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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

what ORT level / stage is your year 1 child on?

26 replies

Fairyegg · 14/04/2013 22:43

Sorry, I normally hate questions like this but I'm teaching ds to read English at home (welsh medium school) and I'm just curious as to roughly what stage / level ORT your year 1 child is on. Obviously I know it varies a lot depending on the child, I'm just looking at what stage we should be aiming for. Also the books we have at home are 'Level 1/2/3 etc books and seem harder than the books we borrow from the libary which are stage 1/2/3 etc, is that right?

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simpson · 14/04/2013 22:46

I don't have a yr1 child but I do read with yr1 kids and they vary from red (stage 2) to gold (stage 9) so a massive gap!!!

I will say that there is only a handful on gold most are on blue/green/orange (stage 4-6).

The read at home books are harder as I don't think they are phonetic...

bubblesinthesky · 14/04/2013 23:20

As simpson says it varies according to the child.

You may find the information here useful

LunaticFringe · 14/04/2013 23:32

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Alibabaandthe40nappies · 14/04/2013 23:38

simpson - there are read at home Floppy's Phonics which are actually pretty good. We've had some from the library over the holidays and DS1 has enjoyed them.

OP - are you teaching him phonics or just using the books?

He is probably not going to be at the same stage as children who are in an English speaking school, because they do all the phonics, writing, spelling and so on which reinforces their grasp of the letters and sounds.
In other words - don't worry if your DS seems to be behind what people say here :)

Original poster

Fairyegg · 14/04/2013 23:55

Thanks for all the replies. We're mainly just working though the books, not especially using phonics to be honest as I'm worried about making the wrong sounds, but ds seems to be picking up some phonics naturally and though watching programmes like alphablocks. Currently he's on stage 3 (blue) or level 2 (green) ORT books. I have no doubt this is behind most other year 1 kids but i'm not at all concerned about that as hes not taught though english so I wouldn't expect him to be anything but. His reading in welsh seems to be similar to his peers. Its just interesting to hear what level english kids are at as a comparsion.

OP posts:

Tiggles · 15/04/2013 10:38

DS2 goes to English medium school in Wales.
He is currently level 9 ORT, but his Welsh reading level is significantly lower. I think, (having looked at Reading Chest for what the ORT levels look like) he would be about stage 3 in Welsh. But he hasn't been getting Welsh reading books for very long, so we are both rapidly learning the vocab and pronunciation as we go.

freetrait · 15/04/2013 11:15

My Y1 boy finished ORT books in YR, but he is unusual.

caffeinated · 15/04/2013 11:18

At this stage in year 1 ds 1 Ort 7 ds2 Ort 5, both got level 3 for reading at the end of year 2.

Elibean · 15/04/2013 11:19

My Y1 dd2 is on White level, whatever that means in terms of ORT....the school uses a whole range of reading schemes.

The majority of the class are currently around the Turquoise level (I helped change books this morning, hence I know!) with some on blue/green level and two who have finished levels altogether.

Periwinkle007 · 15/04/2013 11:43

that sounds good to me for a bilingual child of that age.

Levels vary depending on the scheme. All schemes should however tie into book bands. So an Oxford Reading Tree stage 2 book is Book Band 2 (unless it is an Oxford reading tree read at home book which is a number different just to catch you out) and a different rage might call their book level 1 but it might also be book band 2.

Books which are purely phonics based may be the same level as a book which uses some key/high frequency words but it may be harder or easier for a child depending on how they are reading. One of my daughters quickly picked up words so was fine with the ones using high frequency words but hated phonics. my other daughter prefers phonics so finds them easier.

my reception daughter (sept birthday) is on Book band Purple/8 at school but out of 60 children I think she is the only one with a few at 6 (orange) and 7 (turquoise) so that is unusual.

mintyneb · 15/04/2013 11:48

Fairyegg, I wouldn't say your ds is behind at all. I would agree with simpson in that most of the children in my DDs yr 1 class are on blue, green or orange band books. DD is on green.

I go in and help listen to the children read and there are a handful who are still on red. I don't listen to the high achievers so don't know what colour they are on but it would be above purple. I've no idea how the bands are ordered above that!

littlemiss06 · 15/04/2013 12:42

I wouldn't say hes behind either, he sounds like hes doing just fine :) my yr 2 child is only on stage 3 books, she ended yr 1 on stage 2 and recently moved up to stage 3. There is a huge variation at this age in levels so don't worry, just keep on as you are, hes doing fantastic :)

jamtoast12 · 15/04/2013 13:28

Dd1 started year 1 on stage 4 and ended on stage 9. She is one of the best in her class though. Most kids started year one on stage 3. The read at home books are definitely harder. Dd2 in reception is on stage 3 but the stage 3 read at home are a little harder but still manageable.

