What colour/band/level is/was your Year 1 child reading at?

[Mydogsbetterthanyours]

DC is in year 1 and has nearly finished green level 5. She is at a local private school (not a top one) and I am not happy with how much they read. They also basically told me at parents evening that the year as a whole is behind the national average for reading. I'm not impressed generally tbh. We have to make sacrifices to afford the fees every term and I'm just not sure it's worth it sometimes (it's not just about the reading, it's generally). Thank you!

Sounds fine to me
My DC ended year 1 on a level 6 and is now on an 9 in year 2.

From memory it was Biff, Chip and Kipper type books. I’m surprised they’ve told you the whole class is behind National expectations. My child is at a state school and that’s not the case there. Yes there are some that are below but not the whole class.

At this stage in Yr1 DD1 was on Red (level 2) and DD2 was on Level 5/6

The reading band other children are on is very variable. What matters is that you're not happy with your child's progress and clearly think school could be doing more. I wouldn't be happy with "all the children in this year are behind" either, especially if I was paying for it!

I expect you asked what they were doing to redress that, because I sure as hell would. Although I would also be planning to do more reading with my child at home to support them.

If they had no solid plans in place and attainment across the board looked poor, I would be intending to find another school.

My DC is not behind (although she was at the start of the year according to the info on progression levels on the reading scheme website for the books they use, and this was after us buying loads of books at the next level and reading them with her over the summer). They actually said at parents evening that it was "down to" me and my husband that she was at the level she is and thanked me for that. I know most kids are 2-3 levels below her. Honestly, we love reading with her and it's not a chore, but I think there should be more input from the school. They read with them once a week, and this is always just 2-3 pages of a new book! It's barely anything.

They also said, after I asked whether they do SATS or not in year 2, that they do "if the teacher thinks it will benefit the class". To this, my husband (also a teacher!) reacted (at home, privately!) with "so they do SATS if they think the kids will do well and it'll make them look good".

I know we will have to consider whether or not we should move her, but it's so tough when she is so happy there.

DS2 started year 1 significantly behind his peers, all of a sudden he found some books he liked and ended year 1 having finished the bands, it was like a switch flipped one day and he became a fluent reader almost overnight.

It was the teacher who kept searching for something to engage him, who knew it would be a children's encyclopaedia on sea monsters that would do the trick!