Why can’t my son have a higher level reading book

[WeRTheOnesWeHaveBeenWaitingFor]

My son has been on the same reading band for 6 months or more. When I asked his teacher why he isn’t moving up they said because he is already on the highest band for year 2 and they don’t allow them to go higher. Why would they prevent a child from moving up? He has just had his report and it states that he is achieving expectations in reading but they won’t let him go higher so how could he get exceeding?
I don’t want to ask the teacher because I’m already ‘that parent’ and don’t want to add to my reputation.

We’d struggle to keep DD motivated if she only had the school books to read, especially when she started school able to read and only brought home picture books for weeks!
Depends on the picture book. Some are suitable for under fives, some upper primary. They can have more difficult vocabulary, themes, and so on than many easy chapter books. They are not just for young children because they have pictures.

@Waveafterwaveslowlydrifting

No I don't agree. We weren't given reasons but it was to do with it being a 'covid year'

Formal assessments are not actually compulsory this year but my school is doing them and most schools are too. We are just reporting differently.

As a teacher you just do as you're told by SLT. Trying to question things ends in frustration as you go round in circles trying to be heard. My son attends my school and I know he is exceeding in at least 2 put of 3 (reading and maths) as I've seen his books, but his report said meeting expectations for everything, nothing more.

Was just asking out of curiosity by the way. Apologies, if it sounded confrontational.

Thank you for answering and I'm definitely with you on questioning SLT. Only a few more days to go.

@LuxOlente

They really do have some bullshit rules around reading.

At home my kids devour long novels. At primary school, neither have ever once been allowed in the library. No one is. I haven't got a clue why they even have one, given that no class is permitted to go there - my eldest kept being told you were 'allowed in year 6' but year 6 went by with nothing but being told they couldn't use it then either - and they're all stuck in classrooms reading SEE SPOT RUN.

They spent years 2 and 3 getting a bit upset at having to read these dismal "books", but once they realised the teachers were never going to allow anyone to touch anything with more than 6 pages in, they just tried to forget about it and read at home.

Wow. I can’t believe schools do that. I think our dcs school would shut down as there wouldn’t be students if they did that, the library is a big part of the week. It was something I looked for when touring schools.

My primary school was like that back in the early 1990s. I was always getting shouted at for reading too far ahead or knowing things that the rest of the class hadn’t been taught yet. It was absurd. Let your son read what he likes, whatever they say.

I've been mostly thinking about dd1 when posting on this thread and luckily for her we were a able to keep her reading enthusiasm up outside of school.
But for dd 2, who we suspect may have dyslexia, the only book she would read is her school book so whilst it's been fine for times for her to remain stuck on a level, at other times for a whole host of reasons it's actually been important to keep her momentum going and move her up.
I got her reading scheme over lock down and was able to keep her momentum and flow going... Which meant she was able to advance much more quickly.

@kowari
By picture books I mean only pictures, no words. While they may be good for imagination, she really needed something more challenging in addition. We decided to do that ourselves and she seems happy, but it would be nice to have something a little more challenging from school.

ZombeaArthur

The school will be focusing on developing specific skills. Some children are excellent readers but lack imagination in their own writing for example. The vocabulary they use is great when they do write but they have little to say.

Using picture books can be a way of addressing this.

Not saying it's the case for your child but just explaining that no school sets out to hold children back. It's the last thing we want but we don't always explain to parents why we're doing what we're doing. Largely because a lot of it is to meet arbitrary government expectations that don't make sense

We have to get the children to jump through specific hoops to show they have made progress. At home, parents can allow their children to read what they like. And that's often the bottom line.

⬆️ totally agree

Also, to clarify, the book bands at my school are correlated with the assessment test scores. We have to make sure we stick fairly closely to that. Obviously, we know our children and, if we can justify a discrepancy, then the school will run with it but, in the main, they expect children's book bands to reflect their performance in reading comprehension tests. It's not an exact science but it's something that ofsted look at and would query a child who is performing at one level on tests but was reading a much different level according to their book band.

And, again, as I often tell parents, we can only judge/assess them on what we see in school. Not what their parents say they can do at home.