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Original poster

DCs starting a new school after half term...what do I take? Should I mention G&T?

301 replies

FishfingersAreOK · 30/05/2013 22:42

Due to a move my DC (YR & Y2) are starting at a new primary school on Monday. When we left their old school on Friday I was given all of their work/folders/old reading records etc.

Not so worried about YR stuff but should I take Y2 literacy/numeracy/handwriting stuff in with us for the first day for the new school. Or would that look...er....I don't know...unnecessary? Would it be useful or just a pain?

Also, Y2 is on the Gifted and Talented register for her reading. Not sure how this has actually benefitted her tbh. She doesn't know she is on the register. We are not that bothered in many ways. We were happy she was being stretched at her old school - and she was happy and thriving. So again, is there any need to mention it? The new school is bigger, and one of the appeals of it is there will be more peers for DD (Y2) of a similar academic ability - rather than her being pulled into Y3/Y4 classes. If I don't mention it will it seem odd? If I do will I seem pushy? Does the G&T transfer to a new school IYSWIM or will it just be dependent on the others in her year.

These are probably all questions I should have asked the school(s) last week but we only found out they had places on Thursday and everyone agreed beginning of the half term was the sensible time to start....but has left me with very little time to get my head around it!

Not sure if posting in correct area....Oh....blasted half term Grin

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learnandsay · 04/06/2013 20:35

We only had a couple of sonbirds, but yes, they're bloody clever. Along with Seuss and Marinarik, you can do a lot with a little if you're a bit of a genius.

mrz · 04/06/2013 20:48

but your daughter refuses to read songbirds doesn't she?

learnandsay · 04/06/2013 20:51

Does she? The only one I remember is The Wrong Kind of Knight, which I remember as being very clever. We might have had some problems with another one. But I can't remember them. Do you know what happened?

mrz · 04/06/2013 20:53

No I just recall you saying a few weeks ago that she refuses to read them

simpson · 04/06/2013 21:21

I do remember you saying you hated Sam's Pot.

DD still loves Jack and the Giant as its a play and at one point when she was in nursery she was obsessed with Tara's Party.

bobthebear · 04/06/2013 21:23

'My daughter won't read Floppy Phonics, or Songbirds, but will happily read Ginn Zoom books'

and

'But I asked to more Ginn books because they're harder and she likes them. But was told they don't have very many. So they're supplementing them with more babyish stuff like songbirds. It strikes me as though the teacher is just padding out the scheme till the child moves up to Y1'

Are both recent quotes from you l&s yes I'm bored this evening!

learnandsay · 04/06/2013 22:18

I remember hating Sam's Pot and trying to get my daughter to read it and she couldn't understand what it was. She tried to get me to explain it to her and I didn't know what it was either. And before that we had the ugly ducking without words in it. She'd never seen a wordless book before (well, not one like that.) German families have the most wonderful multi-scene picture books. But they're about as far from an ORT wordless book as you can get.

learnandsay · 04/06/2013 22:20

Yes, bob. I found that quote too. But it's me objecting to the songbirds book, not her. I suspect mrz is remembering a real issue that we had which I've forgotten. (I'll try and dig it out.)

simpson · 04/06/2013 22:22

We had a lot of wordless books ORT and others when DD was in nursery. I did not see the point of them but DD did not seem to mind.

She had no books at all in nursery (with words) except the rather pointless JP books, picture of a butterfly and then lift the flap to reveal the word butterfly...

mrz · 04/06/2013 22:22

no learnandsay it was the remark bob quoted that I remembered from a couple of weeks ago

"My daughter won't read Floppy Phonics, or Songbirds, but will happily read Ginn Zoom books."

learnandsay · 04/06/2013 22:24

Ah, sorry, misread your post. I did say she wouldn't read songbirds. I don't remember what the issue was, though.

mrz · 04/06/2013 22:26

I had forgotten your earlier remarks about Songbirds being babyish

learnandsay · 04/06/2013 22:32

It might help if a child doesn't get proud of the fact that she can read chapter books. One of the difficulties is saying enough chapters now, it's bed-time. But once you've separated books into chapter books and the rest, you can be on a slippery slope.

