Would you say something?

[SgtTJCalhoun]

Dd is apparently level 7 reading (age 6). She reads all her reading books confidently and we read things like Milly Molly Mandy together at home. She doesn't seem to be challenged by the books being sent home. Would you say something or trust that they know what they're doing?

It's not unusual for children to read school books which appear to be much much easier than the books that they can read at home. Teachers are often looking for things like comprehension, awareness of punctuation and expression. The teacher may well be willing to give you a rundown of what she's doing with your daughter if you ask her.

I have seen hard opinions that children of certain ages should only read books of certain ORT levels. You've got to hope that your daughter's level isn't fixed by someone with such opinions.

No harm in asking, done in a friendly way, if your question is along the lines of "she seems to be able to read XYZ at home with me, but her readers are quite different, could you explain where you think she is and why she still needs readers at that level?". Perhaps combined with "And I'm thinking about what she should be reading over the summer holidays. What sort of books and why?"

I will have a think and maybe mention in passing. Dd's teacher always seems so busy though, moves quickly and loudly. Makes me feel like she's soooooooo busy that I shouldn't bother her with petty, precious questions.

I've given up on this. My DD has been on Gold (don't know what level that is?) for most of this school year. She is 6 too and can literally read pretty much anything. Teacher says its down to comprehension but she seems fine in that too. Seems to depend on the teacher-her friends in the other class have progressed. To white, they certainly aren't better readers or have more comprehension. Just one of those things. She is bored stiff with the Gold books and has pretty much read all of them in the school!

Hi SgtTJCallhoun

Although it may seem sensible to ask the teacher, your hestitation to do so speaks volumes and that instinct may be correct. I certainly have asked innocent questions only to have the teacher take it totally the wrong way & be exceedingly bristly/ defensive thereafter.

My advice (given to me by some incredibly sensible parents here on MN) is go out there and encourage your DD to discover great reading materials herself. Read the school books, but if it's too easy and she's basically mastered it, move on to other things. Whether this is open or kept quiet is entirely up to you - we opted for writing it down and recording it so the school knew and gradually other children saw this and did similar - it resulted in books being changed at least 1x a week and in some cases 2x a week - which really livened things up for everybody.

Obviously the library is a great first port of call for finding out what's out there and exploring.

Don't be bashful - use the opportunity of a trip into town to the shoe store to also visit the big book shop and let her browse. I've discovered both DDs have certain preferences and one is a sucker for an exciting cover illustration. Often they are totally aware of what friends are reading and want to read it too!

Some great websites to get ideas are:

Book Trust: Book Finder for children (if you don't go directly there with this link - look at list on left - book finder is usually right under children's books: www.booktrust.org.uk/books-and-reading/children/)

How to build a children's library - Guardian list of children's books: www.guardian.co.uk/books/series/building-a-children-s-library - books for 8-11 is a bit hidden - but is an option there. 0 - 3 and 4-7 are prominently displayed.

Richard and Judy Children's reads (www.richardandjudy.co.uk/childrens-current-reads/Autumn-2012/229) - with archive lists toward the bottom here www.richardandjudy.co.uk/current-reads-archive- has introduced us to some books I never heard about before: in 2010 (sadly that archive is not listed) we were introduced to Rudica the Rude (a hilarioius story of a little Celtic girl coping with the Roman colinisation of Britain). There's several in the series now (which I'm considering buying in for summer reading fun even though DD1).

I think a nice mix of genres is important - especially as both my DDs have very strong likes (DD1 adventure stories & DD2 anything princess) - but buying things like national geographic junior magazines or magazines related to TV shows can get them reading outside that. We've also found children's encyclopaedias (My first Question and Answer's Book, etc...) really useful.

Finally when you're out and about over the summer holidays - if you're visiting a historic property (English Heritage/ National Trust) or Museum take a peak at the gift shop - often there are educational colouring/ activity books - which are great for reading and a lot of fun.

