DD refuses point blank to read her reading scheme books - where do I go from here?

[Quattrocento]

DD is 10 and in year 6. The reading scheme books have been a bone of contention since year 3. She absolutely loathes them. We struggled through years 3/4/5 with a combination of bribery, blackmail, threats etc. Now she refuses to read them at all. We've confiscated her laptop, IPOD and DS until she reads her book this week and it's caused so much stress.

The trouble is, I can kind of see her point, not that we've ever said so in front of her. She is 10 and her reading age is 15 point something per the school. She reads every night and loves her books. The book scheme books are utterly ridiculous and babyish and any competent 8 year old could read them.

We've talked to the school about this without any effect. She's absolutely resolute this time.

Where do I go from here?

LOL at PPH.

It is a private school but not wacky, quite mainstream.

I've been visiting the secondary school and had grave misgivings because it was all so programmed - absolutely NO deviations allowed from the prescribed route etc. For example there is a library (understocked IMO) but the books are sorted into age-appropriate ranges and the girls are not allowed to take out a book that is only deemed suitable for year 10+ if they are in year 7. Am I alone in thinking this is bonkers? It's all of a piece with this reading scheme nonsense.

If it is private and you are paying I would simply tell them that she is reading books of her own choice. I have never heard of yr 6 being on a reading scheme, unless they have real difficulties. I would expect most DCs to come off and be free readers in yr 2. Tell them that they are putting her off reading for pleasure.

I think we can safely say that this is not the norm. Dd says she hasn't seen anything like this since Yr 3. She says after that they were just reading in class from a bookshelf selection which included books like The Amber Spyglass. Real books. And then they took a book home from the library, but we never had to read with them or anything.

Are you actually expected to sit down and check her reading? A 10yo? My 8yo is already taking responsibility for his own homework.

I think if the school didn't budge that I'd be tempted to just sign the book anyway for your dd without checking on her.

Oh god I'd run a mile.
How fabulous to be an interested, free range reader (isn't that what we all aim for, for our kids?) and how TERRIBLE to be told "no, you can't read that, you are in the wrong year"

I was reading about 9 books a week at this age (didn't have many friends lol) and I'd have gone MAD if half the library was shut to me. WHAT is that all about?!

cory I think that sitting down and hearing your 10 year old read out loud IS quite helpful actually, good for helping with pronounciation and explaining new words that would just get glossed over otherwise. If someone had done that with me I wouldn't have discovered at university that I'd been mispronouncing "banal" for years - to rhyme with "anal" - god how humiliating

Quattro, I wouldn't touch the senior school with a barge pole if that is their attitude. Whatever happened to treating each child as an individual?

Oh PPH I just learned how to pronounce banal!

Yes, princess, but not in this way. I do actually listen to dd quite a bit, coaching her to recite and that sort of stuff, doing dramatic readings with her. But this sounds like reading with a 5yo. Magic Key stuff; neither I nor dd could bear that.

The grading of books in the main school library is also bonkers, and not normal imo.

It makes some sense in a junior school, as a fluent 8yo is capable of reading some books that you definitely wouldn't want them to be reading, content-wise, specifically the sex'n'drugs'n'teenage pregnancy genre aimed at reluctant adolescent readers.

It's total nonsense in a secondary school -- if they want to take out James Joyce and Dostoevsky in Y7 the school should be giving them every encouragement.

I've been a literacy co-ordinator in two schools. At the current school (state school in average sort of neighbourhood) the picture looks like this: @20% of our children are ready to move away from 'scheme' books at the beginning of Year 2 although almost all of these need help in selecting a book to read at an approprate level. This moves to @50% by the end of Y2. By the end of Y4 all children would be off the scheme/colour coded system except for children on the SEN register.

The rigidity you describe sounds quite bonkers. As well as scheme books we try to use a large amount of gorgeous picture books/good quality fiction/non-fiction amongst our levelled books at ALL stages to help develop a enjoyment and engagement.

I haven't read all of this thread. However if I were you I wouldn't make her read the reading books (it's pointless battle) but I would write in her reading card what book she has been reading!

It's the thought of doing reading schemes with girls who may well have reached puberty...

All I can say is sooner them than me.

Have drafted a letter to the school, along the lines PPH suggested. Thank you lots, all of you. I actually thought reading schemes in Yr 6 were normal ...

There are some reasons (organisaitonal and content-related) for restricting reading group books to a range of year groups. However, a library doing this is stoopid.

What are the books? I have never heard of reading scheme books in year 6 for NT children!

In our school, the reading scheme books are classified by colours and you move up the colours. When you reach Gold the next stage is Free Reader,(usually in year 2 or 3) and you get to choose any book you want from the class library. When you run out of those, you can go to the Infant library if you are Year 2 and down or the Junior library if you are older than that. If you are in year 3 or 4 and choosing from the Junior library you have to show the book to your teacher just to make sure the content is suitable.

Does that make sense? It's not as complicated as it sounds!

From Y1, the boys' school just has boxes of books beyond the reading scheme - I think they're labelled First Chapter Books, Middle Chapter Books and Longer Chapter Books or something. By Y6 they just have a class bookshelf with appropriate children's authors on it - Morpurgo, Pullman etc. They also go to the library every week and can choose to read a book from there. Or they can take in books from home - mine usually do that.

Even when I was at school we didn't have reading scheme books by your dd's age. I think we did have them until the end of primary school (5-9, 4 years) but then went to middle school from 9-13. And there we had class libraries and a school library, I guess a lot of books wouldn't have been there as school only went up to 13 but reading/content level probably was high enough to stretch 13 year olds a bit.

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Bloody hell! If she has a reading age of 15 why is she still being made to read books in a reading scheme? DS#1 was in yr6 but he was a reluctant reader and his reading age fell back when he was taken off the reading scheme in Yr4. Soon as it was back to normal he was taken off it again as he hated it.

Could you not ask the teacher why your more-than-fluent DD has to be on the scheme? I'm sure the teacher will be more than happy to know she is reading regularly no matter what it is.

Ah I think that all the above has been said

And remember, you are paying for this school out of post tax income. If you aren't happy, say so!

Nothing to add to what has already been said, except to contrbute to the informal poll - no reading scheme past fluency (average Year 2) in any of the schools that I know either. Madness IMO, and an ideal way to ensure that children never learn the concept of reading for pleasure.

DH read my letter to the school and said it was too negative. So I worked on injecting some positivity into the message of "My daughter is not going to read your pissy reading scheme books" and sent it off today.

Now in fear of the head

Our school uses a colour coded system too so the children in the juniors can choose whatever book from their "colour" they want from the library. I listened to Yr4 children read last year and some of the less able readers were using reading scheme type books (like ORT) but the most able were reading quite advanced fiction.

I think it is soo important that children are encouraged to read whatever they like - be it fiction, non-fiction or comics. My brother hated reading fiction as a child but loved non-fiction. His book collection now puts mine to shame!