Does your school have a reading at home initiative?

[Hostie100]

We are trying to launch a reading at home programme from September this year at my childrens primary school. We will be awarding certificates from the governors for number of books read. I was wondering if anyone else's school already has something like this in place, if it is successful and how it works? The aim is to get more boys reading, the teachers and school secretary don't want an increased workload so it can't be too involved - thoughts please? Thank you!

Sorry, as you put it, I think this could be damaging. The idea of reading is not to get through as many books as possible. Books should be enjoyed, sometimes savoured.

Instead why not get together the school community and ask them to write some comments about their favourite children's books. Publish a school book review / magazine. Involve the children too. The younger ones can draw pictures / write sentences about their favourite books, the older ones book reviews and illustrations, alternative endings etc. There could be popularity charts and each class could vote for their favourite book and raise money for their new 'Most Wanted' books for the library.

Ours doesn't. Which I'm relieved about TBH, I'm a LP and I work, there's no way we could work through as many books as other families. Other work colleagues moan about schools that expect daily reading because it can't always be fitted in and it ends up in a battle.

FWIW mine are excellent readers, so what we do obviously works. But being expected to listen to them everyday would be miserable if they were tired and put more pressure on me. I'd rather have a calm bedtime and read them a story.

capsium that's a nice idea. More carrot than stick. Better than my moany post for sure .

I think it is a bit ironic the teachers and secretary do not want more workload, they just want a scheme which shifts it onto the parents! Not daft are they?

Thing is I don't think these type of rewards encourage real enjoyment of reading for reading's sake....

My DS's school introduced a home reading certificate system this year. It's for number of reads rather than books read, so in the home reading record I put the number read it was, the date and a comment if I cba Each read at home is supposed to be for 10 minutes ish. Certificates are awarded after 25 reads, 50 reads, 75 etc

From what I've heard it has helped - children want to get the certificates and it's not really any more bother for the parents unless they are completely averse to writing anything in the reading record or the teachers.

Our school has reading diaries and an expectation that a child will read at least 4 times per week at home and that this is recorded in the diary.

Much better to reward the reading, not the quantity of books.

They get a certificate each term if they have read at least 4 times per week every week.

In terms of workload, this requires a TA to go through every childs reading diary page by page checking the number of times they read each week, each term. Then producing and writing the certificates as required.

I won prizes as a child for reading the most books (independent reading). It was a self-certified scheme that ran thru the school library. Only girls seem to be top readers, though.

You also have to be careful not to be too discriminatory...

Some parents may have poor literacy skills themselves, illness or disabilities which make supporting reading at home difficult. Some may work shifts or have less time to spare amongst lots of siblings or caring responsibilities.

It would be unfair if these children disadvantages were compounded by feeling left out of a certificate scheme.

How would your school support these children in this reward scheme?

Ours have read five times per week, no specified amount just needs parents to sign their book, kids have to give up a break and go to homework club if not done

We have a scheme of awarding certificates - a child has to have read 30 times to any adult (no time limit) to get each certificate - I sign certificates after guided reading and individual reading. Therefore every child should get a certificate over the course of the year. Children not reading at home is a huge issue in my school and the certificate system has led to a marginal improvement.

Our school has this system.

Reading records.

If a child reads at home 4 times in a week and is signed off by an adult, they get entered into a draw. One child from each class is picked from the draw and gets to choose a brand new book to keep from a treasure chest.

I listen to readers in juniors. Since this scheme was introduced I have seen an increase in recorded reading.

NB you don't have to actually read to an adult, they just have to certify you have read.eg They can reads to themselves and adult can check they have understood it, or can recount the story.

I think rewarding based on number of books read will just encourage children to read short easy books.

Our school also do the reading diary thing. If you have read 4 times or more in a week you are awarded a reading certificate. 10 certificates or more in a term & you get a prize of a book at the end of term awards assembly.

The scheme has changed slightly since DD started: it was originally 3 times a week or more but they increased the target in line with their recent focus on reading. You can record any reading; it doesn't have to be their school reading book. The children also now get to choose their own reward from a large selection. It used to be that the head of reading / literacy would choose & DC were often disappointed with books they'd already read / found quite simple /babyish as both are quite advanced readers for their age. My DC are always keen to get their reading recorded by Friday morning so they can move up on the wallchart, so it seems to work for them. In fairness they would have been reading anyway as we are a bookish household - whether the scheme actually helps those in a different environment, I have no idea...

Another thing their school has brought in this year is a weekly book club. The children have a savings book & can bring in money each week - books are on sale from £2. My 2 did it for the first term but then lost interest in the books on offer... but then again, we use the library & they have access to lots of books (kindles, large collection of books at home, pocket money, books for birthdays, Christmas, etc.). Some children are not so lucky & I think for these children in particular, the book club has gone down a storm (they can bring in 50p a week & have a book a month).

