Do other parents listen to your child read each week, one to one?

[Millionprammiles]

Dd's school has invited parents to become reading volunteers, working with (the same) one or two pupils, weekly over the course of the school year.
I'd always assumed children in primary schools were taught by staff (whether teachers, TAs or student teachers or similar), not other parents, so am a bit surprised.

There are already various reading/craft activity mornings that parents are invited to help out at (nothing unusual about that) but those don't apply to helping a specific child, just helping in the class generally. Most parents tend to help out their own child and other children who's parents they know relatively well.

Would the school need a parents permission before another parent could become this involved in their child's schooling? Would the volunteer parent be involved in writing feedback, eg in the child's reading diary or parents evening report?

It seems a bit odd.

Reading volunteers have been the norm in Primary schools for eons - seriously, decades and decades.
Some schools have a policy of parents not helping in their own dcs' class(es), others don't. All volunteers are expected to understand that anything the see or hear in school is obviously confidential. I'm surprised this is news to you OP, it really is very, very, common, and provides a HUGE support to schools across the country.

It's always happened at our school. My mum used to help readers 35 years ago. Our school has about 25 helpers on a rota.

This used to happen at my school, and in fact when I was in secondary I used to be read to by the year 7's when I was in sixth form. It's nice for them. And very common and not something I would have thought anyone could object to. If I am not working full time again by the time my child is in school I will volunteer myself. I work in a similar field anyway.

Our school has reading volunteers. They don't usually volunteer in their own child's class though.

They sign the diary to show that an adult has heard the child read, but there is no feedback given. The school also has its own log where an adult might write something for the teacher or TA to read.

The volunteer plays no role whatsoever in communicating with the parents. That would be strictly for the teacher or TA to do. Confidentiality is extremely important. If a parent asks a volunteer about progress etc, the volunteer would be expected to refer them to the teacher or TA.

It is a relatively common thing in primary schools, I think, just to give the children some reading practice.
My ex MIL used to do this at her granddaughter's primary school (although not granddaughter's class) and when my own DD was in sixth form (she left last summer) a group of them used to go and hear children in the local primary school read every week.

I listened to readers for 4 or 5 years.

Confidentiality - yes you don't discuss the children with anyone
Written feedback - I wasn't given guidelines but tried to make it factual, read well, could recognise 'sh' and 'ch' but not 'oo' or whatever.

In infants it was any child, in juniors it was just the struggling readers.

I also fed back to teacher / TA if I thought a child's book was way too hard / easy for them.

Yes, I'd forgotten that, both my dds have been 'reading buddies ' to younger dc at their secondary school - its just about regular practice for people still learning, or, often people who otherwise don't read regularly.

I used to do this when my DC were in primary school too. What I did depended on which year group it was- for Reception class it was take 1 table (so 4-5 children) to the bean bags and read picture books with them. Yr1 or 2 was going down the register, listening to them read their (chosen by the teacher) reading book. From Yr 3+ it would be a select list of those who needed most help.

We did have to write in the reading records, but it was mainly just the date and title of the book etc. You could add comments too e.g Brilliant reading today! or X really enjoyed this story. Even if they really struggled you could word it positively as- Y found lots of tricky words in this book but worked hard on sounding them out.

I volunteer to listen to children read at my DC's school. I've been doing it for about 4 years for a couple of hours a week.

The teacher decides which children I listen to. We're never in our own children's classes. We sign an agreement not to discuss the children or what goes on in the class. I write very bland comments about which pages we read. It is nice to get to know other children in the school and to see their reading improve over the year.

This has always been the norm as far as I'm aware.
I can remember parent helpers listening to children read when I was at primary school .
This is how I started off, before training to be a TA,( which, incidentally, I did my placement with my youngest son's class. It wasn't a problem, I treated him exactly like any other child in the class, and he knew he had to treat me like any other member of staff. The class teacher and the Head had no problem with it, and it worked out well.)
The parent helpers sign the children's reading diaries to say they have heard them, and they will add some comments to our reading record file, if they noticed any 'problems' or just to say 'read well' or ' needs to slow down' or whatever.

Hi, I listen to my kids as they read to me at bedtime & also encourage self reading in the mornings before school.

I'm a reading volunteer at my dd's school. I don't know any volunteers who only help their own kids or kids they know, that's not how it works! I listen to all the kids read in turn.

Can you say why confidentiality is a concern? Obviously volunteers aren't meant to talk about the kid's outside the school, but I am not privilege to any info beyond my own perception of their reading skills which is hardly vital information.

Yes, I write in the reading diary. Otherwise the teacher and parents wouldn't know what we'd read or how it had gone.

I have read in my daughters class since reception (now year 3) as does my mum. In fact my mum (retired teacher) now does timetables with them. I read with all the class never found it an issue in fact they all love reading with the volunteers