Ds recently started at a new school, reading scheme question. Also how do schools liase with eachother when a child moves?

[MotleyCroup]

Ds recently started at a new school. On his first day we took him in early, we also took his old reading diary.

His new teacher explained that they followed a different reading scheme and on Friday evening ds came home and explained that he had been told he could pick whichever book he liked. At his old school he was on Lime level, we filled in his reading diary and read ten minutes each evening (or tried at least). There has been no reading diary sent home with him.

So my question really is how do your school work. What happens after Lime level at your school.

Also a teacher question. When one of your pupils moves to another school do their current levels get electronically sent with the child, are any of their books sent to the new school (his old school works quite closely with the new school) such as their literature books?

I will have a chat with ds teacher towards the end of next week, just wanted to give him time to settle and didn't want to go into school too early with questions.

Watching as similar.

My sons new TA read through some books with him til they found his level. Was same as old school level.

Don't think any communication went on which is disappointing

I really wouldn't worry, surely the new teacher will listen to him read and from that will know at what level he is. I'm not a teacher but I'm sure they are all capable of determining a child's reading level in a few minutes.

If it was my child I'd be more worried about how he was settling into the school and if he was making friends, I wouldn't be at all worried about his reading level. The worst that will happen is that he might get the wrong book the first time, no biggie. imo.

Some schools just send on the ctf ( an electronic transfer form which has brief details and KS1 results if applicable) and some schools bundle everything up lock, stock and barrell!!

I would have thought that even if the dc can pick their own books it should still get logged somewhere?

Wooldonor, it's been such a difficult decision and of course the biggest worry was how ds would settle (he was mighty upset at leaving his old school) but he came out smiling and he's made friends already so that was a huge relief.

Spaniel, thanks. I was just curious (nosey) to know how schools liase.

And I wasn't worried about his reading level as such. It's just a bit daunting that ds has been told he can now pick whatever he likes to read whereas his old school followed a strict colour code and the dc knew exactly which books they could pick.

I've got too much time on my hands today.

A new boy has just started in my class ( Year 5) All I know is his name, the name of those with parental responsibility, the name of his previous school, whether he has ever been eligible for free school meals,whether he has ever been on the SEN register and if so at what level and for how long ( but no details of what for!) and his year 2 results. And I consider that pretty informative! Some schools don't even send that much!

Spaniel, that must make your job difficult if you haven't got much to go on!

So if you have little information how do you assess which level the child is working to? Is it quite a quick process?

I was told by ds old school that children can regress 6 months when moving schools.

Maths-a quick maths assessment paper gives you a rough idea of areas of strength/weakness ( otherwise you can do an ongoing assessment but it might be several weeks/months until you visit some topic areas!)
Reading-first ask if he/she can remember the colour of the book they were reading last! That gives a starting point but a couple of sessions of 1:1 reading is a better guide.
Writing-you know by the end of the first week( if not sooner!)

Thank you

It's been such a big decision we've made but I'm optimistic it's the right one.

They don't have reading schemes at all where I live (abroad) and it doesn't seem to stop the children learning to read I was a little surprised at first but the mix of reading comprehensions as homework and being allowed to choose a book from the library whenever they want seems to work perfectly well. They read to the teacher in class twice a week, so she knows how they are progressing with reading aloud as opposed to answering comprehension questions.

DD is 8 and reads lots, whole 200ish page books in 24 hour sometimes, if we have a quiet weekend, and can talk about what she's read at length and with understanding, which I think is more important than a level on a reading scheme :D

Our school stops after white and the children have a box they can choose from and if you are even better than this you hit the school library. We still have a diary though and the children do still guided reading.

I would suggest you check if the teacher or a TA can give him a bit of guidance for a couple of weeks until he knows what kind of books are age appropriate.