How much reading in reception?

[missy111]

My son is in reception...how often does our child read to teacher/TA? Seems very infrequent in his school, and progress seems slow! We get reading books changed twice a week, which we always do with him, but that seems to be it!

Ds in reception and ours read once a week alternatively teacher or ta. It's slow at our school too as they seem to take time to cover all basic phonics. Dd is in year 2 and reading chapter books like Harry Potter / Worst Witch so slow does not seem an issue in long run.

DD's school aims to listen to every child read once a week. Books are changed whenever a child brings their finished book back but the reading journal also needs to be signed by an adult to say that the book has actually been read.

In Reception they will be reading as part of their daily activities. It won't necessarily involve sitting down with a book but they will be reading words and sentences from the board, on worksheets, and as part of their phonics lessons.

Ours only read once a week with a teacher or TA but there is lots of phonics practice every day. With my first two, I practised at home with them every day without fail, and progress was definitely much quicker than with my youngest, who is currently in Reception. He doesn't get as much practice because I work most evenings and because he's just not as keen. That said, he is progressing, and the phonics teaching is sticking beautifully. I am determined as of this term to practice with him more, but honestly if the teacher thinks he's ok I'm ok. I worried so much about reading with my older two and in their case there was no need. I also worried that although they read school books and were read to at home, and had huge numbers of books, they would almost never read off their own bat for fun. Suddenly at almost 9 they both started and now have a book in their hand loads.

Practise with him not practice!

Once a week? They’re so restricted with time they can’t do much more. You/another adult at home should read with them every day though.

Imagine each kid reading once a week with an adult for 10 mins. In a 30 kid class that's 300 minutes (5 hours) The reading with a school adult is handy if book levels need changing but it's the practice at home that makes actual progress.

In my experience, reading progress comes in sudden leaps.

At our infants the expectation is once a week minimum. For kids they know aren't getting the input at home or are struggling they try to target them more, and depending on the helpers the class has in - they'll often be heard more than once a week (but in Reception they tend to have helpers playing games with the children, or helping garden with them, or baking or similar more than just chugging through readers)... so quite often it's 3+ times a week for DD1 in year 2 but her class teacher has a lot of very helpful mums hearing readers coming into that class.

I do really like how they do book changing though - there's none of this "Miss must have heard you read your book before you can change it" nonsense - if they've read it a couple of times at home, they just put them in a pile and are sent a few at a time over the course of the day to change their own.

In our case, books changed / children read twice a week: once to the Teacher and the 2nd time to TA.

We supplement school books with home/library phonics books and DS reads to us every day (he likes doing it, so doesn't let us skip a single day).

As for the progress, currently finishing Stage 2 ORT ( Biff & Chip, unfortunately; just finished Pack B) at school. At home he is currently reading Julia Donaldson Songbirds Stage 3 books.

DS's school have spent their pupil premium on reading TAs so every child should be read with every day, although DS actually gets read with about 3 times a week. We're also expected to read with him every day at home.

Oh dear! That’s a misuse of pp money unless it’s specificslly targeted at pp
Children and can be demonstrated to be raising standards. The TA paid for by pp money shouldn’t be for everyone and especially those who don’t need it.

ds doesn't read to the teacher or ta at school much, less than once a week I think. We read a lot at home though.

@BubblesBuddy that's interesting. Maybe I've misunderstood how the reading TA is funded. They've recently been inspected and Ofsted commented on the good use of the PP so presumably they're not doing anything that isn't legit.

At DD’s school they aim for once a week to read in school with a teacher/TA/parent helper. We read with DD most days at home. Books are changed once a week, three books per week.

I read with all the children 4 days a week - it is paired reading in small groups (4-6 children) using 'Read Write Inc' books, then they get a different phonics book (at the same level) on the 4th day for a bit of variety. I'll read individually with a child on top of that if I have identified there's an issue in the paired reading sessions. (Class of 22, half EAL, 1 TA but I do all the reading)

Well if Ofsted are happy then the school is making sure the pp children are making good progress and the money is being used effectively - and that’s good. However there are schools that just scattergun the money and don’t target the needs of the pp children who need extra help. Lots of schools are short of money so there can be pressure on pp money to keep TAs employed but the Sutton Trust has data to show lots of other interventions are more sccessful. However, if no one hears a child read at home, then someone with the necessary skills should do it in school. I think we can all agree on that!

DD's class all go to a group reading session every day for 30 mins. It's s mix of the two reception classes, and I think there's three groups. They share a book in pairs and take turns to read a page, helping each other if they get stuck. They get a copy of the book to bring home on a Monday and then read the same one for a week. DD can already read fluently and she finds it boring but enjoys going and it's good practice, especially for comprehension.

I don't think they do much reading on an individual level in reception, though.

If your DC is keen to read I would definitely just buy some more books of an appropriate level or get them from the library and read for at least 10 minutes every night. In reception as long as there isn't an issue with reading it's just a case of practise which can be done at home.

Daily here (independent school). We finish the books at home and there’s a new one the next day.

Books changed daily (if finished), reads to teacher or TA once a week.

99% of the reading is done at home. DS' teacher listens to him about once a term. A volunteer once a week. We listed to him about the times a week. He is well ahead of expected.

Once a week, and a new book once a week, though in fact dd has only been listened to once since early December. I suspect because they know we read at home every other day and she’s doing fine. It is a bit frustrating though, as they said she was ready to move levels two months ago and we are still waiting

Once a week when ds was in reception. Most practice is supposed to be done at home. This is still the case in yr2

Just checked ds book bag as it was at school when I posted before. He had read to the teacher or Ta 5 times since September

my little boy is in reception we get 2 books a week and write in his reading diary every time then teacher sign it. They sometimes read to teacher in class but unsure how often she sometimes writes a comment in his book and sometimes he has a sticker. They do phonics everyday and we get a list of tricky words to practice at home every few weeks