Is it OK to read our own books?

[Sprogonthetyne]

DS just started year 1 and is at a new school. Last week we got a very short book along with a letter saying they were assessing reading and would assign proper reading bands/books soon, but wanted the children to get in the habit of reading daily from the start. The book hasn't been changed yet, so w've read it 4 times and can't drum up enthusiasm for another rendition of it.

Last night me and DS did alternative pages of a book we had at home, which he enjoyed much more. Is it OK to put that in the reading diary, or would it be disapproved of? Would it be better to just leave it blank and pretend we missed a night?

Reception and year 1 teacher here: it should be absolutely fine especially as it sounds as if its just a 'placeholder'. Do they hear him read in school?

Absolutely read your own books, I'd be more than happy to see that in a reading diary. Reading a wide range of books is hugely important and more importantly, enjoyable!

Unless your teacher is a bit rigid, it will probably be fine given they are still assessing them. Once they set their level though, at my DD's school they do prefer they follow the scheme as its a combination of decoding and comprehension skills they are assessing.

Do your own reading along with the school books. My son was a good reader, the books given were too easy and he read them with ease and boredom. We had the next level at home, so he read these. I put a note in his reading log, for Teacher to come back and say she would rather he kept going with the ones given in class. Basically they didn’t have the next level books to give as they were in the next year’s classes. We joined the library and got books from there alongside school ones.

Basically they didn’t have the next level books to give as they were in the next year’s classes. We joined the library and got books from there alongside school ones.
A real example of state schools levelling down. Teacher too busy to work with better children. So deliberately holds them back.

It's a really worrying question, actually. Why should parents be anxious about reading a variety of books with their children? That is good parenting and good teaching.

It shows how rigid and controlling some schools can be.

Have confidence in your ability to choose books your child enjoys at home. My third dd could read before school but her writing was far behind her reading ability so she was stuck doing the worksheets that went with easier books as they took her so long to do. We hardly ever read the school book at home as we knew she could do them fluently ( did occasionally check). A love of reading stems from enjoying reading books, being read to, seeing others read for pleasure, not just a rigid scheme.

Totally! Our DD is at the same stage. Her school haven't even sent home one reading book yet so we're just doing the same ones we've been doing over summer- the Songbirds series and some of the Usborne early readers set, supplemented by the odd trip to the library. Our local charity shop often has suitable ones for like 10p- well worth a nosy if you have one nearby!

We’ve read loads of books with my DS (now year 1) despite the school saying they’d prefer we got DS to read their reading scheme books.

When I volunteered that we could do this if they provided us with more books rather than just a book on a weekend, the y quickly backtracked and said it was fine…

Although my son is a fairly accomplished reader for just starting year 1 (he is reading orange books with no issue), he’s reading yellow/blue at school as it’s whole class teaching. I’m not going to follow their reading scheme religiously when it’s so evident he’s ahead of the current class level and he’s got the interest in reading other books!

Thanks for the replies, I put the reading we did in the diary, so will see what they say. I'm not looking to fast track him or rebel against the reading scheme. I'd happily read their books if they'd send more. The one they sent is 4 pages long (plus questions & word list) and we've been reading it daily for nearly a week, DS can recite the thing by heart.

Hopefully once they've finished splitting the kids into sets things will improve. If they can send 2 slightly harder books a week I'd be happy.

My youngest has refused to read any school reading books since year 1. He enjoyed Horrid Henry, Dirty Bertie and the Claude books, so I just went with what he liked. He is year 5 now and I do not think it has done him any harm. He seems to have learnt to read.

Definitely read other things. Mine hated the phonics books that came back in year 1. She was on gold (would get them 2x a week) and was supposed to read a green book 4x a week and by the time it came home so couldn’t bare to look at it again so we just read something with a plot and a story. So far in year 2, the phonics books seem to have disappeared and we’re getting a new
book band book back every night.

My eldest loathed school books and would refuse to read them at home because she'd already read them at school. It became a battlefield I wasn't willing to fight on every evening. So instead she read what she wanted to at home, every day she read to me, DH or DS and picked a book of her choosing. She is now in year 3 and happily making her way through big chapter books with ease currently just started the first Harry Potter book and I'm confident she is reading and understanding within context what she is reading. Foster a love of books and reading, don't make it a chore for them.

