If a student regularly completes their work early...

[Aranea]

... Is it good and common practice to tell them that they may spend the remaining lesson time reading? Not my child but I was surprised to hear about this and wondered if it was regarded as a good thing.

I always tell my students they can do independent reading/work if they finish a test early. As long as it is appropriate though. But if they finish the classwork early, I always try to give extension work.

I think the key word here is "regularly".
To my mind, if a student "regularly" finishes work early, then they are not being stretched enough - the teacher is not differentiating to cater for their needs. On an 'odd' occasion then fine - reading's good, but not spending 1/2 a subject's lesson times not doing thet subject, surely ?

Totally agree about the word 'regularly'. As teachers it is our job to ensure all students are moving forward every lesson by being challenged. If a student regularly finished his/her work early and spent the rest of the time reading I'd question the extent he/she is being challenged. Generally teachers' assessments of a class should enable them to provide suitable extension work for the most able students. As an MFL teacher this might include reading a text in the TL. Very occasionally a student might read his/her own book for the last few minutes if they have completed an extension task or if there is no time to make a reasonable start on one.

As a high school student (in another European country) I was excluded from my English class. Apparently the combination of one English speaking parent and a talent for grasping linguistic structures meant that I was simply 'too advanced' to benefit from the lessons.

My mother complained because she thought I should be intellectually challenged at school. After that the teacher would give me her other classes' assignments to mark.

AGunInMyPetticoat - pretty shocking, although I was told by some Year 10 students that they were given Year 7 unit tests to mark in Maths so it seems to still happen
What would our hallowed Ofsted inspectors say?

I used to read secretly under the table when I had finished my work in year 6, the teacher used to scream at me for doing it. Apparantly I should have sat silently once I had finished. :(

I'm an RE teacher and whats nice about the work I set is that generally pupils can always write more down. I never accept that they have 'finished' until the time is up since there are always more observations to be made etc.

That's always possible in subjects with a lot of written work. No possible in maths and similar. When pupils have finished all the examples, they can't go on to the next thing without further explanation. It is not necessarily a differentiation issue; the rest of the class may be just as able - just slower workers.

I was always allowed to read up to GCSE level when i'd finished my work... whatever i liked. I got 12 A*s in a state secondary with a pretty awful reputation but I wouldn't say that I was an Einstein.. i think that letting me explore literature how I liked really helped me (i'm studying it now at AS) and I don't see a problem with it. That said, whenever I asked for extension work my teachers gave it to me and I often found that really useful too- usually reading or researching around the subject. I think that the child should ask for extension work but often just reading is really good, and will make the child enjoy the subject far more. unless they always get the work done but get awful marks it can only help them.

If a student regularly finishes before everyone else I'd check their work to see of it was rushed and needed further work, or fine, and nothing needed adjustment.

As has been noted, it isn't always possible to give extension work without further teaching.

A maths teacher told me about a child who was dawdling a little over a task and when reminded to get on with it, the child pointed out that if they finished all the set work, they'd just be given ANOTHER one to do, so there was disincentive. :o

I encourage students to a fiction text with them in case they finish ahead of others.