I do some supervision of children's music practice in a school, one of whom has Grade 2 piano exam in a week and a half. He has done plenty of work on his scales/ pieces, but I discovered at the end of last week that he has done no work on his sight-reading/ aural in lessons! He didn't even have the Grade 2 book! He has the Grade 1 one, but can barely manage the tests in there!
I have now got the Paul Harris improving Sight-reading books for Grades 1 and 2, but I'm wondering whether it's a bit too late?
Whilst I don't want to interfere too much in the teacher's work/ go into the whole "bad teacher" argument, has anyone else ever noticed this happen? Any tips for getting him as good as possible? I can see him a max of twice a day on weekdays.

It's often said that the only way to learn to sight read is to sight read - in other words, to use sight reading in every lesson with every student. That's what I do and I can't believe it when I hear about situations like this! It's obviously a bit late, but if you can manage to get him sight reading every day until the exam, it's bound to help. The Paul Harris books are very good, as are the Piano Time ones and I also like Right @ Sight. I use them all. Good luck - he's lucky to have your help!

Even if you just manage to work your way through some of the first Paul Harris book, he will still be able to have a good stab at the sight reading in the exam. You get a fair amount of marks just for trying

If you can give him a systematic way to use the half-minute preparation time it will give him confidence that he knows how to tackle the sight-reading, and can at least have a go.

I usually practise tapping out the rhythm with hands together (maybe even the first half of it - those thirty seconds go very quickly! ), then work out where the hands start and whether there are sharps or flats.

Time is obviously very short for him, but any help you can give will be useful I'm sure.

I started the Paul Harris book with him this morning, which he seems to be enjoying. However, along the way have discovered another problem (along with learning that this is his first piano exam- grade 1 skipped!) - he is not at all fluent at reading the bass clef! I was telling him to work out where his hands were starting, but he barely knew where to begin in his left hand! Am now planning some fun worksheets to get him through this! Am assuming he learnt the pieces by rote, because he can play these really well!