This is a clear case of school not seeing the forest for the trees.

Killing off the budding excitement about reading by making it as tedious and dull as they possibly can is not the way to promote the skills they are hoping to teach.

I would also add that with my second DS I helped out in his class 1 day a week as teacher had no teaching assistant with 30 children. The difference in reading skills was no reading skills to one girl reading Harry Potter books with ease. The teachers just don’t have the time to sit with each child individually so do whatever you can with your child at home, not just reading but maths as well.

DD is in yr2, we’re reading Roald Dahl books at home. She hasn’t hasn’t had her reading book changed yet this year by school because she was already reading yr2 books in yr1. So now they’re waiting for others to catch up 🙄 so we just read at home and I write in her reading journal what pages she has read. Reading outside of the curriculum should be encouraged by school.

We do this all the time (not that the level is wrong or that it doesn't get changed, he just hates theirs) and we use The Reading Chest for variety. Great scheme.

We've always read our own books along side the school ones.
Message came out from school that they were to read the book 3x - a quick dojo msg to teacher to say that really wouldn't work for my daughter & teacher was fine with it.

This, so much this. None of my DC would countenance reading school books after about Reception age. Dull as ditchwater.

I'm gobsmacked at the idea that there might be Something Wrong with reading books with your child that your child loves and enjoys. Its such a shame to think that so many children are missing out on reading for pleasure because of this weird notion that they should only be reading certain books in a certain order.

Read whatever you want! It’s reading after all. School books aren’t some kind of magic formula.

From what I can gather from a quick chat with a Y1 teacher it’s threefold:

1. It puts them ahead of the planned progression for the class (I felt like yelling that my child was ready for more than most in the class for reading! I bit my tongue as I do appreciate the curriculum used by the school is full class teaching so the teacher them self can’t advocate otherwise).

2. A parent teaches differently, so there’s bad habits to unlearn (Fair enough, my child probably knows a huge amount of words by sight without the phonetic skills to have decided them.)

3. Parents get overexcited pushing kids too hard and they get demoralised (I do get this in a way, I’ve definitely had my son reading books that are way too hard for him… but because he wants to! I wouldn’t be giving him books and demanding he read them, he’s just decided he’d rather try to read the words than look at the pictures in an encyclopaedia!)

She didn’t really have an answer for my suggestion of more books being sent home by school would reduce the need to go off piste with others (we only get one levelled book a week!) - stressing that the scheme dictated that they had to have read it in school before it coming home.

I must admit, although the words above all said don’t use home books, there was an undertone suggesting that actually it was a good thing to do and she was just toeing the line delivering the message she’d been told to give. She was hugely positive about DS’s reading ability and interest in reading, which implied we were doing something right!

Op please don't rely on the school for reading

It's failed both my DC ,one with an advanced reading and spelling age and one who struggles and who only learned to read when we abandoned phonics.

Buy books from charity shops, school fair etc.

If I had relied on a busy school one would have hated reading and one wouldn't have learned at all.

They are so busy and can't give your child the bespoke reading attention he needs!

DDs school manages reading well. I would say it is their main focus in infants.

In Reception they change books 3 times a week providing they have read them twice. We would supplement school books on Sunday nights or in the holidays.

In year 1 and 2 they change their own books whenever they need to. (After 2 reads on lower book bands and after one read once on longer books).

They move up bands as needed and have guided reading grouped by bands in year 1.

They are always happy for children to read other things e.g. a magazine, non-school book to encourage reading. Although they presumably prefer reading the school books where the child is happy to and have a decent selection.

I worry this will change in the future with different Ofsted requirements, I really hope not!

We read our own books. Teachers says she'd rather they read their own books sometimes if it keeps their interest!

We now send our DS into school with his own books as they don't have a proper library and the books in his class are far too easy / he has already read / don't interest him.

Five years in to our primary education and the same issues have been constant - all the staff teaching resource is about getting kids to a certain level and if kids exceed this, you are on your own. DS is frequently bored in school and I am worn out with trying to address this by making sure DS is given the opportunity for additional challenge.