Rant after year 1 parents night (reading)

[MumNWLondon]

DD is in year 1 and on ORT stage 4, we are getting through 6 books a week (they change 3x a week, we get 2 books at a time).

But the books are far too easy for her. She knows all the words and can read them in around 3 mins each. She can read books like mr men books, the poppy and max books, and the easier horrid henry books etc.

I raised this as a concern at parents night tonight, and teacher said that headteacher has policy that every child has to read every book on the scheme, and as we are already getting 2 books at a time we can't go any faster.

I offered the following: a) to send lots of books home over the weekend b) me to come into school to work through the books with DD c) for them to send home 3/4 books at a time and teacher said none of these are possible.

I am reading other books at home with DD, but it seems to me that the school reading books are now just an irrelevant waste of time.

Teacher suggested as a compromise sending home one harder book as well as a stage 4 book but this will not really help as move any faster as it will take even longer to get through the stage 4 books.

There are some kids in the class on stage 5 and 6, these are the kids with older siblings in the school where the parents know how the system works and requested 2 books at a time from the start of reception!

I'd just send them back and read what you like at home then. As long as she can actually read the harder books properly. IME, easy books are great for getting children to read expressively.

the school reading books sound like an irrelevant waste of time. If I were you I would use your library, belt through the reading books she gets sent as a warming up exercise for her 'real' reading, and be quietly grateful she can read at all given that the head has such a ridiculously dogmatic approach to reading.

just get whatever books you want her to read from your local library

I am at the attitude of the headteacher. I used to teach Year 1, and I would never have done this - in fact, in my school we did the opposite and had the books banded, so similar level books from a range of schemes were offered, and children certainly didn't have to read every book before moving up.

I don't normally say this, but I'd get as much info as possible and make an appointment to see the head and ask them a) how they assess reading, b) what level book she has in her guided reading sessions, c)what national curriculum level your DD is at and d) what national curriculum level the ORT books she gets are at.

When I was at primary school we worked through a maths scheme like this. I was a slow worker and so was always a level lower than I should have been. This would never happen nowadays in maths, it shouldn't be happening in reading.

Would continue with the school's idiot approach, it'll only take 3 mins a day and as Fallen Madonna has said you can practice things like expression and punctutation. It's not unusual for school to be very inflexible over reading schemes - currently experiencing the same myself but I know resistence is futile. I get my kids more interesting books from the library etc...

our school would never let you take 2...

they believe in slow and steady wins the race

this frustrated me for year one but i think they know best

work on her comprehension and expression and read other stuff at home

And now I feel sad that so many have to put up with inflexibility from their schools about reading.

Although I should say you're lucky to get books changed that often - I used to change books twice a week, one book each time! (But two or even three if a parent wanted more).

Message withdrawn

Oh Lord, I can still remember the frustration of being made to read every sodding book on the sodding reading scheme even now. And I'm 40!

Totally stupid policy. Children should be reading books that are appropriate for their ability.

You get books changed 3 times a week ? We only get them changed once (although we do get two books at a time) in year 1.
However, the school's flexible approach to moving through the stages (the teacher hears children read approx. once a month and moves them up a level if appropriate) means my DD is just enjoying her first 'proper' stories in ORT stage 7.

piprabbit your school's system sounds a lot healthier.

I have to agree - I really can't see the point of forcing a child to read ALL the books in a stage - there are blooming loads, especially when you get into the 'extra' books in each stage.

There's a limit to how many times anyone (even a 6yo) can read "'Oh No!' said everyone" without losing the will to carry on.

Those ORT Jackdaws books even kill my love of reading!

How long does it take for your child to read the books they can read so easily? Do they enjoy them or are they realising they are merely a measuring tool (of their reading ability)?

Let them read it (quickly or slowly) and then sort out what your child wants to read by taking them down the library and sort it out yourself.

What you will have to let go of in this scenario is the competitive element of "my child is on level x".

Bypass this - get on with it and don't worry about advancing through the levels. I have just sent my first child to school and have quickly realised that this education process is going to be a partnership. I will not be leaving my child's education to the school. If they are not challenging him , I will.

That's a ridiculous approach. My maths teacher did this with me. I was 200 tasks off the level I wanted to be at, and bored stiff. After many arguments with him where he refused to move me the levels, I simply gave up learning.

Dogmatic, inflexible policies ring alarm bells for me. I wouldn't be happy with this at all.

