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.

If you read Accuracy she says 'copying out, letter formation and drawing' - the main aim, as I understand it, to keep them quiet. Even if it was only one day a week (and I think she means more) that means that more than a third of my child's day is in a containing activity so that he can read for 5 mins. I would be removing my child from the school!
My DS is dyslexic- the school was wonderful in support but I didn't expect the other 29 to be copying out while he did it. (even if you thought there was any value in copying out it is rather pointless in these days of computers)

I'm not sure why you think classrooms are noisy, accuracy. In guided reading, the rest of the class are engaged in silent activities. In extended writing sessions, most children are working independently and are quiet for half an hour or longer. It all depends on how the children are trained to work.

Well-planned and appropriate partner work or group work helps to ensure all children are engaged and focussed on the objective. It is very easy to spot the child who is doing nothing, and it's the teacher's job to get that child involved. This applies to any group activity, including guided reading.

In nearly all walks of life innovations are made by a team of people 'growing' an idea, by discussion, experiment, evaluation,etc. Look at the scientists at CERN, or the Houses of Parliament. Very few people work in isolation.

Washington, I appreciate and understand what you've said. I have been on PTAs, funding raising, reading rotas two and three times a week, organising reading rotas for many years, even introducing them in some schools, guided reading and so on and so on, really. Over fifteen years the emphasis on one to one really fell away in the schools. At one of them (the one where teachers read one to one once every half term) my fight to start a reading rota eventually failed. Why? My own view is that they were a not particularly recalcitrant group of teachers, but that they didn't understand and appreciate the value of one to one teaching, it simply didn't fit with current reading philosphy. Once a half term was good enough.

So the point of that is, there was nothing wrong with the teachers, they were hard working attentive, kind and so on. But they'd had it inculcated that one to one reading wasn't that important.

So all this talk of "so what's everyone else going to do" during one to one reading, I think it's a sign that its importance isn't recognised. I think the emphasis should be more "we have to find a way to make this work" whereas "what's everyone else going to do" seems like a reason for giving up. It's obviously a problem but it should be a policy and a requirement that say every child is heard by a TA/teacher a certain number of times a week for the first three or four years and everything fits around that. If you do that then that's wonderful and should be emulated.

Re: noisy classrooms - good

"There is no need to read with a TA or teacher each day. I really like group reading - you get to cover vocabulary and punctuation problems within the groups and there is a free discussion with what is happening."

I really like your posts flexy and your generally positive attitude but I find this sort of thing a bit depressing.

We have two parent helpers who come into school to hear readers. For the WHOLE school! We have asked, pleaded and begged parents to come in but they can't/don't/won't.

It's lovely to say "so everything fits around that" but we are required to teach the whole curriculum, whilst reading is a key priority unfortunately it isn't the only one!

Why is it depressing? Flexy is teaching reading skills, whilst also covering vocabulary, punctuation, speaking and listening, what's depressing about that?

Teaching is a full-on job. There is no way you could spare a total 2 hours a week hearing individual children read once a week for 5 minutes

Both myself and my TA have full timetables. There are OT groups (county has pulled OT support and we have to do it now); there is a language group(we have to support eal pupils ourselves as we don't qualify for county support; there are phonics groups (run by tas and teachers); there is maths - lessons and support groups; there is forest school - two groups, twice a week - for teaer and TA whilst other children do art; there is ict which is often skill-based and/or related to important parts of the curriculum; there is whole class handwriting, whilst the ta takes the stragglers; there are two sessions of pe.....and there are guided reading groups and individual reading sessions (for at least 10minutes each) for the struggling readers......

When do you suggest the whole class's individual reading takes place? And what, of the above, do you suggest the rest of the class does during that 2 hours?

Some individual reading does take place in guided reading sessions, as the year 6 children hear the children read.

"We have two parent helpers who come into school to hear readers. For the WHOLE school! We have asked, pleaded and begged parents to come in but they can't/don't/won't"

I sympathise. Is there any chance people who aren't parents can come into read? Has this been investigated?

It's depressing because there is no way guided reading has the value of consistent progressive one on one reading. I'm not saying anything against Flexy. I'm sure most really good teachers nowadays believe that one on one reading is unnecessary.

"Some individual reading does take place in guided reading sessions, as the year 6 children hear the children read."

this is good

Flexy you do not have enough support or resources.

Most teachers would like to include one to one reading, but it simply isn't an efficient or realistic use of time. In an ideal world, each school would have a whole army of trained committed volunteers who come in on a regular basis. Unfortunately we teach in the real world!

( PS, I started as a parent volunteer, listening to readers. Initialy I was working an hour a week, when this worked up to three days across four different classes, I gave up and trained to be a teacher instead )

The question of "what are the other children doing?" is not an excuse! It is about most productive use of teacher time. As a parent would you like me to work one-to-one with your child daily for ten minutes, then leaving them to activities that require no teacher input and are of limited educational value for another 290 minutes each day? You clearly have no idea of the educational value and progress that can be made in guided reading sessions.

When you talk about schools having reading rotas what do you mean? The teacher hearing one-to-one reading while the others have other unsupervised activities, or a rota of parent helpers, while children wander in and out of timetabled lessons to read with them and miss focussed teacher input going on in the classroom? How is the reliability and quality of parent volunteers guaranteed? I acknowledge one-to-one with a teacher is invaluable, but it is about the unavoidable issue of logistics of teacher time mentioned before. As you feel so strongly about it maybe you could campaign for more trained and qualifies staff to hear readers, maybe paying them over breaktimes and lunchtimes so children don?t miss vital lessons? But in the current financial climate ?.

