We live overseas and DD has started Year 1 at the international school here. She is one of a minority of native English speakers in her class (about 5/20) Towards the end of last term, when she was in Reception she finished all the books in yellow book band and then was sent home with picture books - they wouldn't move her onto the next level. I didn't make any fuss about it given that it was so close to the end of the school year.
She has been back at school two weeks and sent home with a reading book for the first time - red! I should point out that we have done lots of reading over the summer so her ability has improved tremendously, particularly on high frequency words.
The particular book that she was sent home with is ORT decoding and has some long words in (12 letter words) but only about six high frequency.
Is this cause for alarm or normal at the start of year one? Red reading level in year 1 falls comfortably into the "needing support" category. I don't think that she does need support - she is well able to read, but I don't know why she is being kept back. What I am most concerned about is that she will be far behind when we move back to the UK.
All comments welcomed. I can't talk to the teacher btw because of the circumstances where we live. All communication is via email. I just sent a comment back that perhaps the book was too easy.