I listen to my child read every day - I feel more able to assign my child's reading ability than a teacher that listens to him once a month - hehas been moved on too much and at other times too little - but the parent - teacher partnership has never been respected - teachers apparently know all, parents know nothing!

Teachers do guided reading in a group, but focused on teaching reading as well as listening to a child read, once a week. Many schools dropped the idea of teachers reading the books sent home with individual children when guided reading came in.

Personally I always felt you needed both, and struck a balance whereby the TA read with the children individually once a week and steered anyone my way if there were any issues (including comments in the reading diary).

I respected my TA's knowledge of the children enough that she could move them up a level (or suggest it to me) if it felt right - we'd often try a child out with something a bit more challenging to see how they fared, all the time being open with parents about what we were doing.

As a teacher I always respected that parents knew their child well - but then I wouldn't have been happy rigidly following a reading scheme. It goes against everything I learned in my training (and I specialised in early years and English). I'd say this dogmatic approach respects neither the child, the parent nor the teacher's ability to judge what a child can read. It makes me quite cross to know schools still do this.

Those ORT books are dire. I never read them with ds (he absolutely hated reading and the books were dreadful) and raced through with dd (she is very conformist - the books were still dreadful). Then we just read other books that were of more interest. ds always did better on non fiction in any case. Now they are both excellent readers (9 and 10) so I think that as an approach it's not a major problem. I am surprised at the set up though. I thought that sort of inflexibility had gone. I remember being forced to read scheme books when I was at primary, and just sneakily reading my own books under the desk.

My thoughts entirely

i liked them the first time. the second time was a bit deja vu. fortunately by the third time dd2 had already memorised them and moved onto c s lewis before school.

these days i just nod, smile, sign the reading record, and gather everyone up for a trip to the library where they can all choose as many as they like, as often as they like.

dd2 (dc3) is yr 1 now. tbh i just let the school get on with it and do my own thing. do i think that reading this stuff for two minutes a day is going to slow her down if she has access to other stuff? nah. is she likely to fail whatever bonkers sats equivalent/ gcses in ten years? nah.

is it worth arguing with the ht about a policy? nah.

but you could always get the curriculum committee of the governing body asking questions, if you really feel like doing something. ask them how the school reading policy appropriately differentiates work for more able pupils, including those who are able to read before yr r.

What happens if you don't read the books and just read the ones you want with your dd? When my ds was in first grade (I'm in usa) they tried to teach him how to read with the Open Court (our boring system) reading books which are awful. He would beg me not to make him read them and he was having a dreadful time learning how to read (turned out he also had some vision issues). So I ended up letting him read (at his request) a Goosebumps book. His teacher kept telling me that he HAD to read the Open Court books and that the Goosebumps was too hard and he would get frustrated. Except that he didn't and he loved it and would work and work and work at getting through a difficult sentence because he just adored Goosebumps. And I just ignored the teachers daily complaints. DS is now in 4th grade and reading way way above his grade level.

The headteacher has a policy a child has to read every book in the scheme.
eeeeerrrr WHY???
There is no logical educational reason why this should happen. It is absolutely insane and a complete waste of time. What a poor attitude to children who may be gifted and talented and really rather scary.
I DO think it's worth discussing actually. Every day she gets the message that her teacher doesn't care about her/ that reading is boring and unsatisfying/ that her school is a bit loopy. Not great messages.
I was a teacher for 9 years (deputy head for 4) before children and would never dream of having such a daft policy.

There's no point trying to 'trick' the system. The system needs to change. You could challenge the classteacher and ask her how she really feels about it in confidence. Her suggestion of sending home one harder book would suggest she knows it is daft. Perhaps she would be brave enough to bend the rules completely and fake that they have been read. I would honestly consider making an official complaint to governors and OFSTED in this situation as I feel so strongly that this goes against educational common sense.

lol tamba. my last sentence then

but just go to the library and let them get on with it. not a lot to be gained by fronting up the teacher, i don't think. makes it a bit too personal, particularly if you are going to govs later.

It really isn't worth getting in a stress about. So long as you are providing a range of reading material at home your child's reading age won't be held back by the schools system which is why I don't see it as a big deal. I sometimes wonder if the teachers use this system as a way of trying to deal with competitive parents who are largely concerned with what stage their child is on compared to the other children in their class rather than their childs actual reading skills and enjoyment of books.