I must confess I am glad you are not a parent at my school! You acknowledge you are not a trained teacher, but feel you have the right to impose your opinions on the teachers at schools. Statements like ?my fight to start a reading rota eventually failed.? frighten me. Sorry parents do not dictate educational policy based on their opinions.

I?m on holiday now (although I?ll be in school all next week, working on planning, prep, resource making, etc. at intervals throughout the holiday and in school most of the last week of the holidays, before the teacher holidays bashing starts), so I?m going to hide this thread. It makes me upset that my commitment and poor work-life balance in term-time is worth nothing in the eyes of certain parents, who clearly know more about how children learn than me! (The ?me? with pupils who make ?better than expected progress and achieve better than expected outcomes?; with 20 plus years of experience, who keeps up with current research and teaching methods; who has numerous degrees and post-graduate qualifications focusing on how children learn and how best to teach)

Sorry ? rant over ? it has been a very long, busy and tiring term and I need a holiday, just like the children!

But Abigail reading standards at the school where every child had one to one reading more or less every day were higher than in the schools were it was not considered necessary or important. Much, much, much, much higher. There was very little disruption to lessons, even at Y1/recept stage. A child quietly comes in, taps another child on the shoulder, settles down. You underestimate children and parents. Your comment "how is the quality of parent volunteers to be guaranteed" is revealing. Some of the TAs in school had very questionable literacy abilities but were all attentive, kind and could all well manage Y1/recept reading without difficulty, you don't need a TA or a parent to be Brain of Britain to listen to a y1 child read (note the good idea about y6-ers doing it).

Your chestful of qualifications seems to have led you to the conclusion that one to one reading is not important. It's what I said earlier: teachers are inculcated with the belief it doesn't matter.

By the way, you'd love to have parent volunteers but you'd hate to have me? Really? Someone who'll start and organise a reading rota and mither other parents to help? Or just someone who thinks reading is more important than you do?

Honestly I'm a bit fed up of all this "I'm exhausted".

What, do you think people in other professions don't get tired? I haven't felt anti-teacher on this thread until your post but it's triggered a lot of impatient feelings which I really don't like.

I'm exhausted too. Ergo I'm right about everything and perfect? Is that how it works?

'A child quietly comes in, taps another child on the shoulder, settles down.'

Settles down to what? Comes in from where?
Regular volunteers have to be CRB checked.
Accuracy, lots of parents have smaller children, and lots of parents work. Regular volunteers are hard to come by these days.

(BTW we have a listening dog come in to hear Y1 readers 1:1)

TBH, because of the format of lessons, it is difficult to deal with children going in and out of the classroom. There is an objective to each lesson, which is usually introduced at the beginning. This is generally followed by an activity of some kind (either partner, group or individual work). There may be several plenaries (or just one at the end of the lesson) to re-focus on the objective and what is being (or has been) achieved. Each lesson is like a little package and is planned using an assessment of what the children achieved in the previous lesson.

You will see that missing part of a lesson can be disruptive for the child's learning.

Perhaps, accuracy, you envisage a class full of children working at their own speed through an exercise book which they can easily leave for 5 minutes whilst they 'go to read', and then happily come back and continue where they left off.

It doesn't work like that any more.

No, this is during carpet time, time spent doing worksheets and so on. Table outside, child comes outside, reads, goes back in, taps second child on shoulder, and so on. Are you telling me that reading standards are lower where there is more one to one?

Flexy's resource problems - I see. Everything else - I don't see.

What are these 'worksheets', accuracy? I don't use them. And what is the 'and so on'?

'Are you telling me that reading standards are lower where there is more one to one?'

No - I don't know of any schools that do 1:1. But I do know that all of KS1 at my school do one hour of phonics a day and all children have at least one 20 minute guided reading session a week. I also know that we get 40%+ level 3 readers at the end of Y2, and about 8% level 1 readers (who are, nevertheless, making steady progress).

Also have you read the thread and what many teachers are spending their time doing, particularly at the end of term? People think that's more important than reading?

I thought we'd transcended that discussion!

"No - I don't know of any schools that do 1:1." - but that's what I've been saying, and I've been told my schools are unusual and bad.

Ha ha at picking me up on "and so on" I do appreciate that.

The activities that would be suitable for children to absent themselves for five minutes would be anything that isn't numeracy.

Accuracy: "My own view is that they were a not particularly recalcitrant group of teachers, but that they didn't understand and appreciate the value of one to one teaching"

Have you any idea of how patronising you sound? The teachers on here have provided numerous explanations to you as to why one-to-one reading is not the best use of time these days, yet you continue to ignore those valid points and persist with the idea that a child reading aloud to someone for 5 minutes each day (with questionable feedback/teaching) is preferable. We're telling you, from a position of knowledge and experience, that it is not necessarily the case.

!!!Not really re transcended, that's how we got into priorities. There is the time - a lot is plainly wasted.

"The teachers on here have provided numerous explanations to you as to why one-to-one reading is not the best use of time these days,"

reading standards are higher where there is regular progressive one to one reading

This is my view - is it not your view? I think it must not be your view if you think there are better uses of time. You must think art/history/healthy/eating/project work etc are more important than reading.