What reading band is your Year 1 child on?

[user263758988]

For those of you whose school follow the Oxford Reading Tree, where is your Year 1, Term 1, child sitting?

I don't want to be THAT mum at the school gates or WhatsApp group, sometimes better to ask these on an anonymous forum without judgement 😊

The children in our year 1 class are finishing band 4 (light blue, book 21 at the moment).

They won’t let any children go ahead, and there are some children (but not many) behind.

Phonics Fairy on Instagram did a good post this week about expected levels in year 1.

Just gone onto the equivalent of green they swapped to little wandle last year so a little different this year.

Any reason why they won't let children go ahead?

DD is on Orange/band 6. But she’s a bit of an outlier, and the vast majority of the rest of her class are on Yellow or Blue (3/4).

School is reluctant to accelerate anyone too far ahead due to fidelity to the scheme (phonics isn’t differentiated in DD’s class, so they’re all learning the same sounds at the same pace).

He’s on turquoise which is band 7 I believe.

He was put on that level during his last month of Reception but he had to sit two readings tests before he was allowed to have them.

DS was gold band at half term in year one but this whole not letting anyone ahead seems to be a new thing?

My DS school do read write inc but the equivalent to Oxford would be yellow band probably moving upto light blue in next couple of weeks. I'm happy with his progress he's probably in the middle phonics group. My eldest was 'behind' in book bands at the same age and now in Y6 is a huge reader so I try not to worry about it.

This thread is worrying. DS loves reading, we were wondering when the school books would catch up. They don't let children read ahead, ever?

@Idratherbepaddleboarding It’s about fidelity to the scheme, which is a massive Ofsted/government fad at the moment. Schools aren’t meant to send home books that contain non-decodable words, or sounds not yet covered in class.

So in our case, where phonics groups aren’t streamed and the whole class is taught together, anyone who’s notably ahead can’t jump to a higher level because the sounds in those texts won’t have been covered yet in their lessons.

It’s a bit daft IMO but I can’t get too exercised about it- we’re just reading the school book once/twice and then doing our own thing.

(I would add that I’m an ex primary teacher, so know where DD needs to go next with her reading - must be more frustrating for parents of able readers who are relying on school books to gauge what their child can do and what to read at home).

OP is there a reason you are asking but not sharing your own dc's level? Mine is on turquoise, 7.

Yes, I actually got a bit of a telling off for buying some books that took her ahead over the summer holidays.

We read the school books then I buy/borrow ones from further ahead. It’s actually on my list to ask about next week, how we can further support her.

DD moved up to band 8 (purple) a couple of weeks ago having moved to band 7 near the end of reception. There's maybe one other in her class at a similar band.

That's ridiculous of the school. Just go and get some from your local library- ours has the band level books as well and normal books

Independent school though so none of this not reading ahead nonsense, phonics is streamed, and no having to please the dreaded ofsted.

Most childrn at this stage are somewhere between yellow, blue, green or orange for year 1. Turquoise is above expected and doing well and gold or purple also very well from my memory

DS just reads the books we have, mostly picture books, but taking turns with fantastic Mr fox at the moment. I have no clue what school level he should be on!

We go to the library and have books at home too. He is mostly reading picture books. DS is in reception, just on this thread to see what is to come!

Agree with the library suggestion - they will most likely have banded reading books there so maybe just take your DC there and work out what level they can cope with.

We were reading Purple/Gold/White band library books over the summer, then DD was sent back down to Green when we started back after the holidays.

Top tip: if you 'lose' the phonics book they might not give you another one until you find it. Then you can let your kid read the proper book they bring home to 'share'

OFSTED insist that children do not read books that have sounds in they have not been taught yet.

One of mine was reading almost fluently in Y1, despite being in Reception/Y1 for covid so missing months of school.

The other struggles with any word that’s not CVC and has been raised as a red flea for being dyslexic.

Red flag, not flea 😁

I imagine the problem is that the class teacher isn't able to hear the children in the class read 1-1 due to the number in a class. They are probably reading to TA or a volunteer. In my DD school the teacher heard then and regularly checked what level they were on hence the same class having children ranging from pink level up to gold.

Worried that may upset DS. He does read the sharing book!