younger"

But as you detail - they don't. Should and ought are great words but thousands of parents don't. It should be assumed that they don't and won't.

This is why it's so important to do it in school. I loathe the middle class smugness (not from you) that implies well, if parents don't do it at home that's their look out. No - that's why the children fail and fail and fail. Anything done at home should be extra, additional, not a requirement for efficient reading and arithmetic at primary school.

"as they have a million and one boxes to tick"

I dislike the NC and its targets

Re the Indian thing: surely unless the child has particular SEN requirements for having to learn about other people's feelings - you would not need to focus on that?

I dislike the smugness but I however, work in a middle class area and the children are no more supported and prepared than those in poorer areas. I have parents who don't have to work who still don't read at home with theirs often...more emphasis is put on material gain in those houses unfortunately. How i work it is I monitor which children read at home more frequently than others, when I notice some are lacking they get starred on records as being a focus to give them extra support so they don't fall back. It's all about juggling, when those children pick up again at home then they get taken off that and it goes onto another child this is regardless of where they are academically. I had one having extensive building work done with parents working full time so during that time, said child was a focus and when the work was done mum actually said she could spend more time concentrating on her now so she came off that focus.

"This is why it's so important to do it in school."

I'm arguing just that point on the phonics thread Accuracy

I can't compel parents to "educate" their child at home but I can do my best to ensure every child in my school learns to read to a good standard.

The Indian thing - the child does have SEN requirements - he is gifted and talented and so that was his literacy target, it is however an AF assessment focus, so yeah there was a need for me to focus on that with him.

Ok thanks for that. That is very different. I don't think that situation really has a lot of relevance to what we're talking about but thank you for explaining.

Mrz I'm glad you agree but many teachers don't seem to and there's no pressure to change. Middle class parents don't seem to care -- it simply gives their own kid a bigger chance to shine when others "fail" because they don't have home support.

Level the playing field, I say.

Slipslider I like the way you individualise your approach by the way, it seems that you don't take no for an answer in the face of all the problems that militate against one to one reading for other teachers.

There are problems with 1-2-1 and time etc but you just have to do the best you can do to be honest. I would love an extra body in my classroom to do reading but it just doesn't happen in reality! Working in schools is about being flexible and trying to fit in 20 hours worth of work into a 6 hour day! But hell, who doesn't relish a challenge at work?! I think as with the individualised approach, its all about knowing your children/families and progress to date to be able to do it. If you use the data to your own benefit then the kids will benefit. But having said that, it is damn hard!!

Have a lot of respect for the views of you both. Where we disagree I hope you will take it with a tone of "this is what I think" and not "this is a personal attack on any random teacher". I feel intensely strongly that people used to know and understand the value of progressive one to one reading practice in school - and that it's now been forgotten, because it's not complicated, or fancy, and because the idea that "it's good to do it at home" has become "if parents don't do it at home then ".

I do think it has a lot of value, I just wish there is more time to do it! I do also feel there is value in a guided session. I think everything has it's positives and I know in my school in KS1 we all read 1-2-1 with the children. Well my TA does but I always make sure I read with them 1-2-1 as often as possible to keep a beady eye on where they are at! But this is more difficult. I suppose whereas before a teacher would send the kids off working and sit behind a desk they had that time then to read 1-2-1 but now we are with a focus group so there is not that time, if that makes sense. I did have one parent ask me where my desk was and what did i sit behind when the children worked! It made me chuckle!

well I hope you have a good holiday Slipslider

It was still very difficult in the days when you you could set them off working, sit at a desk and hear them read because it takes more than a third of the school day. I would still like to see some statistics for reading over the decades and a comparison between countries.

www.leeds.ac.uk/educol/documents/000000650.htm

Thanks mrz, that is the one that I found when looking - I haven't managed to find others.

I had a few others from earlier search (not much available) but none of the links are working

There didn't seem much information. I got one which explained how the Daily Mail came up with the story of 'UK having the worst schools'.