Ambitious class reading targets

[Djwkin]

My dd is in reception, and the target for reception children is to be on green books by the end of the year. Does this seem unrealistic? When my ds was at infants in the 1990s, children often only attained blue by the end of year1, but still comfortably attained 2b/2a at the end of year 2 in the sats.
However, in my view sats tests for reading were misleading. You could get a 2a in the level 2 reading test if you had good comprehension but level 1b decoding skills. Working out answers using pictures and contexts could get you full marks even if you could only read half the words. Similarly, the level 3 test just indicated good comprehension ( that some children on P8 had) and 2b decoding skills. Do teachers agree this made sats worthless? It is great that more weight is given now to teacher assessment.

You can expect a lot more of a 7 year old than a 5 year old though.

Personally I have no problem with teaching 4 yr olds to read - I chose to teach my 3 year old (and no-not because he begged me too, the only acceptable MN excuse...)
I think on balance I would prefer it if children did start a year later if it meant that teachers taught them properly rather than making the excuse of their age to teach ineffectively.
Simpson that is heartbreaking. Why is a teacher too busy - what job is more important? Honestly my current ds's reception teacher would never let a child capable of learning to blend get into yr 1 without the chance to learn more. Tbh that's disgraceful - so sad.

Yes a 7 year old should learn faster but what is fascinating from talking to my Melbourne friend is that they often aren't. Same low expectations. 'Oh well they are only in Prep'.

Our school at the 'how we teach reading' thingy we all schlepped along to in week 1 of YR, explained that some dc would end the year still not on the book bands, some would be well ahead and most would be scattered across the spectrum. As it turned out, most were around green when they moved up to Y1. DD skipped green entirely and started on turquoise level but I really like the fact that regardless of the level they're on, dd's reception teacher worked really hard to foster a love of and enthusiasm for books.

Beezmum - seriously this teacher in reception was shocking at DS's parents eve she launched into a massive tirade of what he could not do and how behind his peers he was etc etc ( he is Aug born) and did not say one positive thing about him. She very obviously has her favourite kids (the nice quite girls who do as they are told and perform well)....

When the new HT came in at Xmas time she went off sick for 5 months with stress unfortunately she still works at the school but is now in nursery....

Quiet not quite

The reception teacher for one of my three dcs was shocking. At the end of the year lots of the children didn't know their sounds and many were still on red. It was the clear contrast between her and the approach for my other two with good teachers using good methods, that is why I feel strongly I think.

Would you rather schools set a target of say pink book band?

Surely each child should have an individual target once they have been assessed, rather than a blanket target for all???

I would hope the teacher is giving realistic (ambitious) targets that do relate to the children in the class.

I don't get the obsession with levels. DD started reception this year on orange level because she learnt to read in nursery. The teacher said even though she is a good reader they won't be pushing her up levels quickly because there is so much more to reading than recognising words on a page. There is comprehension, writing, telling your own story etc. I think that is so much more important than what level a child is on

Noisy, it's probably a bone of real contention to the parent if to her way of thinking (rightly or wrongly) the current level is either much much too easy or much much too hard. In either case the books are probably not going to help and in the latter case they're likely to be harmful to the child's confidence.

Mrz - was your question to me?
I don't think there should be a blanket target, or that formal targets are even necessary. However, as a very blunt tool to raise teacher's expectations they might be better than nothing.
Age of child, the fact some children click late (for whatever reason) are all red herrings in this debate which is about what can be expected of most children in reception if you choose to teach them to read.

No beezmum it was just a general devil's advocate type question.
Schools have to give targets whether we agree with it or not. Only the class teacher will know for sure if the green level target is for every single child or it is a minimum target with the expectation that others do better or if it is a top target ... I wouldn't want to guess.

According to mrz it's not all that difficult to vary work difficulty on a child by child basis. But my own suspicion is that only a teacher who's really on the ball can manage this at all. We're always hearing anecdotal stories of children being bored in class, not stretched, making no progress (no statistics unfortunately,) but there seems to be at least casual evidence that some teachers are struggling to differentiate work on an individual basis. I'd rather that a teacher who can't differentiate set an ambitious target for the whole class than attempted to set individual ones and got many of them wrong.

(On the subject of individual targets)

I've just seem a thread about maths where the mum is saying her child is ahead and getting homework that he already did last year. So she's taken the new homework and the old homework to the teacher who's saying that her son can't have any more advanced work to do because anything more advanced would be set in a higher year. I mean wtf! I'm guessing some teachers are just plain against individual achievement. And where that seems to be the case you can't blame parents for taking matters into their own hands. If that had been my child I'd be setting his work myself and the teacher could go whistle.

learnandsay, it saddens me that you are so jaded about teachers and your child is only at the beginning of her school journey.

My DS1 was very quick learner when it came to reading - all without any input from me (except supporting the school). He bolted up the reading levels and had a reading level of a 10 year old by the end of Reception. Although the class he was in had a very wide variety of abilities (don't know them exactly as it was/is none of my business, and I was not that interested), she was able to differentiate and give level appropriate work to all. His reading level continued at this accelerated pace without ever having an issue of feeling held back, or being bored (despite me being a bit about having to read the original text of Oliver Twist in Year 1, but I supported the teacher nonetheless).

She was not unique, and all of the teachers in Reception and, for that matter, throughout the school, were able to do the same. Yes, we hear anecdotes of children being "bored", however they are just that - anecdotes. I truly believe that most teachers are quite capable of differentiating and setting individual targets - just work with them and give them some credit.

The point I was making is that some teachers clearly find setting targets for individual children too difficult. I haven't drawn any general conclusions about all teachers from that

but at the same time I'm aware that for the parent whose child is being failed it must be hell.

It's no comfort for the parent of a child who is being failed that most other teachers are quite capable. What that parent wants is for any particular teacher to be quite capable (and that's obviously not going to happen.) If I was being failed by a teacher I most definitely would not work with them I would work in spite of them. Of course I'd initially try to reconcile differences. But when an impasse had been reached I'd deliver my own solution. I sincerely hope it never happens. But I'll deal with it if it does. A child only gets one go at education and no teacher is going to spoil it for mine. (I'm not suggesting any will try.) But you never know, do you?

djwkin just to clarify has the teacher said your child's target is to read green books by the end of the year or have they said they expect children to be reading green books by the end of the year?

It is an aspirational target for the whole class. Given that many children enter Year 1 not secure on phase 3, it seems a bit ambitious. Also, Mrz, would you agree with my analysis of the Year 2 sat reading tests?

No green at the end of reception wouldn't automatically translate into level 3 in Y2 because of the skills needed for level 3 reading

But what about my view that you only need 1b reading skills to do well in the level 2 test (rather than the task)?

A child reading at 1B wouldn't be able to read the text and questions in the test to achieve level 2