HTH

We have had similar issues this year with DS being on the same level (although going up NC levels?), I suspect I know the reason why but I am still going to talk to them about it today.

DS is a bit demotivated about the whole thing as cannot understand why he is told one thing about his reading by the teacher then is left on the same level and then the whole group will move up together.

I think it is to do with the guided reading group (I may be wrong) but it is unlikely that DS has not progressed in a year and those who have been on that level for a term have completed the full criteria and it happens to all be by the same week?!

I do understand re the comprehension issue, it is not just about understanding what they are reading, there is a huge criteria especially from gold upwards but sometimes I wonder if it is a bit of an excuse if they are the only child on that level.

If it is hard to catch the teacher to speak to and you don't want to bother her then I would put a note in the reading record. If you word it as 'DD is very enthusiastic about reading and obviously we want to help her progress as much as possible. Could you please let us know what specific areas she needs to develop in order to progress with her reading? We would be grateful if you could suggest what sort of books we could get for her to read over the summer holidays' then I don't see that possibly causing any problems/offending a teacher/sounding pushy etc. I doubt they will move her up this close to the end of term as they will reassess all children in September anyway, some progress rapidly in the summer, some fall back a bit because they don't do any reading.

If she is on Turquoise/purple books then you can try getting her to read Winnie the Witch, the Large Family , Little bear etc as they are all around level 8 (purple) and 9 (gold). If she is able to do them easily I would get some early reader books out of the library for her and just note them in her reading record. record her school book as normal, then put another entry to say she also read x pages of... Sainsburys have republished the Corgi Early Reader books - lots of stories, £3 each, many are funny. My daughter has loved reading them. Dog on a Broomstick and Dog Bird especially. Also Julia Donaldson's 'Quick Brown Fox Cub' and 'The Wrong Kind of Bark' went down well and 'The Kitten with No Name' is a favourite here.

I wouldn't bother saying anything (except for a note in the reading book?) but would continue reading at home lots.

Saying nothing is one option, but parents need to keep an eye out in case the child loses interest in reading. I'm not wild about giving children the wrong reading books, but it might be survivable in the short term.

I normally make a small comment in the diary if DD is bringing home books which are "too easy". Normally the teacher checks the diary on Tuesdays when DD does her guided reading.

What normally happens is that the child is allowed to choose her own book but the teacher and TA keeps an eye if a child always takes the same book home. If you make a note then she will also check and suggest different books.

Note in her reading diary what she's reading at home; I was concerned that ds had been on a level for ages and was finding his reading books a bit easy.

At parents evening I discussed it with his teacher and she said they need evidence that he's ready to move up, so I just started noting down what he was reading at home, as well as commenting on how he read his school book.

When commenting, also note that she understands the story, punctuation, changed her expression for a question, used a voice for a character etc, because they also need to see that she is understanding what she's reading.

workingtoohardmama - the school should recognise that your DS is doing those things though, they shouldn't have to take your word for it and they need evidence themselves. Sounds like a cop out to me but then I am feeling negative about all this at the moment so I may be wrong!

Yes, the "reading tricks" problem is an odd one.

Appreciation of punctuation is very hard to show. The most obvious example is not running sentences together. But others are hard. You don't say oh look there's a comma or oh look what a lovely exclamation mark, do you?

I think with the punctuation thing though it is more demonstrating they have noticed speech marks indicating someone is saying something so to go into character voices, minor pause at a comma, bigger pause at a full stop, paragraph etc, questioning or exclaiming voice and so on. subtle changes but still expected. I must admit when the teacher said that DD was 'working on punctuation I spent a couple of minutes talking to her about all the different punctuation in the book and she told them ALL about it when she went back into school. they didn't mention it again.

I thought that too mrsmelons, but I decided to be nice about it and do what they asked, at least then it shows that we are supporting his reading at home!