Wheresmycaffeinedrip · 15/04/2013 13:37

It sounds like your ds is doing fine. It's often the case that suddenly it just clicks and they jump 2/3 levels. If teachers have any concerns they will tell you. If he's happy and you feel it's the right level for him don't worry. There's always a huge huge range in the class. Some would have left reception on 6 or seven others would still be 1 or 2.

itsnothingoriginal · 15/04/2013 14:07

I read with yr 1 every week and most of them are around green/Orange bands. However there is all ends of the spectrum with one or two children on pink and one on white.

TheProvincialLady · 15/04/2013 14:15

DS1 is on level 11 and an exceptional reader (he can decode and understand literally anything). However, he has terrible balance and can't ride a bike (only just this week has learned - barely - with stabilisers). He has struggled with friendships and socialising and is only just starting to catch up, but he will. Almost all children have areas of strengths and weakness, especially at this age..as long as they are making progress that's the most important thing isn't it? I spent far too much time last year worrying about DS1's social skills and he has improved so much...without me doing a thing! I find that quite reassuring.

Shattereddreams · 15/04/2013 14:17

Dd started Y1 on Green (ORT 5) and is now on gold and white (9 and 10).
Orange (6) went by very quickly, hardly any books came home and we spent longer on Turquoise (7) and again hardly any time at Purple (8).

After level 7, she could tackle lots of her picture books at home, library books etc because she could work out the words. Since then, I have found its much more about stamina. She also was very attached to having pictures until she read a few level 10. Since then, she has begun to pick up simple chapter books by herself.

She is in the 2nd reading group in class, so one of the better readers.

Her school only have rubbish old books, ORT and older, she can read any ORT book but always found library books of supposedly the same level much harder.

I got this link from MN and have used it again and again!

www.essex.gov.uk/Libraries-Archives/libraries/childrens-library/Documents/Books_for_children_beginning_to_read.pdf

freetrait · 15/04/2013 14:18

I would suggest that you branch out from ORT though...the lower levels can be pretty deadly and there is so much on the market these days.

Runoutofideas · 15/04/2013 14:24

My "young in the year" dd2 is on purple band - think this equates to ort 7 or 8 ish.

noramum · 15/04/2013 14:25

DD is on turquoise but some of her books are level 8 as well.

But she bring also home other books and we read all kind of books at home. We read a lot of the Usborne Young Reader series 1 and 2 at home and that fairly fluent. She still needs lots of pictures to boost imagination. She can do pages just with text but doesn't like it very much.

Meglet · 15/04/2013 14:34

DS is on gold. But he's another one who hasn't cracked bike riding or swimming either, so he's not great at everything!

What I've found helps his reading is to not read the same books at home and simply ignore levels. In more advanced books I've found there is always the odd sentence or caption they can try and read / decode. I could say DS was reading Harry Potter in reception but in reality he was only reading the odd sentence with support from me! But it did seem to help his reading as he picked up words he wouldn't read in school. it is also a hell of a lot more interesting than biff and sodding chip

learnandsay · 15/04/2013 14:36

Personally I'd set more store by what the child can read generally than what level of ORT she's on because that's controlled by how many books the school has at each level, whether or not they're allowed to skip books/levels, whether the school has a strict/anal/nonsensical comprehension policy, etc, etc...

I think sometimes we can't see the reading for the ORTs.

TheYoniOfYawn · 15/04/2013 14:47

DD started the year at Stage 5, and is now on 7. At home she can read Charlie & the Chocolate Factory/Worst Witch type books herself with ease and enjoyment and she us working at level 2a in literacy. She's above average for her year, but not in any way exceptional. Her reading scheme books don't really reflect the level she's working at in class.

CHST · 15/04/2013 18:13

My son is on lime level. I do find some of the content a bit too mature for him. Especially things like forensics and crime scenes. There are certainly things he can improve on though like not reading too fast! I do agree that there is a broad range and i'm sure they all catch up at some point.

Merrin · 15/04/2013 18:29

You could try some Ruth Miskin for a change from ORT. They are designed to help with phonetic understanding rather than whole word.

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