Year 3 primary school reading

Thanks everyone, DGS isnt having any problems reading in fact he will read anything he can get his hands on and gets great pleasure from reading.

My concern was is he was being monitored correctly.
The teacher has been thrown in at the deep end with a very disruptive class as the older children are running rings around her and the class have missed breaks and have had short lunches as they cant get through the lesson with the disruptions within the time.
The reading book he had in September was a book from a lower band that he had in Jan of Year 2, I recognised the book and went back over his communication book. I did wonder if his reading history not being monitored and that he had no one to one reading if this was the thin edge of the wedge.
I have every sympathy for the new teacher, but do feel that maybe the classes should have been shuffled and a large disruptive class given to a more experienced teacher. But I have to say that the measures put in place do seem to be successful, but we can only wait and see.
The parents have agreed to wait until the end of term to see if things have settled, but I think they will have to employ another teacher but then will this year have been a lost year for DGS and his class mates.

My two youngest GSs go to a primary school that has recently become an academy, with, so far, no apparent rise in standards. Last year the older of the two was in Y3 with a NQT and seemed to spend the year learning very little. The said NQT is now teaching (or not) a Y1 class. I don't think the head is making very good decisions.

Up to and including Y2 the limit to class size is 30.

But, yes, i hear what you're saying about putting the probationer with a smaller class... if there is one.

The HT may not have had much choice with only two weeks' notice (and possibly a shortage of funds). I notice that it is a temporary contract. Sounds like a needs must situation to me.

There's a lot of sense in what you say Bags and I agree 100% about parental and grandparental support at home.

What is ringing alarm bells for me is that any Headteacher thinks it ok to appoint a probationary teacher to this class. I'd have put the probationer with a smaller, less demanding class and given a more experienced practioner the Y3 class. It would be interesting for Glass to look up their OFSTED report online.

I'd talk to the teacher or head teacher if I were worried about any aspect of my child's schooling.

"Measures have now been put in place" sounds as if the school is tackling the problems of having an inexperienced teacher in a large class.

It may not be "normal procedure" not to hear children reading once they get past a certain fluency, but if the child's reading is progressing and the child is gradually reading more, I still say Why worry? I guess I'm saying that good parenting/grandparenting can compensate for a bit of school chaos. If some people want to think that's piffle, that's fine with me. Go ahead.

In my own family, my kids stopped wanting to read to us once they'd got to a certain fluency. They still had stories read to them but then usually fell asleep while reading to themselves after we'd said goodnight. Best one was when DD3 fell asleep on the dictionary she was reading, with her thumb in her mouth.

I don't think that glass is just concerned about her grandchild's standard of reading but of the standard of teaching in the class due to the disruptions that have happened this year. A year is a long time in a childs life if something is going wrong at that stage. Always best to be vigilant imo. Bit concerened about my grandson's class as well. When a child gets sent home with a reading book that he'd had in Y1 and he's in Y3 it sets off a few alarm bells.

I think we are talking about different things, aka. I'm sure we are agreed that parental or grandparental involvement in encouraging children to read for pleasure is one of the best ways to improve children's reading. Otherwise, why would schools be so concerned about small children taking "reading books" home?

I'm not disputing your superior knowledge of what "should" go on in schools with regard to reading practice. What I'm doing is trying to allay a grandparent's worries about a child's reading by suggesting tried, tested, and trusted methods at home.

The well known hact that parental involvement in education makes more difference than anything else to a child's success is not piffle. I'm sure you know that if you are/were a teacher (as I am).

Also, since my kids all turned into brilliant readers – having learned the basics before they ever went to school (no, I'm not talking about learning the alphabet, but about other reading skills) – clearly what I and their fathers did with them is not piffle either.

So, I repeat for worried GPs, Keep Calm and Carry on Reading For Pleasure with your GCs. Any child who grows up knowing that reading is for pleasure and well as being useful cannot go far wrong unless they have a specific learning difficulty, but that's a separate issue from this discussion.

And if you're still worried, talk to the child's teacher.

There is more to this than just being heard read. A probationary teacher with a disruptive, overcrowded and mixed aged class.

Glass is rightly concerned.

Piffle.

