dd's teacher seems to leave it to me when dd moves up a reading level

[PrincessScrumpy]

I'm not sure if this is normal but dd1 is 5 (almost 6) so in yr1. She is a confident reader and back in November, after many clear messages in her reading book (read fluently with full understanding and adding emotion into reading out loud etc) I ended up writing a question: "should these books challenge dd or is she expected to be reading them as easily as she is?" The answer was for her teacher to give 2 books instead of 1 per night but of the same level. I decided to tell the teacher to just send one and we'll pick one from home. About 2 weeks later dd went up 2 levels.

This week, after continually having books that again aren't challenging dd as she is clearly progressing well and us writing the same "Read with no problems" type comments I got fed up last night and decided to be blunt - "dd is finding these books very easy and is currently reading Matilda to me at home". I felt like it was a criticism of the teacher but she only gets to read once a week and only ever reads about 2 pages, 3 if she's lucky. I guess this is why they aren't really assessing her and it seems to be up to us to be pushy parents. It probably sounds like I am pushy but I'm not, it was really clear dd was on the wrong book band. Unsurprisingly, after last night's comment dd read at school today - still only 4 pages - and she's moved up again.

Basically, I'm really asking if is this normal? Do you have to push the teacher to push your child? How much does your yr1 child read to the teacher/ta each week? I think I feel like because dd is able they don't worry about her, but actually she lacks confidence and thinks she's rubbish and invisible to her teachers as she rarely gets praise... I presume she probably does get praise but it's her 5-year-old perception.

Mrs Pepperpot and Mr Majeika? ooh I'll look into those. We've done the easier Roald Dahl and Wishing Chair etc but I've not heard of these. I read a thread where a mum was saying her dc was reading Harry Potter at 5yo. I did consider the first Harry Potter but I think they get a bit too dark later on and dd is too young for them despite being able to read them - just my opinion and clearly every child is different.

This reassures me that it's normal for parents to drive this and it does make sense as we hear our child read more than the teacher. dd does guided reading in groups everyday in her school but officially they all read 1-2 times a week to the TA but dd only ever does it once and sometimes not at all, and when she does she only reads 2 pages. The TA put dd read pages 1-8 last week... the story didn't start until page 7! Anyway, thank you everyone for making me feel more normal and not like a pushy nightmare parent.

If I pushed the teacher we'd be reading books in a different language by now!
Is that an option?

Depends on the school and its free helpers.

I feel I have to keep nagging too, even though we've not managed to make any improvements. My son was sent home with simple Pink books - look, dog, run, tick, tock - and after a few weeks he could read those fluently, but no change in the book level. I bought him some superhero ones that are of a higher level, and he reads those fine, and we've started reading his picture books. Still, the drivel Pink books come home. I finally mention it and they said "Oh, the books they read at home are supposed to be really easy." So I asked what it was we were supposed to be doing with "look dog. dog bark. oh, dog." She didn't know. But she didn't put him up a book band either.

We're going to have to stop reading them because he's finding them such a bore they're turning him off reading. He wants to read one of his fun books, not some guff about 'red cat. cat is red. see, red cat.'

The thing that I find surprising is the difference in books at one level. We were sent one this week that was just . Dd read it straight through, so we put it at and read something interesting. Then I wrote it was too easy but we get a comment about dd rushing. We've had much harder books at the same level that are nice stories - shouldn't there be progression? Tbh I'm not bothered about it being easy as long as it's good!

I don't know how many books we've had in total, 150 maybe. But I've only seen a couple that I would call good, the kind you pay for in a bookshop. One was completely hilarious. I can't remember what it was about, now. But it was brilliant. And another one was about a foster family. It was a real look at life. All the other ones have been a waste of decent paper, as far as I can see. They're not the kinds of things I would buy. They're not what I would borrow or keep. I can't really see why anybody wrote them.

I think the value of reading scheme books is more in getting to the stage of being a confident reader. One they're there I can imagine we'll be much less fussed what school want to send home. At the moment we're finding the reading scheme books work best as they won't have too many new sounds and scare ds off. He does like his biff chip and kipper even, he found even the no words books funny. Easily amused in this household! We read ort songbirds to dd for fun too.

We're in reception and I despair of the books DD brings home. She reads songbirds level 3 and is pretty much ready for level 4 yet came home with a pink book band today. To make matters worse, she only brings one book each week, which is clearly not enough. It was ok so far as we could afford to buy our own but with our financial situation changing, it's an expense I could do without. I am frankly quite annoyed at how much the school relies on us to get things moving along.

I've posted another thread on asking about reading tests and their purpose, but I think reading this thread has answered my question!

DDs school the DC are given a reading test each term. They are also heard reading individually at least 4x a week (although no guided reading). Book bands go all the way to the very final levels (i.e. after lime there's brown, grey, blue & red equating to years 3 to 6).

As long as DC can read & comprehend they are not held back. There's a range of schemes so not too much ORT & DD learns a lot especially from the information books.

Each child has their own glossary to write in new words & definitions, which seems really beneficial. In the past I've been a volunteer at a different school & remember listening to good year2 free readers & asking what does X word mean & children don't know & haven't asked - but an individual glossary would help overcome that & doesn't cost that much.

The reason I like scheme books is because at the right level, they are still fairly short but packed full of complexity. We work through the scheme books relatively slowly to extract the most out of them (ok not so much the plays) & she can whizz through her own books for pleasure as she still has time.

If posters DCs were given a proper reading test (or rather decoding test) then maybe there would be a better matching of ability with book band. I do wonder about the whole free readers after lime thing too. Lime level is still a long way off from where you need to be at the end of year 6 & there's another interesting thread on here about hearing DCs read outlud from Y2+ & how important it is.

I worry for the children without "pushy" parents to be honest!

There's must be a way of raising this more centrally with the school and making sure each child is suitable developed etc.

I think scheme books are for teaching the basic mechanics of reading, not the complexities of literature in general. What kind of scheme could do that anyway?

I think that's one of the main reasons why parents whose children can already read can't get to grips with reading schemes. It's a bit like giving the Schumacher brothers driving lessons. No matter how good the driving instructor is at teaching basic driving, it's not going to help, is it?!

Just wanted to add a thought that hasn't been mentioned yet;
sometimes dc can read very differently at home compared to at school, they could be nervous if reading with new adults or distracted be exciting classroom sounds even if they are outside the rooms to read.

Saying that, I was when dd's yr1 teacher agreed she needed to move up again but she wasn't keen on 'letting' dd get too far ahead of her peers
Dd was ahead, and keeping her on dull books wss making her not want to read, so we just did our own thing at home, recorded that in the diary amd popped that book in her bag too.

My typos are shocking