Reception Reading Levels

[jazzymum]

I would really like to know what the average reading level for reception age children using the Oxford Tree system. I saw a previous thread mentioning a table but I can't find it.

If you have or had a reception aged child could you let me know what level you child was on when they finished reception. Much appreciated!

DS2 has just gone onto Stage 4. He is 4.10. I have no idea whether that is good, bad or average!

dd can read 6-7 but is happily at stage 3 officially. Which is where much of the year 1 class are fwiw
4 is very good.
some kids plough fast through them, others happily amble. Dd is a fluent reader rarely sounding words out but is happy to read anything handed to her! She gets 6 books a week. But has missed 13 weeks this year die to illness

dd finished at around level 5-6 but that was towards the upper end of the range frm 0-1 upwaads. The ORT website shows approximate ages, see p3 of the Parents Guide

Meant to add dd is reception but in mixed reception yr1 class. They aim for level 2 by yr end for reception.

A child with the same reading ability might be on a wide range of ort levels according to the teacher. Ds finished ort in reception and was free reading chapter books from the library at one school. Then he changed school for year 1 and went back to ort level 5 (till he pointed out he'd read them all already when they moved him to equivalent level on another scheme). He was still reading swallows & amazons type stuff at home, but his reading aloud was too fast & garbled so he read simpler stuff at school. So he was on ort 5 twice about a year apart and was a much better reader the second time around - I'm not sure saying a child is on level x is a real indication of their true ability though it probably does say something about a minimum standard they are at.

Wow sounds like you all have some smart kids.

Thank you for the chart LIZS, it was helpful

As I suspected my DD is not being challenged enough. They only read 2 books a week. Do all of your children read 6 books a week?

noooo !

don't make that assumption !
people are less likely to post - 2actually my DC is pretty slow and is still struggling with letter sounds.
Go and talk to the school if you are worried but different schools have different approaches to reception.
FWIW ( and i raise this in the context of your 'challenged enough' comment.
My DD goes to a highly selective school ranked about thrird in the county and highly ranked nationally.
She does one book per week - she has even carried her book over to a second week. her friends are all the same.
Homework is rarely reading. emphasis is on getting ready to learn. It is truly treated as reception with emphasis on listening skills, attention, concentration, learning through play etc etc. Her homework last week was to make a water bomb, freeze it and then play with it in the bath.

My point is that reading empohasis may be child led and it may not be the primary emphasis of the individual school in reception year.

I think it is a big mistake to assume that a school pushing reading is going to have the best outcomes. From DDs experience the opposite seems to be the case.
talk to the school before you assume.

BTW - no idea what ort leavel she is on. The school uses a whole range of resources and progress is not that rigid.

dd1 left reception on level 1.is now year three and on level 9 or 10.

dd2 still in reception for the next three weeks, is on level 6, likely to be leave on level 7.

Good post Pagwatch.

The number of books they read at school cannot be taken as an indicator of whether they are being challenged or not. The school reading scheme books are used as a way of checking progress only. They are not the only way that children are taught to read. There will be lots of other opportunities going on in the classroom. The best thing to do is go and speak to the teacher about the way that reading is taught in your school, to your child.

excellent post pagwatch.

I think 6 books a week is far, far too many at reception level. it's not too bad at levels 1-3, but once you get to level 4 and above the stories become much longer, and expecting a child to read one of those a night would put far too much pressure on IMO. The children in ds' class get two books a week and I think that works bell, because they are encouraged to look at the book, talk about the story and the pictures etc, not just read it and give it back, iyswim?

Also if you do a straw pole you are far more likely to get the competitive parents coming out to tell you their children are on level 4/5/6/reading war and peace in their spare time, and the more of those you get, the less parents whose children are on the lower levels will have the confidence to come out and say it, because like you they will assume their own children are obviously behind compared to the majority of others, when in actual fact the number of children on the higher levels is more likely in the minority.

Also, you will get parents who will lie and big up their children - I know one parent at our school who has been going around telling other parents that her dd's reading is so advanced and that she is actually being held back by the other children who are just not as good as her. And that is absolutely not the case.

I help out in a reception class once a week and I can tell you that out of 30 children there are only 7 who are above level 4.

And to me the child who can read fluently to me at level three is no less capable than one who is reading fluently at level 7. It's the fact they can do it that is relevant, not the level at which they are doing it, because ultimately they all catch up.

There is nearly twelve months age difference between the youngest child and the old child.It is unreasonable to expect a September girl to be at the same academic level as an August born boy.

However the difference caused by age diminishes in time. In fact the August born boy may well over take the September born girl.

Also 20% of children in a typical reception class are deaf due to glue ear. Only half the children with glue ear get any help.

dd only gets 6 books because she is such a fast reader. She gets 2 Tuesday 2weds and I choose 2 more for weekend. She reads them straight through very quickly hence why she gets so many.
agree for longer harder stories 6 is unsustainable.
school seem reluctant to raise dd through more levels and as dd appears to be happy and getting enjoyment...

Please do not get to worried about what level your child is at in terms of ORT, etc. So long as they are progressing themselves that is all that matters.

And what os far more important than rushing through the levels, is taking tme to read a breadth of books at each level - from different schemes. This introduces a far wider vocab and different styles of writing/text. Don't just concentrate on fiction - itroduce non fiction as well, esp as this is where a lot of more difficult and extensive vocab can come from.

