What am I missing?

[Billybo]

DC2 is in YR. I'm getting incredibly frustrated with the school with regards to the reading books they are sending home. They send two books home a week one phonics, one not, but essentially they are both red band (and the easy red ones at that).

DC2 can read these easily and is bored witless to the point where he was refusing to read. To keep him interested in reading I'm supplementing with library books (which he is getting through 10-14 a week!). The library books he is reading and understanding no problems at all and even asks to read extra ones. These vary in difficulty but he is able to read at least green band books (three bands higher). I've not tried any higher yet as I don't want to push him or put him off.

I have had a quiet word with the teacher on two occasions (since March) saying that he is bored with the books and asking whether he can be moved up/what he needs to do to move up. Nothing changed and no real suggestion as to what to do to progress. As this has been going on so long, I decided to write a note in his reading record, stating about being bored, asking what he needs to do to progress, he is able to read much more difficult books at home etc. The response I received is that they are really pleased with him, its great that he is reading library books and to improve his reading he could read louder . But no comment on why they feel he is not ready to move up a level.

I wonder whether they think he is sight reading rather than using phonics, but surely they would have told me.

I also wonder whether they have given him a target to be on red books by the end of the year and are hell bent on sticking to it. (He did have a few pronunciation issues when he started and wonder if this is why they have set a low target that they just aren't willing to change).

What bugs me most is that they aren't answering my questions with straight answers.

Also, surely this is going to be counter productive when he goes into year one, when they switch to a benchmarking system of progression. If he can read books of a much higher level inc. comprehension, then he could well jump and few bands, and skip lots of the phonics practice in the levels in between.

As it is so near the end of term and as I really don't think bringing this up with the teacher again will make any different, I'm just going to wait to see what happens at the beginning of Year 1.

But I wonder if any MNers have any ideas on what's going on?

To be honest, we could second guess all sorts of reasons for what's going on and wouldn't be any nearer the truth than you are now. You've correctly identified that there's no point in mentioning it to the reception teacher now. Regardless of the book band he's on, he'll still be having his phonics lessons and learning/practising phonics there so skipping a few bands if/when they are ready won't be an issue.

Wait till he's in year 1, give the teacher a couple of weeks at the start of term to get round everyone and to get to know them a bit, and then if nothing's changed make an appointment to go in and see her to ask what he needs to work on to move up and how you can support him with that.

In the meantime, keep reading lots and lots of different library books and even more importantly, talk to him about what he's reading. This link: www.eriding.net/english/reading_materials.shtml has all sorts of useful resources to help you think of questions to ask and topics to discuss. That will make sure that he's got all comprehension bases covered. Just make sure that wherever possible he's backing up his answers with evidence from the text not the pictures (tricky at red level, but if he's reading green level books at home it's important).

Billybo:

I've had two DDs go through this stage with school endlessly providing reading books in one band and uninterested in progressing/ demoting DDs - one a struggling reader (DD1) and books were just simply too hard and DD2 who was a quick learner and just seemed to take to reading easily (possibly benefitting from sitting with us whilst I did reading homework with DD1 in YR/ Y1).

Anyway - my advice is keep doing what you're doing. Yes keep an eye on what is going on at school - but be brave. Write DC found this book selection very boring/ had this before and refused to read it again/ etc... in the reading diary and then write down what you are reading. Use INK. The school won't like this because OFSTED can pick this kind of thing up and feel they aren't appropriately differentiating work for your child.

In the meantime the link toomuchicecream sent through looks very helpful and my advice is keep on with the reading (accepting that there is no ONE way to learn reading - as long as it's working don't 'fix it'). Trust that eventually what the school want and what your child is doing will overlap and all will be well.

We went off-plan with DD1 about late Y2 out of sheer frustration with very slow progress and serious maths struggles. DD1 is now treated like their 'star pupil' and the school clearly love to give the impression they've done tons of extra things with her. They did get her into an accelerated reading recovery programme in Y4 run by a dedicated and lovely TA - but other than that it's all been hard graft as home.

It may only be our school, but our impression was that for the teachers the emphasis is all on gathering evidence of achievement (summative assessment) rather than necessarily pushing learning forward/ working on catching up struggling pupils when initial difficulties present themselves/ working of stretching pupils to higher achievement. They're spending so much time ticking off their little AP points list for RED LEVEL reading books for X many pupils and photographing/ photocopying supporting documentation of that achievement to demonstrate 'good progress' measure for performance related pay that I don't think they have the capacity (time or energy) to be thinking through whether X or Y reading band is in fact too easy for a pupil.