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Should DD be reading harder books at school?

26 replies

TooInvestedinReadingLevels · 08/01/2026 14:21

DD is in Y1 and as far as I can tell she's in Group 2 of 4 for reading, so doing well, but not top. Last parents evening we were told all children were on the same reading band due to the rules of their phonics scheme. I don't know if this is still the case.

She is on Green Band (L5) and has been for a while. Lately, she's not really wanted to read at home. When she does she often reads in a silly voice or turns the book upside down. Even upside down, she can read it quickly and fluently and retell the story afterwards. They don't seem to be presenting any challenge for her and she seems bored. When she reads at school, we get a variation on the same comment every week- "Very fluent and confident read, great expression, good predictions, great recall, etc." Never any areas to develop.

Over Christmas we bought some books to read to her which I've found out are about L13. I read her a chapter and then I had to do some jobs, but she said she wanted to keep reading herself. She did and I went back to listen 10 minutes later and she was reading fluently, and talked about what happened in the chapter she read at dinner time. She's since read a few other books which are much more challenging than her school books.

I taught Primary school but not Y1 so I am not sure if this is normal practise for a child to be kept on a reading band which is really very easy for them? I taught KS2 and would always try to stretch the child to their full potential.

Overall I know the important thing is she's happy and likes reading but I would hate her to start to lose interest because she's not being stretched.

OP posts:
OhDear111 · 01/02/2026 13:58

@TooInvestedinReadingLevels I feel for you! It’s wrong for reading to be so rigid in school. I’m delighted my DDs are older.

Phonics bores bright dc and always has done. For these dc a mixed diet is so much better. My advice is whizz through the school book, sign it off, then do your own thing. We always did library books and also had an infants school with a great library. Dc chose books from there. Free choice and they could not necessarily read the book. DD brought home the Ladybird Samuel Pepys Diary at age 4. We went to London to see where the fire started! This is about education - not just reading. It’s such a shame phonics is not differentiated and schools should have a curriculum meeting for parents about reading. Dc are definitely being held back and parents don’t know why.

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