KS2 SATS Level 6 reading

[Yamin151]

I think it was Michael Rosen who said that we teach our children to read, then punish them by stopping reading to them! Clearly none of the children mentioned here have been disadvantaged by no being read to. Also, I am sure that there are MANY other ways to bond, so I'm not claiming any moral ground here, but I must admit we still find our ten minute bedtime read is a lovely bonding time, undistracted by anything else, and a nice wind down. Of course, having twins of the same sex has meant that book choices have been easy and bedtimes the same, so its easier for us, but I do love that they still enjoy us doing it, long may it last (well, maybe not when they visit with their own children, might be a little strange if they ask me to read to them then!!!)

[Peridot]

To be fair we did have constant audiobooks on for every car journey, and often in the house: especially an old 1980s magazine series called Storyteller, which had a wonderfully eclectic range of stories and poems, read by a slew of different actors of the day. And lovely versions of The Famous Five, Just William read by Martin Jarvis, and an absolutely brilliant version of Roald Dahl's The Witches read by Simon Callow, complete with a fantastic Norwegian accent. I think DH enjoyed listening at least as much as the children. Maybe I was just too lazy to read out loud myself when we'd got all that lovely stuff for everyone to listen to!

[mystery]

Reading to children before bed is certainly NOT about getting level 6 in reading

Reading to children is about giving them a love of literature and reading for pleasure. It's also fun to share stories with your child and is something we both enjoyed.

I didn't say it was about getting level 6. Just that it has clearly done this child no harm by the sounds of it and the fact they can make a good stab at a level 6 paper is one thing that points to this. Lots of ways to skin a cat! Without the full picture one cannot jump to any conclusions. We were all voracious readers in our house but I really do not remember being read to by a parent much at all.

Berks-mum how did you fit the school reading scheme into your no academic work until 7 principle?

[Tolstoy]

That's right. We never read anything.

I am sure you don't mean you didn't read books? Reading isn't about education it's about the love of words, stories, about life and living.

Hera,
I didn't ready any books. Neither educational nor others. For the first 7 years of life my emphasis was on 'BEING More' rather than 'KNOWING More' or 'DOING More'. Bed time for us was/is sitting/lying down still with her. Reason being, when body is still, minding activity of the mind gradually ceases thus creating an emptiness/capacity to learn. It is this sponge like emptiness that many teachers will look for rather than what the DCs have already learnt. I think, capacity/ability to know is more important than knowledge itself.
Whether my strategy was right/wrong, only time will tell.

I understand where you are coming from. Once in my years of teaching reception a DC arrived in my class with the sort of enthusiasm I had never met before or since. I do not know whether he had been read to or not but he certainly hadn't been taught anything structured or formal, he had missed nursery school and almost missed school start date. The school had many neglected DC but he obviously wasn't one and came from a loving home. He was also one of the oldest just turned 5. Everything was new and exciting for him and the word sponge is what I have always used to describe him.

One issue is that an academically able DC can thrive in any environment and it is probably difficult to quantify how necessary reading to them is from a learning aspect. Most of us read to them because we love books ourselves and wish to share our enjoyment, I still struggle not to buy some of the lovely picture books I come across and part with some of the favourites we read together. Unfortunately for some less able DC being read to is probably essential as the difficulties they encounter when learning to read will hinder any future enjoyment of age appropriate books and whilst in the early years of schooling they will have lots of stories read to them as they get older this becomes more difficult to facilitate.

[berks_mum]

Reading to children before bed is certainly NOT about getting level 6 in reading

Reading to children is about giving them a love of literature and reading for pleasure. It's also fun to share stories with your child and is something we both enjoyed.

I didn't say it was about getting level 6. Just that it has clearly done this child no harm by the sounds of it and the fact they can make a good stab at a level 6 paper is one thing that points to this. Lots of ways to skin a cat! Without the full picture one cannot jump to any conclusions. We were all voracious readers in our house but I really do not remember being read to by a parent much at all.

Berks-mum how did you fit the school reading scheme into your no academic work until 7 principle?

mystery, what is school reading scheme? DC joined school in Yr1. Is it before/after that?

[mystery]

A lot of schools have some set of books that children have to take home and read to the parent most nights while they are learning to read. The parents have to put some polite comments in the reading record each night. Depending on the school book supply, when the school declares the suffering can stop and the child it takes place in year r, year 1 maybe year2 and possibly into year 3.

[Yamin151]

In fairness a reading scheme is good for a structured approach to learning to read, an represents a good climb up the competency ladder. However Biff and Chip, in our case, became so boring, and thg school so reluctant to move them on, even though the books they could read and understand at home were far beyond their overly on the tree, that such reading schemes can actually be quite discouraging.

[mystery]

Yes, it could theoretically be a good experience but I know few people for whom it was.

[ToadMum]

Yes, it could theoretically be a good experience but I know few people for whom it was.

To be fair, I have come across people who like the Magic Key books. Just none of them within this household.

berks_mum, if I'd known that Berkshire primary schools don't use reading schemes, I might have considered moving house before we had children .

[mystery]

I bought mine more than one reading scheme as the collection they were forced to use at school was so poor. Despite recording everything we did in the school record my daughter still felt forced to choose something desperate and random from school to read. They had baskets of jumbled garbage at school which were vaguely sorted into those different colour book bands. Reading would go so well in the holidays and stall during term time so in the end I wrote a letter asking them never again to ask her to choose a book at school as it was proving counter productive.