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? levels ? reading ages etc

19 replies

Blethermouse · 15/07/2011 09:56

sorry if all been covered before on here but have school report for ds in Yr 4, happy with general comments .
However with my older dcs I used to be told things like reading ages and levels in non sats years... nothing concrete in this one like that.
Is this usual and can I ask for such things.. ds says they have tests etc but they/we don't get results.

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Blethermouse · 15/07/2011 13:10

do you have levels and RAs in ur reports ?

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lovecheese · 15/07/2011 13:18

Have never been told reading ages for my DD's. As was pointed out on a thread a couple of days ago schools are only legally bound to give out results at the end of year 2 and year 6, think it is up to them in other years BUT I think you have a right to ask if you want to know.

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yearningforthesun · 15/07/2011 13:35

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SeenButNotHeard · 15/07/2011 13:43

yearning that is really useful. Thanks

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lovecheese · 15/07/2011 13:47

yearning I did that for fun with my 7 year-old. Think she thought I was mad Grin

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iggly2 · 15/07/2011 14:14

That sounds interesting. I've never had reading levels for Ds I do not hold out on getting them either.

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penelopethefrog · 15/07/2011 14:27

Is the burt reading test any good though? Doesn't it wildly, wildly overestimate (i.e. all kids come out above their actual age)

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lovecheese · 15/07/2011 14:34

I think the thing to bear in mind, penelopethefrog is that a reading test like that only goes on whether a child can decode a word; it does not pay any heed to meaning or context.

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penelopethefrog · 15/07/2011 18:55

Hmm tested 5.8 yo DS1 this afternoon - reading age of 8.4 and he's only on turquoise band

3.11 yo DS2 has a reading age of 6.9 and he's on blue band. I'd expect most children of nearly 7 to be on a lot more than blue band.

And they do understand the words - the first 30 are very easy and the next 30 contain mostly everyday words. I'd expect the test significantly inflates scores for most kids.

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papermate · 15/07/2011 19:46

we are told at parents teacher meeting night.

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LovelyDaffs · 15/07/2011 19:51

At my dcs previous school we were given a SATs score every year, this school doesn't but gives a Mark for attainment and one for effort, but also a reading age, a spelling age.

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letthembe · 15/07/2011 20:03

I take all RA scores with a massive pinch of salt. The Burt test is only decoding and not comprehension. Reading is a very complex skill, especially reading the English language. And it also takes a very long time to truly perfect this skill. Relax, you can if I child is struggling. Just ask the class teacher.

Penelopethefrog - why are you testing a 5.8 yo and a 3.11 yo using a test for 6.4 yo?

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penelopethefrog · 15/07/2011 21:06

letthembe I did it out of curiousity as it was mentioned on this thread :). Didn't realise it was for a 6.4yo. Don't think there are too many comprehension issues with words like "girl", "water", "village", "sad" for a 3yo really.

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letthembe · 15/07/2011 21:42

No but reading is about comprehension and enjoyment. There are many more reading age tests out there that are comprehension based.

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MigratingCoconuts · 16/07/2011 08:25

no one should just use the burt test to assess the reading age of a child....far too blunt!!! Shock


wouldn't it be easier just to go into your school and ask the teacher?

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yearningforthesun · 16/07/2011 09:23

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Devexity · 16/07/2011 09:40

DS was a very early and avid reader, as were his bio dad and I. Because I found his rapid aquisition of reading both startling and fascinating (nature vs nurture etc etc), I used the various free decoding tests knocking around - Burt's, Schonell and the San Diego Quick Assessment (and another one I can't remember). Yes, they only assess decoding skills, but his results were absolutely consistent across the different tests, so I figured they were pretty accurate assessments of a discrete skill-set.

Interesting on the geek-level. And meaningful insofar as it showed me how much phonic knowledge he had acquired.

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gabid · 16/07/2011 13:27

Just looked at the Burt Test and I don't think I need to test DS to know where he will be. I read with DS (Y1) every day, I know what sort of books he can read, so I can predict where he would stumble. Besides, I don't really want to put DS through getting 10 words wrong, that would be frustrating for him.

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letthembe · 16/07/2011 22:00

Gadid - I think that is a very sensible approach. I don't test my children and I have a whole of resources at my finger tips. I leave that to the school and I concentrate on the joy and purpose of learning at home.

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