Reading book bands & NC levels

[crumpeteater]

I've been told that DS is reading band 30 books, how does that relate to national curriculum levels?

Presumably there's more to assessing his reading level than just 'can he read the words' so what kind of level of understanding would they be looking for? He does ask me what some words mean when he's reading, so he doesn't understand every bit, but he follows the stories well and can certainly recount them and explain what's going on.

He's only just started school, having previously been home educated, so his teacher says she hasn't had time to fully assess his reading (other than to say it's very good!).

Hi Junkfood,

So if level 30 is year 6 in terms of words was I correct to infer that this is a 4b in terms of NC levels, if a child's decoding and comprehension etc. were level pegging?

My DDs previous school used PM benchmark to a point - they asked comprehension questions but did not do the retelling part. DDs new school do not use PM benchmark - comprehension is done completely separately as a written exercise with a text book with short passages.

DD has just been moved up to Lime (not sure if her new books equate to level 25 or 26 as there are no PM books at new school). Her comprehension, inference etc are all good when asked questions however her retelling isn't as good. How much of a problem is this - or rather how important is being able to retell with full detail compared to understanding and being able to answer specific questions?

I think with younger children it is common to have huge gaps in their learning - especially with reading. Level 30 is about a 4b BUT tests are so different. Certainly a child can score a level 3c on the PM Benchmark but completely fail the SATs test. Tests often do not correlate. I even had this problem with a SATs paper one year (maths).
A child scored

It's not a 'good' school. DS is level 2c in maths, so only marginally ahead, but working on his own because, again, he's ahead of the top set. I'm not especially happy with the school but because we were an in-year transfer (due to previous home ed) it was the only school with places available.

DD is in yr 3 but as she's in a mixed 3/4 class she's able to work with the y4 group, despite being only a 2b in maths.