Refusing to put dc on next reading level or even assess

[Blueschool]

Dc in in year 2. Has been on same reading level since September.

My dc may not be good at a lot at school, but reading is dc strong point. Not the top of class but quite advanced. Not just my opinion but her previous teachers and helpers.

Her current level is not a challenge anymore. Mentioned this weeks ago. Given a huge list basically telling me why dc is a crap reader in teachers opinion. Very surprised as one area always was praised on reading.

Took it on chin and we worked hard to resolve the issues like "not enough expression".

Dc reading is just fine. I can not find not fault.

My comment I wrote last week was the "book was not a challenge". Teacher took a whole page up in dd reading record to again tell me how crap dc is.

I felt the comments were utterly unfair and do not reflect reality at all. She also told me I could buy books to read at home! Very unfair assumption dc reads for pleasure all the time and has 100+ at home.

She said IF she wants she will assess her after Christmas she will.

My issues are

• I thought parents and teachers were meant to be in partnership with education. How is this a partnership?

• IF dc is genuinely reading badly at school WHY? Why is there such a difference? Why is her educational environment not making her feel confident and supported to show her real abilty?

• Another parent has told me they have had similar issues as the teacher gets herself stressed. Im sorry, but holding a child back because you are stressed is quite something.

What should I do?

Incidentally, I would 'level' Mr Biff the Boxer as gold.

teta, if the teacher has identified those things, she has assessed your ds.

They are v popular, Brycie

That's lovely teachers. Sounds like it's not enough for Blueschool's daughter though.

Maybe you're right, maybe they should really have finished with ORT by Y2. But thirteen years ago Y1 would be expected to be on Stage 8-10 in our school - so if a Y2 is reading that Mr Biff guff as described then it sounds like expectations are a little lower these days, and ORT might be just the job.

I love the happy families books, are they really gold??

I was about to try my DD on them but she is on stage 6 (ORT) so maybe I should hold off a bit???

Isn't it Mr Biff the Boxer??

Another one who loves the seriously silly tales (they are fab - but a bit beyond DD yet)

I thought Biff Boxer was boring too

Brycie Mr Biff the Boxer isn't a book to teach reading. It's an ordinary story book written by Allan Ahlberg www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_8?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=mr%20biff%20the%20boxer
my children loved the Happy Families books and TV series when they were younger (selected from the book store and bought with pocket money)

Brycie - I read with yr2 today at my DC school and don't think any of them (read with 17 kids) were above level 6....

I have read with some kids that are on lime though in the same year but there are not many tbh....

"The next day Mr Biff began training.
His family helped.
Billy Biff took him running.
Billy Biff took him skipping."

This sounds way way too easy for a Y2. I'm not suprised Blueschool thinks her daughter can do better.

I've given up trying to engage with DS's teachers about reading.

Last year in year 2 he was independently reading Harry Potter, How to Train your Dragon etc at home, but even in year 3 he's still bringing home easy home readers which he won't touch. He reads every night in bed before he turns his light off. I randomly sense check and pick out hard words to see if he understands them and/or can say them and I'm confident he is reading them well. He asks if he doesn't understand something.

The teachers won't engage or deviate from their reading scheme. I understand they're trying to please Ofsted but I won't turn reading into a source of conflict for DS.

So my advice is that if you're happy with your DD's progress at home, don't waste too much energy in trying to get the teacher to support that. Get her some books at home, like Rainbow Magic, that she can read at home and teach her to enjoy reading for pleasure. :)

teta I think you're probably misunderstanding the teacher when she says 'assess'.

I imagine they're using a benchmarking scheme that they use to 'assess' the child for moving to the next level, and this is what she was referring to when she said that she is going to 'assess' your ds.

A different kind of assessment against national criteria will be going on in the classroom every day, as teacherwith2kids has explained.

Mrz - I have been trying to buy the box set for ages but it's sold out everywhere...

DD can read fine (decoding very good tbh) but going slow on ORT to make sure comprehension is keeping up. I just thought she might like them for fun iyswim...

She read a Horrid Henry book from the £ shop fine over the weekend ( and enjoyed it)

Yellowsubmarine she has never actually read with my son.Surely to do an acurate assessment she needs to read with him.He is reading 30 pages of Beast Quest a night.He is able to read pretty much any words.Writing is a completely different subject and has absolutely no correlation to the reading.I think she likes to make the decisions [not the parents] and has decided to come up with any excuse to support her stance.This particular teacher taught my 2 elder children.I previously thought the world of her.She was a really good teacher for them.She is not a good teacher for ds 4.

Yes simpson I think standards have dropped a bit. This was a state school and all the mums went in to help so all the children read every day with an adult, and the mums were allowed to move a child on to a new book or even a new level if the child was reading well. No - I think we had to draw it to the teachers' attention if all the books were finished on a certain level and they needed to move up.

Chic - are you not allowed to provide your own books for your DC?? My DS is in yr3 (not as good as your DS as he is reading Harry Potter now but Aug born) but I had a word with his teacher about how dull DS was finding the books and she was fine for me to provide his reading books...

Are Rainbow Magic those fairy books with fairies all different colours? They were quite good for encouraging children to "go on to the next one", if I remember rightly.

simpson there is more sense in buying a box set of Happy Families than buying reading scheme books IMHO ...

chicaguapa Agree!

I think they are Brycie - I have 2 of them on DD's bookcase picked up from charity shops and tbh I don't think she is far off reading them...they look very tedious!!! But am sure she will love them (she loved Flora the Fairy)...

In my DC school there are only 3 mums who go in and listen to kids read and I am not allowed to put kids up a level or change their books (but write a quick note to the teacher to hand in when I am done to say XX needs book changed etc etc....)

Mrz - would love to get them but they are sold out everywhere

I don't buy ORT but DD reads from Oxford owl and I do pay for the reading chest...

I did find Mr Creep the Crook in a charity shop for 50p (I was sooo chuffed as its my DC favourite!!!

Teta, are you sure that she has not read with your son? Not in guided reading? Not by getting him to read aloud to the class during another lesson? Not when looking at a class book?

As I say, I assess my pupils' reading daily - but I don't write that in their Home KLiaison books every day so it may be that I am not 'seen' to read with them.

Yes I think they clamped down on parents in a sort of control freaky way, I noticed it more and more as I had more children and they got older. By the time my last was in Y2, God knows who they thought was teaching the children to read, as they didn't read with them in school, and we were not allowed through "just being parents". It really held down the levels as there were a lot of ESL children whose parents wanted them to read more in school because they couldn't read with them at home.

I mean this was before CRB or anything, they just didn't want the mums through the door.

Simpson - there is also Kylie and Florence which are Early Reader Magic Fairy books like Flora. My DD is desperate to read the Rainbow Fairies, but not quite there yet but can do these early readers ok as they have fewer words and bigger letters.

Except for "glueing and sticking". We were allowed to glue and stick. I didn't, in disgust.