My son is an August born child currently in Reception. We had parents evening recently and I came out of it wanting to cry (OK actually crying).
The school does reading levels via Reading Recovery and PM (they look to level-out the same) and my son is currently on level 3. According to all of the charts, this is where a child in reception would be expected to be in Reception term 3. Fine, great.
However, our school has set a target for children to be on Level 8 (!!!) by the end of Reception. This, according to every chart I've seen, is what would be expected of a student at the end of Term 1, Year 1.
My son is 4 and a half years old. The teachers are making out that this is some kind of tragedy and there's no way he's going to be ready for Year 1. I wish I was exaggerating.
Someone please tell me I'm not going crazy and that this is a ridiculous target? If a kid can reach it then awesome, but to expect the youngest kid in the class who is still obsessed with dinosaurs to be reading over a year above his age? UGH, I hate these reading level obsessions!
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Obsession with reading levels in Reception, bringing me to tears
mowmylawn · 18/03/2019 00:37
My son is in year 6 and we are coming to the end of his primary school career 
I have another child who is thirteen.
My advice would be this;do not worry about reading levels. Encourage your child to read to you as often as possible, read to them regularly (we read to ours every night) and allow them to read books that interest them (fiction/non fiction/comics etc).
My ds was a nightmare to get to read through R and year 1. He now has the reading age of a fourteen-fifteen year old. He hated the fiction books so I encouraged factual stuff. He loves books now!
My daughter would always read when asked and now reads to herself every night.
Let them enjoy what they read, read to them and don't see it as competition with others 
www.udemy.com/help-your-child-to-read-and-write/
So to paraphrase my probably frightening post-sorry! Reading levels and Reading Recovery would indicate to me a problem with how the school teaches reading. I wouldn’t let it become a problem for my child.
no should cry at a parents evening!
Take no notice of the charts, every child learns at their own pace. The pressure not only only our kids but on their teachers as well is just ridiculous. Your little one will move up as and when he is ready, please don't get upset OP. 
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DS was born late July. In reception we could barely get him to read a word. In year one he picked up quite a bit and he is now half way through year 2 and doing reasonably well. He reads by himself for pleasure now which is a joy to see. Now he can read he can suddenly spell (a bit and he is finding other subjects so much easier. However he is really good at maths and easily in the top few of his year.
DD on the other hand (autumn born) was reading Roald Dahl books by the times he was half way through year 1.
It all evens out. Honestly they won't go to secondary school brandishing their level 8 books - soon all the reading bands will just be a horrible memory
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