BabiesAreLikeBuses · 04/06/2013 22:56

When we read our first chapter book dts were prob 4.5 and a good friend who is an early years practitioner was Shock and told me not to make a big deal of chapter books or only do them as there are so many more advanced picture books of a high quality - she was warning me that kids do get kind of obsessed with it having chapters - so iswym about the slippery slope. Interestingly our most popular ks2 treetops books are the graphic novels, lots of the kids i teach are early readers and miss the pictures...

simpson · 04/06/2013 22:57

I would agree with that, DD is very reluctant to read a book that is not a chapter book.

mrz · 05/06/2013 07:33

Why do you think that is simpson?

learnandsay · 05/06/2013 08:50

Chapter books look more grown up and if mum, (or anybody else) says oh, look, reading chapter books, how clever, then the child can get the impression that reading a chapter book is cleverer than reading a picture book. Next comes the idea that picture books are for babies, (and I'm not a baby) and then you're at the bottom of the slope.

And mum never actually had to say, those books are for babies, the child worked it out for herself. Added to that my daughter has just started getting an awareness (however misguided) about what colour reading book she's on versus what colour everyone else is on. I was hoping to avoid that.

Tiggles · 05/06/2013 09:19

Interesting about the chapter books, I wonder if that is a girl, age or individual thing.
DS2 is on lime level, so reading chapter books for a while, but is year 1 so a little older, but very happy to pick up a non-chapter book. The other day he brought home a red level book (I think red, it was the Ladybird Little Red Hen) which he had chosen along with his normal reading level book.

DS1 is 11, and he still reads the younger boys books for fun, but then he can't walk past any text without having to know what it says, and he's been that way since he was a toddler.

learnandsay · 05/06/2013 09:58

I think Ladybird publishes lots of grades of the same story, there's one version which has no levelling, it's just a straightforward Ladybird book, eg Goldilocks, and then there are the levelled series, read it yourself. I can't find our Elves & Shoemaker, so can't tell if it's a read it yourself version or not. The only r-i-y version I've got in front of me is a level 4 Pied Piper of Hamelin, and that's way harder than any school book I've seen yet. I've found the Elves. It's not a r-i-y.

Tiggles · 05/06/2013 10:18

:) Thanks lands, it was a very simple book. DS3 is on pink book band and he could read about half of it.
I was interested by the not wanting to read chapters that you and simpson were writing about, as with both my elder DSs being autistic I'm never sure what 'normal' is, and have it all to look forward to with DS3.

learnandsay · 05/06/2013 10:27

I've been buying secondhand children's books for quite a while now and I've got Winnie the Pooh learn to read books, Ladybird learn to read books, Disney learn to read books, and other series too and none of them are as simple as the school books. Even the Usborne phonics books are more complicated than the school books so far. I think you have to go a long way to find books in the real world that have been as de-languaged as the scheme books have been.

simpson · 05/06/2013 15:51

Mrz - I think it's because what motivates her is to be like her older brother (who reads chapter books).

The only non chapter books that she will read (to herself) is Topsy and Tim but she won't entertain the newer branded ones (which are more like picture books) only the hard backed smaller ones (more like chapter books).

But her teacher is giving her lots of hard picture type books (as she knows what DD is like!) as school books so she is having to read some picture type books at least!

mrz · 05/06/2013 19:17

It's quite an odd thing that many chapter books (including some books aimed at adults) have a lower reading age than picture books.

BabiesAreLikeBuses · 05/06/2013 19:24

Yes very true, mine have loved going back to some of their earlier books like dear zoo and the hungry caterpillar and easily reading them alone but couldn't tackle a julia donaldson, at least not without memory - im sure the gruffalo would be fine! My parents have been amazed at how different reading is now compared to the 70s when they had me reading peter and jane and thinking simple language and plot was best. At first they thought some of the words in the books i was reading to my then 3 year olds were ridiculously hard, they are now very proud of the language their grandkids use when they talk.

simpson · 05/06/2013 19:58

Mrz - I totally agree, I have loads of picture type books she won't read although I think they are filed in her little mind as books I read to her Grin

But at least the school are providing picture books so she knows she has to read them (either to me or her teacher).