Reading records

[NoSquirrels]

Could any teachers please let me know, what exactly is the purpose of the home reading record being fully filled in each day i.e. what does this informal record-keeping get used towards in an official sense?

When I tick to say my child has read to me every day, does the teacher then transfer that to another record for the school's/inspection purposes?

I am wondering because we have a very able, extremely voracious Yr 3 reader. They read to themselves constantly - it's actually a flash point of parenting to get the book off them when they're supposed to be doing something else!

I do not get them to read aloud every day, probably 3-4 times a week. As a household we are bad record-keepers, so sometimes we don't fill the reading record in. When I do fill it in I make sure we stress we have checked comprehension, discussed idioms or tricky pronunciation, read between the lines to see what the author is implying etc. so it's clear we are engaged with the process, we just don't fill the damn thing in enough. The teacher knows we are a bookish family.

Yet we get the exasperated notes in the record, the most recent saying that they need to know "that DC reads aloud to an adult daily." Well, they don't, and I have no problem saying so. To be perfectly honest, there are loads of other areas DC needs more effort putting into, so we do that, because I'm not in the slightest bit concerned about their reading ability (comprehension, expression, fluency all excellent as far as I can tell).

I know the teacher isn't concerned with DC's ability either. But yet the tone of the notes about the importance of record-keeping that they are reading aloud every day to an adult are really insistent.

So, I am wondering: what purpose does the reading record serve? It's not for the teacher to "just know" that DC is reading aloud (as we've had this discussion in the past face-to-face about how often she does so at home, and were told it's fine just to record books she's read independently), the tick-box must be getting filled in somewhere else too.

Are teachers/schools assessed on a tick-box type thing about how many children are reading aloud every day?

I may have just written a slightly ranty response in the ruddy Reading Record that will need ripping out before Monday

Wretched things - this year (Y3) it has to be completed by the child. They have to write the date, name of book, page number reached and then a comment about the book.

The teacher checks daily so I'm horribly paranoid. Given DD really struggles with writing (waiting for the ed psych report to hear how bad the dyslexia is), I can see that it is useful for her to have to fill it all in herself and practice all the different bits so we try really hard at it.

If it was me that had to write comments or tick boxes then I'd be a lot less keen on it.

Starlight, Ofsted aren't interested in reading tick lists

OP your child doesn't have to be struggling for the school to be concerned. Many children who never read aloud get into the habit of skipping "difficult" words or not bothering to ask/ check the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary for example.

At our primary school the teachers used to use the reading record as a way of using volunteer readers most effectively- many of our children had nobody at home who could or would hear them read.

Reading aloud is quite different to reading themselves. I agree with Mrz. I listened to my kids every night and I didn't find it a chore.
We ask for a minimum of three times a week and even a signature is acceptable. It is noted down and it is counted as a homework completed for the prize box. If the children are reading themselves they write it in and write a couple of sentences about the book.