Could the average Reception age child read this passage?

[Avocadoes]

"I want to go to Lily's party. I will go on the bus, then I will walk. There will be cake and lots of fun. Do you want to come too?"

My DD is nearly 4 and a half and her reading has just been assessed (by school) using the passage above.

I am just interested in whether most Reception kids would be able to read all the words in that passage and do so without halting to figure out each individual word.

Joyfulpuddlejumper - DD taught herself to read before she started nursery (I don't know how as she did not watch alphablocks much then)...

Her nursery teacher is the same one she has in reception this year and has been fab at extending her phonics knowledge...

DS (now yr3) could not read until feb of reception though...

Nope.

And I now have two highly proficient readers. Both academically high achieving.

Simpson, you're lucky that she had a nursery teacher who was hot on pre-reading. And you're also lucky that the same person is working with your daughter now. (Well, so am I. In my case that person is me.)

Not either of my two.

DS1 read Harry Potter in year 3.

If a child happens to be a quick reader then that's lovely but it is far more important that they are read to, that their comprehension is meticulous and that they love books!

"It may be a 'useful' word but I wonder if these children could also read 'wash' and 'wasp' (which follow the same principle of 'a' after a 'w' sounds as /o/)"

I would expect that children would be told that the letter in "want", "wash", "wasp" "watch" etc follows the same principle as in "was" fairly early in reception

She's gone to bed now. But I'll ask her tomorrow night and see what she makes of those other words. I'm pretty sure she'll get wash and watch straight away. So really, the interesting one will be wasp.

my 4.6 year old couldn't read this. I"m not sure he could even read one word actually apart from "I" .

None of my other children could read this at this stage in the school year either . They are all in the top groups now,

DD had phonics lessons from April in nursery ( alongside a few others)...

Her teacher is truly fab but tbh the way she has picked up most of the sounds is by me showing her or telling her as they appear in books we read together.

The HT at my DC school insists that all kids read basic jolly phonics books (think one word per page and then lift a flap to see a picture). We were lucky to get them out of the way in nursery so she can move on to the next lot of books which are still tedious

DD could read wasp, wash and want I am sure....

She read the word "instruction" this eve,I don't have a clue how she learnt that tbh....she just seems to "get" reading....

Forgot watch, she would probably get that too....

She had a mental block with would/could/should for a while but seem to be over it now

Mine couldn't read any of it. Struggling to engage her at all with reading, she is very distracted. She's a June baby so quite young, but my son all but self taught and was reading early, so it's very challenging trying to help her grasp things.

My daughter reads words that I wouldn't expect too, like precisely and decided. She surprises me with all kinds of weird stuff. Mind you, if mum is really pleased when daughter reads some weird random word I can see a form of motivation going on.

Rabbits, besides singing the phonics song with my daughter when she was two, I used to write simple pseudo-words like moo, foo, boo on sheets of paper and put them on the floor. I would call them out and my daughter would find the correct word and bring it to me. We ended up with about sixty or more words I think and gave up when they would no longer fit on the livingroom floor.

My DS is 5.10 and would have been absolutely fine to read that a year ago. But we home ed and reading has always been his 'thing', I don't think most children who've just started reception would be able to read that easily and fluently. I don't think DD would have been able to at reception age and she's a good reader now (aged 7).

DD 4.6 can read it fluently but she is a good reader. She started reception on orange band. I am aware that is the exception and don't expect DD2 to be the same when she starts school

Noisytoys, please don't compare your two children. I have two daughters and I make a point of not doing that.

I won't compare them. They are two different people with different personalities and different talents and both fabulous

My eldest has just started reception and is 4. She has 4 sound cards that theystarted this week and is doing picture only books at school. No words at all. Is this really behind then?

Flumpy - DD is in a class of 80 (with 3 teachers but all in one room iyswim) and there are 2 kids who can read well (DD and another boy) and there are maybe another 6 or 7 (I think) who can read at a "Cat sat on a mat" type level.

The rest are learning their sounds for the first time....

Flumpy, I don't know. You'd need to ask the school. Some children can already read when they arrive in Reception. (A very few I think.) But there are schools that already know this and still want all children to start on picture books because it leads to "working out the story." Then there are schools which send home books that they know are too easy because it builds the child's confidence. Then there are schools which don't send books home at all until Easter. The list of behaviours goes on and on and on. But what I would say is, if your child can already read then get books from the library. That way it doesn't matter so much what the school does.

No, my dd could, my ds couldn't. Now ds1 is in year 1 and we are slogging through the biff and kippers I realise how easy I had it with dd . I honestly thought my ds1 would be said to be behind at his recent parents evening, but no he is doing fine and is about average I think, my expectations were too high after dd.

Conversely dd seems to have stalled a bit really, she is in year 4 and still doing well, but a bit lazy and resting on her laurels it seems, she is still obviously able and in the top groups, but not exceptional iyswim.

No, mine couldn't!

She's 4.2 and I was chuffed she could read "tim got a mop", tbh!

Does it matter whether other children can read it though, I mean, really? I don't doubt my 4 yr old will be able to read that at some point, so all is good.

No Flumpy it isn't really behind. Some schools simply wait until the children are settled and assessed before beginning.