I think this issue is all too common. We too have suffered from surly teacher, ignored comments in reading record and the guided reading group situation. I specifically asked why other children were allowed to develop upwards into DD group but she wasn't given the same opportunity.

Notes the report today albeit secondary schools which it is said are failing bright children.

Yes I sometimes think it is best to go along with it as long as they are progressing ok, I feel so uncomfortable going in and asking about stuff as I hate the thought of them moaning about me etc.

I wrote a note in DSs reading log after this thread instead of talking to them to say he has read all the books in the scheme after he told me the TA told him to read one he hasn't read for a while (?!!!) funnily they moved him off the scheme yesterday - I now wish I had spoken to them sooner.

We have had a brilliant time up till now at the school but there have been many staff disruptions this school year and I just think thank goodness he progressed enough last year to make up for the lack of progress this year.

yes. mention it. i pointed this out about one of my children in reception and she was moved her up around five levels in one go. And the teacher let a note saying 'sorry!' in the reading record and apologised to me for having not noticed (my daughter had accelerated very quickly). she is a lovely woman

Teachers shouldn't moan about parents taking an active interest in their children's educations. At our school parents are asked to sign a declaration promising to do just that.

If I had any suspicion that a teacher was moaning about me for that reason I'd ask the head and, if necessary, people above her to sort it out.

We have to sign that also but I stupidly worry about them thinking I am being pushy - it may be just paranoia of course as I don't know this for a fact.

I do wonder where this stupid "pushy" label came from. If people don't push and their children end up as drug peddlers or streetwalkers I know who'd be first on my list to blame.

As far as I'm concerned a right thinking parent takes an active interest in her child's education and a right thinking teacher supports that. And that's all there is to it really.

learnandsay - I think the label comes from MN I came on here originally (a couple of years ago) to ask some questions about my son's education and the responses were really quite nasty TBH. It has made me paranoid!

Nasty responses on mumsnet are just the result of people typing stuff into a browser (as are nice ones) nobody should take them seriously. Anybody who takes mumsnet seriously needs to be thinking about contacting their GP.

Places where people can take stuff seriously are Encyclopaedia Britannica, The British Medical Journal and stuff like that. Stuff where contributors can't just log in and type the first thing that comes into their head.

I try to take the approach that I am my child's parent and with the best will in the world a teacher will still only know a certain percentage of my child. I think it is therefore up to ME to make sure that my child has the opportunities and help that she needs. It isn't MY problem that there are 30 other children in the class who are all at different levels, don't speak English, have SENs etc - that is up to the school to juggle, MY responsibility is to MY child and so if I think something is being missed, or there is a problem then providing I am polite and respectful (and word it very carefully) then there shouldn't be an issue with me discussing/raising it with staff.

Some teachers would hate me I am sure but I spent many years helping in primary schools so do have some knowledge and I am always very very aware that the teacher is the one in charge of the class and knows (or should know) how to cover everything.

lots of people will think I am pushy but we don't do academic work at home, we don't do workbooks unless it is raining in the holidays and the kids are bored and ask to do some maths or something, we do a lot of reading but not ridiculously so, they don't do lots of activities/clubs, we literally just encourage them and talk to them a lot. I am lucky my children are bright but that doesn't mean I am pushy IMO.

I think there are plenty of pushy parents in the world for right reasons or wrong reasons, at the end of the day noone does it to harm their child I am sure. I also think there are a lot of people who assume that if a child is doing well for their age then they have to be the product of pushy parents, or who perhaps feel guilty that they are unable to spend the time helping their children as much because they have to work and then there are some who just don't value education in the same way or who can't see that really we want surgeons to be bright people not dumb down the profession so that everyone can have a go (bit extreme example but...)

I try to ignore any comments implying I am pushy as I know I am not. I want my children to reach their potential and yes that may mean I have to occasionally make a teacher aware of something they can do but if I do it in the right way it shouldn't cause any problems.