If, by the age of six or seven, a child is reading for pleasure books other than its school "reading book", then the child is doing fine.

As for mispronunciation... Don't kids ask how to pronounce difficult words? Mine did. Either that or they fudged it (as I did when a child) and then when they eventually mispronounced the word out loud, they were told the correct pronunciation (as was I when a child).

It's possible to worry too much.

glass, if your GC is reading well at home, what's the problem? I never knew what "reading book level" my kids were on, or suppposed to be on, and I had no idea if or when they read to their teacher or anyone else at school. Nor did I care. I could see for myself that their reading was progressing satisfactorily. If you can see that, then why worry? Of course, if your GC's reading does not appear to be progressing satisfactorily, by all means speak to the child's teacher. That's what I would do.

I also think that children of good reading ability need to be heard read to check pronunciation of more difficult words - easy to mispronounce new words with the English language and all the vagaries. When teaching I heard all children read aloud on a regular basis and I agree with Aka about the average in the middle losing out if all is not well monitored. There is a lot of knowledge about the child's progress to be learned from their reading progress and I always felt it was my job to monitor things myself as well as have other people hear children read - listening to readers is in fact a skill which has to be learned.
It is too easy to leave readers considered competent to their own devices.

Can I confirm that glass said her 7/8 year old GS has NOT read to his teacher at all this year and his reading book is at a level below his reading ability.

I repeat this is NOT normal practice. Nor is it acceptable.

Glass, My GS is in year 3, so I asked my daughter about this. She said that the children don't get to read aloud to their teacher very often, if at all, but that in literacy sessions, their comprehension - ergo their reading ability, is quite closely monitored. He does seem to have a lot of homework, including reading. Indeed, all four of my school-age grandchildren (reception and years 1, 2 and 3) are expected to do a lot of reading at home.

Glassortwo just to answer your OP. No, it is not normal procedure.

Bags are you a primary teacher? If so you know we do not 'decided' who needs the most help.

Each and every child matters. From the brightest to the least able. In fact those who sometimes get the least attention are the poor little sods in the middle. Those who are labelled 'average' who keep their little heads down, don't cause a fuss and just drift along.

Well that ain't good enough. If a teacher can't differentiate, organise their teaching and planning so that every single child gets the help and attention they need then they are not worth their salary. Trouble is every person thinks, because they went to school, and because their kids went to school, they know more than the professionals.

Rant over.

Thank you for your wisdom thatbags you have made me look at things in a totally different light.

Oh, I agree that kids reading with their parents, or grandparents, is good. It may even be the best encouragement there is, as well as kids seeing that the adults around them read for pleasure. But schools simply can't give that kind of attention to each and every child unfortunately. (Actually, even if there was enough time, I don't think schools could do that). So they have to decide who needs the most help, who doesn't need help, and so on. Kids who are reading well by Year 3 don't need as much help as kids who are not reading well by Year 3, and I think good teachers not only can but have to make judgements about this because they cannot hear every child very often, especially in large classes.

Or indeed the skills or the level of understanding themselves.

Children need to understand at different levels. Yes, reading a recipe card or following instructions can test if thru can 'read on the lines' but to test whether they can read 'between the lines' or 'beyond the lines' requires more. Comprehension tests have their place, and are useful en masse, but when you are reading with children then it is so much better as you can operate one to one and interact with that child as an individual. Many parents do this when hearing their children read so that they are not simply 'barking at sounds' but not all parents can be bothered or have the time.

iam, good point about English not being the first language.

aka, this is what comprehension tests are for. They can be spoken tests (checks) or written. elegran has spelled out some good ideas too.

I suspect it depends on the school and intake sadly. So many primaries are struggling with an influx of children with English as a 2nd language, or no English at all when they arrive. Add that to the number of children who live less than ideal home lives, and the demands they then make in the school environment, and it isn't hard to see how children slip behind.

I'm not qualified to comment on the rights and wrongs of it all. I was taught to ask them to tell the story they had read in their own words to confirm they had understood it and asked them to read random words out of context as some children could 'recite' the page rather than read it. Our school had reading records which adults would record date,page No, how well the child read. This would be signed each time. Sadly some children would go a whole term without the record being signed by anyone outside school.