Thoughts on reading schemes - Parents what do you REALLY think about them?

[neverwithoutabook]

My DS primary school always use reading scheme books and never send home anything else, are these books actually useful for kids or are 'real books' better to help learning to read?

I'm assuming you're talking about AR? Research is very negative

It is AR I'm talking about. I didn't know research was negative, it's not really my subject, I'm only involved as a form tutor. That's a shame. Most of the schools round here seem to use it, at least for year 7. It seems very positive in our school, but I don't have access to the data to see whether that feeling is backed up by hard evidence that it's helping.