Teachers, question regarding Reading Award Certificates.

[Looksgoodingravy]

Ds is in Y1 and reads every night, he makes a point of bringing home a new book every night and I always note in his Reading Diary what he's read.

I was then quite surprised that he was only awarded a Bronze certificate for reading 15 times over this past half term. I was at odds whether to say anything to ds teacher or not as it seemed quite picky of me and I didn't want to come across as being a bit pathetic but I thought how hard he works to read every night as some nights he's at kids club then Beavers until late etc etc and I felt this was a big achievement for him and he should have been rewarded as such.

Anyway, sorry for waffling! I went to see ds teacher before the Christmas holidays and she informed me that ds must not have put his Reading Diary in the correct box for it then to be marked and logged? I didn't point out that there are ticks next to every story he's read so someone must have checked his book! I just felt a bit deflated for him really especially as he told me in front of the teacher that he did put his book in the box!

The question I'm asking really is how do you correlate the information for these certificates and is it up to the children in your class to put their diaries in the correct box to be marked or they lose out on a much valued certificate.

How would your son feel if you gave him a reading award? I'm not a teacher and I'd never heard of these certificates till you posted this. But at a wild guess I'd say they aren't supposed to be used as a tally system for automatic presentation every time a child reads 12,25,30 books but as a reward and encouragement for children to read books. I'd imagine that parents shouldn't take them too seriously, but rather take them in the spirit that they're meant.

It reminds me of a recent time when my daughter was ill. She wasn't generally keen to write stories. But I'd told her that her teacher had asked me to encourage her to write them (which is true.) So, during the last days of her illness, she wrote two stories, both several pages long, and one she illustrated herself. I was delighted. On her return to school I gave them to the teacher explaining that my daughter had written them for her. But that night the stories appeared in her bookbag and seemed unread. And there was no note in her reading diary and the teacher had not said anything to me. I was disappointed and a bit cross to be honest. So I wrote well done great stories in the reading diary in handwriting which looks superficially like the teacher's, showed it to my daughter. She mistook it for the teacher's praise and was made up. And then I promised to take her to a cafe as a treat, (which she loves.) And I made a mental note not to bother including her teacher in any other special efforts that my daughter makes on account of the fact that she obviously couldn't give a monkeys.

never heard of reading certificates so neither of mine get them

I give certificates for books read in school. Bronze =25 books silver=50 books gold =100 books

Sorry I just presumed you'd all know what I was talking about. In ds school during the last week of half term they award Gold, Silver and Bronze Reading Award certificates for books read at home.

Learnandsay, yes you're right, praise from me and a treat would go down really well but equally ds loves any kind of praise from his teacher. Your story made me feel quite sad for your dd (and you) but great idea from you to mark her book to praise her efforts. Here's hoping that the teacher just had one of those days to not even comment on the effort put into the story.

Thanks Mrz. I'm just putting it down to an error (not sure whose) this time and will see what happens next term.

For me this means a lot for ds. He's coasting along at school and I feel he's often overlooked because he's doing alright. There is a huge difference in the abilities of some of the children in his class and the less able seem to get lots of little achievement awards (and rightly so) but this is equally important to the more able children. It just seemed to have gone pear shaped this time.

I'm sure it was an oversight that the teacher will correct now you've brought it to her attention

Boooooo! Hopefully it is as mrz says an oversight that will be corrected. Quite pleased we don't have those certificates, DS would be picking lots of short books! Or maybe there is something to take that into account. I think sometimes it is hard for teachers to give every child that special bit of attention they deserve, sometimes you don't know what else is going on in the school day re other bigger problems that have to be dealt with there and then.

and it's very difficult for a parent to know how a teacher has responded especially when young children are involved.

I remember my children did nothing, the teacher said nothing, they had nothing for lunch ...

It's really difficult getting information from ds. He tends to open up more at bedtime....I wonder why

You're right Tggr with regards to other things going on within the school day, this is why it took every effort to go and see the teacher over something which seems trivial in a way but because of the effort ds puts in to reading at home (and some days this has been a struggle) it should be rewarded correctly, he knew others in his class had been given Gold or Silver and I didn't want him to feel demoralised.