DS has been lying about his reading level

[MarshaMallow84]

My 5 yo DS is in year one. He is a summer baby but after a slow start his reading really seems to have taken off. Since Christmas he has been bringing home progressively harder reading books in higher and higher colour bands. I was beginning to wonder what his teacher's criteria was for moving children up as I didn't see how he could be making progress that quickly (although as I said, he seemed to be handling the text reasonably well) So yesterday at pick up time I was waiting in his classroom for him to pick some new reading books as he very proudly has just informed me he was now on gold level. His teacher walked past and I asked if that was the case? She looked shocked and said "no!" She didn't know off hand what reading level he was on, so she got her list out and eventually told me he should actually be on turquoise level. In other words my DS has been administering his own reading scheme for the past 3 months!! When I told his teacher this she just shrugged and said "how has he been handling the more advanced books?" and when I told her that he seemed ok she just nonchalantly shrugged and said "oh well, give him a go with gold then" and disappeared. I am very confused! DS decodes reasonably well but he doesn't read punctuation and he is still quite stilted when reading out loud. I have no idea what level he should be on and I feel his teacher has just left it to me to assess him! I feel like his teacher doesn't really care, but maybe I'm placing too much importance on levels. I'm also quite shocked that DS has been lying to me for the past 3 months and that no one at school has picked up on this! He really enjoys reading and burst into tears when I asked him about it. I think he just desperately wants to be on gold but wouldn't it be better for him in the long run if he were on a lower reading level? I don't want to discourage him though....

There really isn't any reason at all for children to have to read every level. They won't be 'missing' any learning at this stage by skipping a level.

I don't think there are any guidelines either. Only individual practice, which varies hugely from school to school.

I would check how often he's been heard reading and what they are listening to him read though.

I agree with pp that someone somewhere has been making reading levels a big deal. Big enough that he feels he needs to lie about it.

No your DS doesn't have read every book at every level but his teacher should be certain that his word recognition AND comprehension skills match the level he is on otherwise there may be problems later on down the line.

The teacher's blase attitude is very surprising - I would expect a good teacher to know the reading level of every child in his/her class - and to actually assess or arrange an assessment before moving levels - not leave it up to the parents!

BTW - turquoise is a very high level to be on at reception - it's more expected at Year 2 - so I wouldn't have any worries at all about your DS reading. However the competitiveness around reading would worry me - it doesn't help anyone to be racing through levels for the sake of it and certainly doesn't reflect the aims of the 2014 NC (whatever your opinion might be about that!)

I work at a primary school and with regards to reading levels I wouldn't necessarily expect the class teacher to know offhand every single pupils level. Most schools are streamed for literacy by ability so he may not be in her group or she may just have wanted to be absolutely sure that she gave you the right information. At this age it is perfectly possible that some children will begin to fly with their reading so he could move up groups quite quickly.