How do I approach this with my DD's teacher?

[dfghj]

My daughter is in P4 and left for the summer in top reading group. She is a voracious reader and sent much of her holiday reading the while How to Train Your Dragon series. Her best treat is visiting a book shop or library and all her friends ask her for recommendations.

At the risk of sounding like a terrible person, I have heard her classmates read and she is head and shoulders better than most of them.
So she returned to school confident of being in top group again.
However the class has merged with another (private school so class still only 20) and my daughter is now in the 3rd reading group.

Now I don't have a problem with that per se, as the class now has some accelerated learners and other very able girls. And I know that reading alone does not determine the grouping, as they are also judged on comprehension skills etc.

My worry is the fact that my daugher's confidence has taken a big knock and I think the teacher should explain to her that she is still an excellent reader and that she can work towards moving up a group by improving whatever skills required.

I have an appt to see her teacher on Monday morning. How do I put this to the teacher? I basically want to ask her to praise my child so she doesn't lose her love of reading by feeling she's not good enough. Do I just say as much?
With thanks.

How did I not know this?

But anyway, excitement at awesome penguin names aside, Rafa has explained it perfectly. Maybe that does count as mixed ability. I'm not sure and it doesn't really matter what it is called, it works for me in all of the classes I have used it for. The children progress.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

For info she was 8 in July. She reads a wide range of books Inc poetry and non fiction. How to Train Your Dragon was just an example - there are 14 books in the series and she read them in 6 weeks. I mentioned it only to demonstrate her keenness. She has also devoured the Harry Potter series, Lemony Skicket, Magnus Fin, Time Traveller series, Spiderwick Chronicles et al. I won't let her read Jacqueline etc as I don't think the themes are appropriate for her age.

When DD was 7 she was in the bottom reading group at her school, but her reading age was still that of an 11 year old. Bell curve strikes again lol. I'd ask the teacher what you can do to get her to move up groups, and do it. Don't stew in it & don't let her stew in it either. And most importantly don't second guess the teacher- just because you think your daughter is advanced, doesn't mean she should be allowed to move up sets and potentially hold back someone who is reading and comprehending at a much higher level.

My reading groups aren't set at 'ability' level, but what I assess that groups of students to be working on this term (such as inference, comprehension, vocabulary, etc). There's no 'moving up' or 'moving down' because students will be focused on what they need, not what level they are at. A reader at one level may need more work on inference, whilst another at the same level may need work on something else.

My groups are 'Monday', 'Tuesday', 'Wednesday', 'Thursday' and 'Friday' because that is the days I do their groups on.