Spend time checking comprehension - a big problem with many early readers apparently. Make sure they understand the stories they are reading. Talk about the book, ask what they think might happen next and why, talk about why they liked the book, etc.

And spend time concentrating on expression when reading. Reading monotone neds developing so they are reading with feeling, taking note of punctuation, considering rhyme in poety, etc.

I think that many parents seem way too concerned with what level a child is on - and TBH the level is one of the least important aaspects of reading.

I have seens everal children who are apprently good readers who simply read monioone wordsthat are [laced in front if them. They can decode letters into words, but they are not taking it in. They are not comprehending what they are reading.

I think the average reading level at our school must be about ORT 2-3 at end of Reception (tallies with rest of this thread).
DS only had 1 book/week in reception, and was probably about level 2-3 end of Reception. In Y2 he suddenly attained a reading age of about 10yo. I imagine that bright kids usually come thru when they're ready.

Agree with ReallyTired. My DS is an Aug birthday and is on ORT3 but still struggling a bit. He is in a private school with classes of 13 with teacher & a teaching assistant so gets a fair bit of support and TBH if he was in a class of 30 with 1 teacher I don't think he would be on ORT3 yet. I think reading is just one of those things that click when the time is right / brain wiring is ready for most children so its not something to get worried about at reception level.

Can I just ask a question of the experts please? My dd is in reception and reading very well. Oddly though, her comprehension seems better than her reading.

She will quite often guess a word (rather than read it) because it fits in context, or say an unfamiliar word, not know what it is, but be able to explain what the word means because she understands what she is reading. She has good phonic knowledg, but quite often doesnt use it because she is racing in the story. Do you have any advice/reassurance? She finds phonic based reading harder than other kinds of books.

To the OP btw, she is on ORT 5/6 or green book band level, but I know she is further on than the majority of her class (mostly level 2), although there is a group ahead of her, so the class range from ORT1 to ORT 7...

not an expert ListersSister, but that sounds fine to me - dd's teacher often comments (in a positive way) that she 'uses a range of strategies to support her reading' i.e. looking at pictures, using context etc after all, reading is not just decoding a string of letters

as for the level she's on, I've no idea as her school doesn't just use ORT - we got her end of year report on Friday and she's working beyond all the literacy targets for reception - at school she gets one book a week - these are usually simple books with one or two sentences per page which don't seem to pose her any problems - at home she's reading things like Meg and Mog and the easier Dr Seuss (eg Hop on Pop)

but reading in reception doesn't really tell you much about later achievement - both her brothers are highly intelligent yet neither was reading at all in reception - for both it clicked half way through y1 and by the end of y2 they were both far outstripping their classmates who'd been 'ahead' of them in reception

what's far more important at this stage is to foster a love of reading - that will stand them in good stead long after ORT levels have been forgotten

Thanks mimsmum. I suppose there is such an emphasis on phonics that it feels like it is the only way to read...

My DD does enjoy books which is the main thing. She is also reading posters/adverts/packaging etc which is good. She does do better with books with stories in them rather than lots of phonics words in a naff story. She tends to go to the last page once she has read a few pages, so she can find out what will happen

I will lower the average here a bit My DS is an August baby and on level 1+. He is making progress albeit slowly. I used to worry because I was a very confident reader as a child and I wanted the same for him but now I realise that he is happy, enjoying school and the teacher is pleased with his progress. What more could I want?

Cannot remember what level DS was on but suspect it was quite low. I think we changed books as and when we felt we were ready to do so.

i'd echo that - the ORT especially is designed so that they can do this to get clues to unfamiliar words - including by using the pictures. you can watch them doing it and i love it - they get 'c....' and then their eyes dart up to the picture and scan about to see what the word might be beginning with 'c'...

for the OP, dd1 wasn't on ORT in reception but was a free reader at the start of yr 2, ds1 started yr r on ORT 5 and is on 13 in yr 1, and dd1 is due to start in september, but likes to try and read her sibling's books... there's a huge range of ability at our school, but i like the yr 1 teacher's comment to a mum who asked if all the other children in yr 1 were on level 9 or above and it was just her child that was on 3. 'no, they are lying.' with a smile, but very clearly. don't believe everything you hear in the playground, or on MN!

I think the main thing is not to worry - I say that with the wisdom of hindsight. My son didn't learn to read confidently by himself until he was in year 1, and boy did I beat myself up about it! However my daughter was reading simple books herself at 3. They both had the same encouragement, books read at bedtime etc & teaching methods at school,and once he'd mastered it he took off and caught up with his peers no problem.

Interestingly my ds would be on the lower level yet is quite a fluent reader (y1) as his school use lot's of different reading schemes including ort so as not to get used to one!

As said before spk to the school if you have concerns as comparing to others dc's doesn't always give a true picture.

please please don't push your reception age children

in reception (and childhood in general) reading should be about enjoying reading. If they can read 3 words or 94 when they leave it shouldn't matter as long as they have enjoyed those words.

my dd was reading stage 7(robins?) up until recently (iirc) she is 6 and in P2 (yr1 in England?) I still have not got a clue about what the different levels mean about reading ability... my dd is a very confident reader, she can, just about, read anything she sees, I don't think her comprehension matches her reading ability.