Do Y3 teachers pay much heed to Y2 SATS results?

[MilaMae]

Ie do they group according to them or assess the class themselves?

You know what, your son's situation sounds very similar to my experience with my own DD1 when she was at the end of year 2; she was one of the best readers - if you went on reading levels - and I thought that she would be a level 3; She actually also got a 2a, and when I brought this up with her teacher at parent's evening it was clear that it was her inability to extract inferential stuff from texts that was holding her back. As a result of that we asked more probing questions of the books that she was reading and I know school put a lot of emphasis on comprehension in literacy lessons as she moved into juniors. She finally had an epiphany if you like towards the end of year 4 and was made a free reader - the first one in her year. Now she is coming to the end of year 5 and is working at a high 4/5 in literacy. So really it's a combination of practice, time and maturity, and I hope your DS achieves his potential.

Hmm you could have a point.I think the problem is a lot of the scheme books are soooo dry by the end.

DD's teacher has used picture books and bookmarks with things to draw out which has worked well.

I'm guessing short comp passages(no idea where from) alongside his own choice of books would help?????

I did wonder about those Pearson KS 2 pocket reads,bit as was v critical of all the Pearson stuff being on here but they look short and sweet with questions.

That's encouraging Love.

To be honest I'm probably to blame too as with 3 quite fluent readers I've struggled with the time issue and hearing them every night ie it's been wham,bam-NEXT!!!!!I probably haven't done enough questioning.

I wonder if there are a list of questions online.

Sorry-I seem to have hijacked my own thread.Many thanks both of you,hope all your advice has been useful to others too .

Mrz, Ds school has a computerised library system, which records each book taken home for every child. It always surprises me (well not really when teachers have so much else to do), that they seem to make almost no use of the information this could provide. I'd have expected them to be using it to monitor how long the children have been on the same level, how many books it usually takes to move up a level, whether some children are always choosing Biff & Chip, or always non-fiction, etc. etc. But it seems only to be simply used as a record of who hasn't brought their book at the end of term.
Years ago, the Year 4 teacher listed out how many books each child had borrowed since the start of the year; other than that apparently nothing. I wondered what you thought of this, in the light of your comment that the teachers should be directing the DCs choice of home-reading. Incidentally we have graded reading books right of to Level 5, some children were scoring level 5 on the comprehension tests in February, and still haven't moved onto the so-called "free choice" books.

Just realised this is a complete hi-jack.

So to bring it back to the original question. In our Y3-Y6 school, the Y3s were allowed to sit where they liked for about a fortnight, then they started getting grouped according to behaviour and ability...it certainly wasn't based purely on the SATS from several different infant schools.

One last thought, MilaMae, before I log off for ten minutes the evening; could you ask school before the holiday if they would give you some prompt sheets of questions to ask your DS whilst he is reading to you? I seem to recall DD came home with some marked as AF1, AF2, AF3...etc, to help.

But don't do it with everything he reads, you do not want to kill a passion for reading.

Now this really is my last post of the day; MilaMae I personally would steer clear of comprehension "workbooks" unless you have a child who genuinely enjoys doing them. And try to broaden his taste in books, get him signed up for your local library's summer reading challenge and maybe suggest a subscription to a magazine such as National Geographic for Kids or First News newspaper as a present.

Over and out.

Thats great advice.

I wonder where you get those questions to ask,just tried googling to no avail. Will ask tomorrow-they're going to love me(not).

Still here. Ask them, they will probably have their own coding system hence probably why googling wasn't fruitful. Just explain your motives and how you want to encourage him all you can over the summer; I can't see a good teacher objecting.

www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/nationalstrategy/literacy/index.php?category_id=399
www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/nationalstrategy/literacy/index.php?category_id=233
www.lancsngfl.ac.uk/nationalstrategy/literacy/index.php?category_id=445

Many thanks mrz those are really helpful,what a great resource.