How is space 'allocated' in your school for helpers who come to listen to kids read?
The reason I ask is that our school's 'system' seems manic to me but I don't know if it's the norm or there's a better way!
I started helping one afternoon a week just before Christmas. I have list of 10 regular readers and am in for 1.5 hours. Some of the kids still have to sound out (they are year 4 children) and some on my list are fast readers but don't get a lot of practice so the time I spend with each child varies.
The last couple of months though, I have had problems getting any space to hear the kids read (even a couple of chairs in the corridor quite literally).
The worst was a month ago. Normally I get the classroom to my self for the first 45 minutes as DS's class have music. Sometimes, though, the class is actually in the room and I need to find somewhere else to go as the teacher likes the readers to have peace and quiet - i.e. not reading to me at the back of the class.
This was one occasion when the class was using the room for the whole afternoon. There is a desk on the landing outside my DS's class but a woman from a charity uses that two afternoons a week to work with some children who need extra tuition and she's in that day. The teacher said another classroom should be free. This classroom is not used by a class - it's for assessments, reading, breakout groups etc so free for anyone to use. So off I trundle with my first reader. The room is being used by an assessor for some of the special needs children. Fair enough, we try the library. Nope, that's being used by some year 6 children doing their English class and having a break out discussion group. So I send the child back to the classroom whilst I go to the front office to see if I can find anywhere else I can park my backside. On the way I pass the two tables in the corridor which I have used for reading in the past. Both occupied.
Front office don't have a list of rooms (by which time I am wondering if I will actually hear any reading or will wander the halls of the school like a manic Miss Haversham...) but they think the ICT suite is free for the first part of the afternoon that day. So I slap my coat on a chair, race up to get my first reader and on we go. Fifteen minutes later (cos I've spent 20 minutes looking for a bloody space to read) I am chucked out of the ICT suite as a class is starting! So the trudge up the corridor to find space began again. Finally, after another wasted 10 minutes, I spotted the year 6 kids coming out of the library and bagged it!
It seems that various helpers over the years have suggested to the office that it would be helpful if there was a booking system for rooms rather than the first come first served system there is now. Most of them (including me of course) come on set days so space could be allocated (even if it is table 2 in the corridor!) well in advance. That way, when assessors etc come in the school knows what space it has available. But nothing has changed.
To me, coming from an office background where you checked with reception which room was available for a meeting, booked it and then got on with your work in it, it seems such a waste precious reading time to be charging up and down corridors looking for two blooming chairs so you can sit with a child and read. I spent a total of 25-30 minutes finding space - 25 minutes I could have had helping some of my less able readers get to grips with their books.
So, long windedly, what do other schools do? Is our school the norm or do other schools have some system in place?
A few of us want to put suggestions on the table on how things could work just a little better but it'd be nice to know if we're just wanting too much before we start! As I said, I don't mind if I have a couple of chairs in a quiet corridor but when all of those even seem to be occupied it smacks of the school accepting help willy nilly, when they actually don't have the space that day.