reading qn - how long on the same book band?

[overfullstockings]

Ds has been stuck on the same book band for six months. He flew through bands before this.

He can read this level and the next level up very easily with maybe one or two words per book he needs help with (e.g. in a non-fiction book obscure non-decodable words), has good expression and understanding. I think he should be on at least the one above if not two above. I appreciate teachers are experts in all this but ours if very overstretched and hasn't heard ds read for a while. Ds doesn't read much at school but reads tons at home by choice.

How long is it normal for a child to be on a particular level for?

Ask for his home books to be selected from the next box up and see what happens. Read other stuff at home that's at a level you think challenges him, and record in the reading log.
Have a meeting with his teacher to discuss your concerns.

Thanks goblin. Will do.
I haven't been seeing much evidence of differentiation for him so was thinking of saying that either he's on the wrong book band or if they really think he isn't, he hasn't made much progress in six months so why is that? Of course he could have just plateaued but that's not what I'm seeing at home.

How old is he? They should be doing regular testing of reading age/comprehension level which should direct the teacher to an appropriate book band even if she is not hearing him read often. My boys seemed to stop being heard once they got into the Juniors, but then I discovered it was their responsibility to change their reading books so I just reminded them regularly. I hear my class twice a week at least, but I am lucky to have a small class and a fulltime TA, and they are Reception.

Year 1 but reading at end year 2/ start year 3 level.
They don't get heard often in class(most kids got heard less than once a week individually last term, they haven't started guided reading yet, but the kids who are struggling got heard most days).

I have resigned myself to the books not being changed often and just read stuff at home with him so that's not a problem but I do want them to know vaguely what level he's at. Partly because that way they are more likely to provide appropriately differentiated work for him.

The last few times he has read in school the reading volunteer has put things like 'excellent reading' etc so I don't think it's one of those situations where he does it better at home.

When he moved to this level he was reading it easily although I do think he needed to work on comprehension but that's there now and the vocab offers no challenge really. Like in a 32 page purple or gold level book there might be 1 or 2 new words.

I think you need to make an appointment to see the teacher - but be careful, as a teacher myself I have some parents who don't know as much as you do about their child's reading ability and focus entirely on just hassling me to zoom their child through the book bands so they can feel their child is 'better' than others. You sound very sensible and knowledgeable about your son's capability and hopefully his teacher will see you are just keen he is being challenged appropriately and make more effort to hear him more regularly.The other thing I do with my more capable readers is get them to answer some questions about each book they read -either me writing 2 or 3 specific questions, or just 1 general one for them to tell me about their favourite/worst part. they do this in a little exercise book and usually illustrate it too. This helps me check their comprehension, as well as being a good way of getting a bit more writing in too! Maybe you could do that at home to accompany his school reading books?
Good luck!

Thanks Charlie - I really appreciate your advice.
I work in education broadly speaking and so have some knowledge of all this but I'm not a teacher. His teacher knows this so she will hopefully see that I'm not just on at her to rush him through levels etc.