Mrz She is actually really accurate. She may well be using phonics, it is just that she doesn't use the combination sounds often, and when she has to sound out names she often finds those hard. I don't know if she is using comprehension really. I'm kind of just guessing and may be totally wrong. I do know that the school teach 'mixed methods' - or at least they stated they did last year, when she was in reception. I would love to know exactly what her strengths and weaknesses were when it comes to reading. I know that phonics is helpful to pretty much all children, there are also children who can sound things out without the same level of comprehension, and surely there must be children who have excellent comprehension who are weaker at phonics? Would be interested to know your opinion. But either way, at my DD's school they don't ask for information with us, and don't give us any in return, so I won't get info from them.
Smartiepants79 I totally agree with you. There is a lot of crap written for children. I get quite annoyed about the amount of crap the library stocks. To be honest, I don't let her choose in the library because the majority of the choice are sparkly covered pink fairy books or kitten books or princess books - which if written really well, fine, but the few she has managed to get hold of aren't. Anyway, I'll stop ranting about that one. I don't use her judgement choices about what is good and bad literature to guide me. But I do work with areas that she is interested in, and select quality books from within that. Our current one exception are the Rainbow Magic books, which I loathe because they are quite simply rubbish. However, if they motivate her to read, and she counts reading those as reading for pleasure, then I will let her read them, and then read to her more literary books which are going to expand her vocabulary and her understanding.
Raisinboys the problem isn't that she has been assessed at the wrong level (which I think I stated further up). The school themselves noted that the fiction at that level was too easy (their words), but they wanted to make sure she was equally competent with the nonfiction. We had a slight issue with her level of interest in the books from school, but got round this by sourcing books elsewhere and consequently she is now reading the nonfiction with ease. The problem was that, having identified one issue that needed work, the school will not move her up until they re-assess again at half term.
Just to re-iterate, the question isn't about what level she is on, it is about whether or not the school have identified what she is able to do, and that she is working at the right level. I do know that there are a lot of children that this happens too, and perhaps it just takes a little time in the early years for schools to really get to know their pupils. But as a Mum, I just want my quiet little girl to be 'seen'. Probably a bit precious, but still (although they have sent the same reading book home 3 weeks after we had it last, so not sure how much attention they are paying to what is going on).
Having taken on the relax advice further up, I'm going to wait and ask them if they allow children to move up more than one level at a time at parents evening (after half term). Just so I know. And for now, we are reading what we are reading at home 