They have also started a book swap for adults in the school reception. They did it as a one-off for World Book Day (or something along those lines) & it was so successful they've kept it going.

I give out certificates for 25/50/100 books read but it isn't a whole school initiative

We have a whole school reading challenge (infants) for home reading.

Reading diary for parents/pupils, each page has room for 5 "reads." When a page of 5 is done, pupil shows teacher and pupil then stamps their reading bookmark shaped record, kept in classroom.

In EYFS - when a pupil achieves 8 stamps (so 40 reads) they get a certificate in Celebration Assembly.

In Y1/2 - when a pupil achieves 12 stamps (so 60 reads) they get a certificate in Celebration Assembly.

They can keep getting certificates for more reads - after each 60 they get a certificate. There are no Bronze, Silver Gold or numbered certificates though.

For those children who do not read much/at all at home we do have some volunteer readers who come into school and we will target those children to read with them, as "additional reads" and these are recorded in the home reading part of the diary.

We don't do it per book as for us it is to just encourage children to read. We don't mind what they read, nor do we expect them to read for ages. It is just a read - it can be 5 minutes, it can be half an hour. It can even be sharing a book with parents and child reading together. In early EYFS it may even be just looking at and talking about a book.

Our school give out certificates for number of times the child reads with a parent (not the number of books read). In reception it is a certificate every 15 reads, in year 2 it is every 50 reads. When a child has 150 reads they get a book token. The teacher initials the comments that a parent has made and puts a star on a star chart so it is obvious if any parent comments are missed. This works well as it also shows the school are actually taking note of what the parent has written and it isn't going into some void somewhere.

Thank you all so so much for your fantastic feedback on this topic. Please keep them coming, our planning is in the very early stages so we can take all of your comments into account and can already see that number of reads would be a better way forward rather than number of books. I will share all of these ideas with our governors learning committee next week, thanks again.

This would not motivate my son to read books from school, I truly don't know what would tbh. The only thing that has made him read a school book was the real threat of missing a playtime until his book was finished.

He does read a lot, preferring encyclopaedias, 'fact' based books, manuals and comics. He has a high reading age (14+ at year 3), he just hates chapter books.

Talking to other mums, I don't think he's particularly unusual in this.

I remember putting off reading LOTR in top juniors (year 6?) because there was a silly rule you had to finish a whole book, and write a book report on it, including picture, every week.

Stuck to some extrremely short books with themes that could be represented by stick men that year! (Still can't draw for toffee) read Tolkien all summer, and its still one of my favourites.

It was a backwards step when I'd been a free reader since reception; suddenly reading was a chore, when it had always been a treat before that class.

Tread carefully. I see you want to encourage the reluctant and struggling readers, but be wary of alienating the more able too.

Agree with knotty

My kids school has a target of at least one book a week at the moment. Dd officially reads an easy one to meet this and not get into trouble and doesn't declare her real, and more appropriate one, which she reads at home. Crazy.

And ds just lies or gets away with recycling an old book title.

Our school has reading certificates for 25, 50 and 100 reads at home. It has improved home-reading a bit.

we have a 30 reads system.

You have a reading diary and parent signs it if you read at home. In theory it is school reading book, in practice, as long as you read and parent signs, you can read any book. One book can be spread over as many nights as it takes. each entry counts as one read. (helpful for older children and longer books) Fact books, a few pages from an encyclopedia ANYTHING as long as you are reading.

When you have 30 reads, you go to the head and she gives you a sticker, signs your book and then you get to choose a prize from her box. Big box full of pocket money toys - bouncy balls, packet of loom bands, pencil and rubber, yoyo, etc etc.

They love it and are always asking how many more reads they need to get.

At my dc's infant school the children get a sticker if they have read or shared/looked at a book 5 times in the previous week. We make a note in their contact book after each read which is checked each Monday. Prizes (pencils, badges etc) are awarded at end of term to those with certain number of stickers. No real pressure as anything seems to count as long as its a book/has pages and the children are reading/looking at it. I think it works pretty well, though dependent on parents not forgetting to write in the book...

Xpost with steppemum sounds very similar minus the loom bands

No, I don't like this idea at all. As a family we are very keen readers so I'm all for motivating children to develop a love of books.

However, books and literature are not a quantitative or quantifiable experience but qualitative and experiential. Promoting children to read as fast or as many different books as possible is not a good idea becaus it will take enjoyment out of reading. Reading will become yet another target, and achievement rather than enjoyment fun and exploration and personal.

The competitive element of this is wholly unnecessary. It's late and I haven't got a better idea but will think about it.

OP, is this an all boys school? You mentioned that the initiative is to encourage boys to read more.