I know this has been asked before but cant find the previous thread (Doh)

[lovecheese]

I think it was mrz who replied to someones question a couple of months ago about how book bands roughly correlate to NC levels; can you provide this info again? thanks, just curious.

Pink, red, yellow are working toward level 1
Blue 1c Green & Orange 1b Turquoise 1a
Purple 2c Gold 2b White 2a
Lime 3c

roughly as there is some overlap

Thanks mrz; so taking the overlap into account am I right to assume that a child who is reading lime level books is not necessarily reading at 3c level, in the same way that a child who reads white books may be higher than a 2a?

A child reading white level may be working within a 3c but not a secure 3c if you see what I mean

Completely, thanks mrz.

Also - their 'decoding' level is not what is reported when the school gives you their reading levels - because there are 8 Assement Frameworks in the 'Reading' section, and only one of them is about how well a child can decode.

IndigoBell I would hope that the school isn't moving children up book bands purely based on ability to decode.
I know that some parents worry their child is being given reading books that are "too easy" but the book the child gets should be based on a number of skills including decoding and comprehension.

I should also point out that not all schools use APP

So if a school uses benchmarking how does this relate to levels?

benchmarking is comparing standards against other schools of a similar type (same characteristics - size - catchment - pupil background - level of SEN etc)

reading levels would be one of the measurements used for the comparison

mrz - my DS (just finished Y4) was on the top reading book - level 5, yet in his report he got a 3a, so he is reading at least 2 levels above his reading grade.

Wheras my DD ( who we have talked about many times) was given a 1a for reading in her KS1 sats despite school giving her green band books (1b) to read (which she couldn't read), and the SpLD team assesing her as a W.

So IME book bands to levels don't correspond very well at all.

IndigoBell book bands correspond quite well but if a child has been allowed to progress to books that are beyond their full capabilities to meet all the criteria for the level then that is another issue altogether.
I inherited a class where some children were on gold band and were in my opinion not capable of reading at that level (beyond the ability to decode and partial comprehension) I moved some children back as far as green band much to the dismay of some parents.

mrz - I don't think DS is on the wrong reading level. I think that the problem is that he had to write his answers to the comprehension test. ( If they had given him a verbal test I'm positive his level would have been far higher than a 3a)

And I think the problem with DD is just very poor moderation.... But they hid behind the other 7 assement framework thingies. Giving me BS like 'but she can read what she's written'. (Which she couldn't)

But, yes, I'm sure I've just been incredibly unlucky having 2 children and 2 schools do this to me. And for most children there is a good correspondence between book band and reading levels.

Unfortunately at level 5 written answers are expected but in your daughters case I would have used verbal assessment.

written answers are expected - but surely there are exceptions for SEN? I need to have a lot more conversations with my SENCO this year to find out why there is such a big mismatch between all of his grades and the work he does at home.

He can't be marked down in all his subjects because he hates writing....

I'm not convinced my DD had any assesment at all. All I do know as that she didn't do the level 2 test (which is right, she shouldn't have. What was wrong was that they told her they were taking her out because everyone else was doing a test which was too hard for her.) I don't think her teacher ever heard her read. But then, how would I know what goes on in school?

IndigoBell the school can apply to use an amanuensis or provide a transcript if they feel it is needed in KS2 SATs

Thanks mrz. I'm going to talk to school in Sep and see what we can arrange. I'll also bring in examples of work he does at home to compare it to what he's doing at school and see if together we can help him 'access learning in the classroom'.

Because it's driving me up the wall. If we do a practice paper at home he'll get a level 5, and in the class only a level 3 :(

Which is approx 4 years difference!