DD has been in Year 1 for 10 school days and has only been given 1 ORT book, is this reasonable?

[corblimeycharlie]

I need your opinion before I decide whether to see the teacher tomorrow.
TIA

And just to add (gess just reminded me!) , ds1 has had 9 books in the last 3 weeks - though he did not get any until the end of week 1. His teacher is fab - I have much more confidence in her than his recpetion teacher. DS1 is talking about school for the first time rather than just saying it is 'fine'

Hope you get it sorted

I'm a bit surprised at "having to work through the levels". DS leapt two reading levels between reception and year 1 because he basically learnt to read during the summer holidays. I didn't really notice, because I tend to read more to him than listen to him read . At his school you move up when you are ready to move up. But they don't use ORT as a scheme any more, so perhaps that's it.

so spend 5 (or less mins) looking at the school book, then go back to reading her interesting books, having her sound out some of the easier words (or sentences).
Having to word through the series is crap and to me shows that they aren't considering the individual child.
have you seen this thread

corblimeycharlie you could also try www.readitswapit.co.uk as you can swap books when your dd has finished them, and don't have to end up spending loads on new books. There do tend to be more adult than kids books but you might find some she likes.

At ds2's school they read around the ORT. Because he's finished stage 7 (which school said was dull) he's mainly used other reading schemes. I'm pleased because they're shorter thatn ORT even though they have harder words iyswim. They also get a book to share that they can choose. The teacher told us to concentrate on that and leave the boring reading schemes to school. We do a mix tbh.

Thank you mummypig (although technically that is my name as DS is George and refuses to be called by his real name) Not sure that one will be any good as DS is 2.6 yrs and will want all these books one day soon. I should clarify it is not the paying for the books that I find a problem but trawling into the next big town with DS and/or DD and negotiating Waterstones and all that entails. Have had some good online recommendations though to tide us over.

We are in exactly the same position. Last year when my son was in reception he got homework four nights a week and two reading books a week.

In year one my son has had two pathetically easy homeworks and only one reading book this term.

I think my son had too much homework in reception, but now he gets virtually nothing.

I have bought some reading books from amazon, but I feel disgusted that it has been necessary to do so.

do you not have a library nearby? ds1 is reading a book a night, only short ones as yet, but I seriously wouldn't want to have to keep up with him by purchasing books, we go to the library once a week, get about 8 reading books and a few reference books (his choice) usually dinosaurs or space atm.

At ds1's school the general policy seems to be one book every 2 weeks, but parents are told that a lot more reading is done during classtime too.

Well DS had loads in the first two weeks until I established he was getting them out of the wrong box. But he is only on his second since then because they have chapters and so we are doing a chapter a night. We have quite a good one about Aladdin now, which I am relieved about because we seem to have had a lot of football related ones recently so I appreciate the subject change.

chasingsquirrels - when DS is reading to himself for pleasure he tends to re-read books I have read to him or he has read himself. He has the box set of Mr Men that he sometimes dips into, several Horrid Henrys, Captain Underpants etc.

Our local children's library is another rant altogether!!
Suffice to say we have exhausted their meagre selection of early and gaining confidence readers.

bozza - I agree, and wasn't saying don't buy books, just that libraries are a very valuable resource that shouldn't be overlooked.

corblimey - that is very sad!

"do you not have a library nearby?"

We do have a library, but my son tends to pick books that are beyond his reading ablity. Also our library stocks proper books as opposed to reading scheme books.

The advantage of actual reading books is that the level of comprehension, decoding and vocabulary is controlled. The idea is to guarentee the child sucess when they attempt to read a book on their own. The level of difficulty can be increased gradually.

Schools would not purchase reading scheme books if they did not have strong advantages.

Yes it is and frustrating.
First world country
Third world facilities

I leave the school to do the graded reading.

At home we read for fun. I do most of the reading. Ds will read what he can read.

I know not all children are alike, and some love to read themselves.

DS prefers the stories I can read him on the whole. But threads like this do make me feel a bit guilty...

"I leave the school to do the graded reading. "

Depends whether you have the money to either buy a house in the catchment area of a good state school or pay school fees. My son's teacher is fairly medicore and I have no choice about the school. He has not read individually to a teacher or an LSA yet this term.

Therefore I need to do extra work to make sure my son does actually learn to read.

Oh yes chasingsquirrels I was not dissing libraries because we do use our local small village one. DS's bedtime book is currently from there.

If you are not happy with the books comming home from school then borrow from the library.

I didn't read the thread before posting.

Is DS's school the only one with a sensible system for reading books?
Once he has read his book & confident with it (sometimes I would get him to re-read one that he struggled with). The book bag is placed in a different box in the classroom, that afternoon he comes back with a new book.
It's wonderful as it allows for busy lives, because with after school clubs, beavers & swimming some days he is too tired to do any reading when he gets home. In our case it means we can read on Wednesdays, either Thursdays or Fridays (depending on play dates) and the weekend (if not too busy).
They also mix the ORT books with his own choice - he is now on the green shelf.

Yes that is exactly the system we had in Y1. Now in Y2 he has the responsibility himself.

Are we the only school to have 'real books'? There are 5 boxes in the classroom, we change books every morning or can keep them longer if we want. We're allowed up to 3 books at a time. Theres a mixture of normal story books, 'Whatever Next' etc and reading scheme books. I was a bit at first when I heard of this system but I am a convert! Dd loves it and is suddenly very keen to read... She loves to recognise words she knows/can work out and feel she is reading a 'normal' book. Their reading results are outstanding too, so it clearly works.
For the people worrying about how many times dcs are read with/change books, what are your schools reading results like? If good, then I would let the school get on with it - they obviously know what they are doing. If results not so good, then maybe you need to do more at home to support your dcs learning.

mine in year 2 no books yet