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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

Reading year 1

54 replies

MrsEms · 01/03/2017 12:23

Hi,

DD is in year 1, still five at the moment if that's relevant.
I'm wondering if anyone can tell me how she is doing with her reading. Last time I did manage to grab a couple of minutes they did say she was on target for the end of the year.
However she's only reading songbirds stage 3 books.
DD says she doing phase 5 phonics, don't know how she knows this unless the teacher told them.

Am I confusing the 3 on the book with something else and it actually doesn't mean it is phase 3 phonics?
Thanks

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BastardGoDarkly · 04/03/2017 09:50

Op my dd is same age, and also on stage 3, at parents evening on Wednesday teacher said she had a reading age of 8, and was delighted with her progress. Hope that helps a bit.

Itscurtainsforyou · 04/03/2017 10:04

For the poster who asked about spelling. My dc is on level 5 phonics and turquoise books but really struggled with learning spellings. We got an app (on recommendation from a mumsnetter) and it's really helped him. Worth a try?

mrz · 04/03/2017 12:22

My advice would be to forget the stupid phases they are unnatural barriers to learning, the way they are being used by some schools.

mrz · 04/03/2017 12:45

Decoding for reading should be taught alongside encoding for spelling as they are the two sides of the same coin. Unfortunately spelling is often an after thought if it is taught at all. Too often spelling is sending home lists of unrelated words for a weekly spelling test.

Spelling is more difficult than reading but there shouldn't be a huge lag

Zoflorabore · 05/03/2017 00:51

My dd is also year one and we've had a constant battle with her reading levels, her reading is excellent as is comprehension and she gets 9/10 10/10 every single week on her spellings.
She is on yellow books but reading blue during guided reading. we use Biff, Chip etc.

Last week I thought we had a breakthrough when she came home with green books ( 2 levels higher ) and read them comfortably.

The school then wrote that dd had put them in her bag "by mistake" even though the TA recorded the books in her reading record.

She is back to yellow again and getting fed up so we're just reading our own books alongside. According to guidelines she is below average for her year. Makes no sense to me when she can clearly read, decode and spell and the words are difficult i.e. This week she had "Wednesday" "kitchen".

Op I have a close friend who is a teacher and said year 1 is always hard as dc are still fitting in from having a lot of free play in reception class and really start to shine in year 2 as are more familiar with the tricky words, sight words.

I know in dd's class there are several dc still on the pink band who haven't moved on since the first week of reception so progress is progress! I'm taking my own advice here too as feel like I'm talking to a brick wall when I approach it at school.
They said " she's not ready to move up " yet she has proved time and time again that she is more than able- frustrating.

mrz · 05/03/2017 05:21

The National Curriculum clearly states that the books sent home should closely match the child's current phonic skills/knowledge.
If it doesn't Zoflora it suggests the school are unaware of the child's current phonics skills/knowledge. The Book banding itself doesn't work with phonics as the criteria used relies on multi cueing strategies and so do Biff and Chip books (unless they are Floppy's phonics?)

Zoflorabore · 05/03/2017 05:38

Thanks mrz:)

I am just finding it so frustrating! Dd is very able but is in a class bursting at the seams, there are multiple dc with Sen and behavioural problems and it just seems like they can't cope.

Our recent Ofsted was really bad. We were downgraded from good to requires improvement and there seems to be a lot of unhappy parents.

I posted on here last year about dd in reception. She was put on red books in march after parents evening and I asked the teacher why she hadn't moved up and felt she was "coasting"
Her response- " well you can always find another school for dd "

She was on red until she left reception in July and was eventually moved on to red in December of year one, surely that should raise alarm that she had been on the same band for so long- is that a reflection of the quality of teaching or their lack of knowledge of my dd.

She is very loud at home, chatty and engaging but her teacher said she is pretty quiet at school and has to be pushed, once pushed she then shows what she is capable of.

I honestly am not the parent who thinks my child is a genius! I think the teacher may have that impression, we are very much a family of learners and love to do well. Dd has tons of age appropriate workbooks that she loves to do, she has already learnt her times tables up to 12.
it's like the teacher and i are talking about two different girls.

Feel like she is being failed if I'm honest.

Dear me I'm sorry this was so long.

Zoflorabore · 05/03/2017 05:39

Sorry should say moved on to yellow books in December

HeadDreamer · 05/03/2017 06:35

Zoflorabore if it's any consolation my DC school is rated outstanding but the teachers are doing pretty similar as yours on reading books. DC was told she is on target of reaching expected at the end of the year. I assume it means she's average? Anyway she gets 100% on her spelling 9/10 weeks, however she is given stage 4 blue ORT books. She finds them incredibly easy and sails through them every night. We still reads them because she enjoys them. She gets 6 of them a week so not much time. For the term breaks we get books from the library to read. She can comfortably read the early readers my little pony books. I'm not sure what level those books are.

mrz · 05/03/2017 06:49

It's no longer about levels or colours (which is why book banding are no longer relevant. If your child is learning the alternative spellings for /ae/ or /ar/ or /s/ then the book sent home should reinforce that learning and provide reinforcement.

Itscurtainsforyou · 05/03/2017 09:23

Does anyone know what stage the "early reader" books are aimed at? We're currently reading them at home but not sure how they compare in terms of standard to the oxford reading scheme.

Original poster

MrsEms · 05/03/2017 11:13

Hi, all lots of replies so thank you.

Blossomdeary, I have taken on board what the teacher said, I was trying to work out if a stage 3 book was the same as phase 5 phonics because DD finds it very easy.
We read for pleasure which is why we go to the library even though we have lots of books at home because the home books are picked by me but library books are picked by DD.
BastardGoDarkly that is very reassuring. Thank you.
Mrz when DD moved into year 1 I looked at her spellings and couldn't see a pattern but now it appears there is a pattern for example the other week she had glue, chew and cute.
Zoflorabore my DD sounds similiar to yours in that 8, 9, 10 for spellings and although school haven't said what book band she is on for guided reading but in reception I was told they read one bookband higher than they bring home so assume she reads blue books like your DD.
HeadDreamer wish we got six books, we get two and after the second night DD no longer wants to read!
Mrz that is interesting, I'll have a look on the back of the book and see what sounds it says.

OP posts:

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 05/03/2017 12:29

The stage 3 songbirds are roughly phase3 I think.

Original poster

MrsEms · 05/03/2017 13:13

RafaIsTheKingOfClay so DD should or shouldn't be getting phase 3 books then?

OP posts:

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 05/03/2017 14:15

sorry. Hadn't realised that had posted

I think that's a possibility. Stages 4-6 cover the alternative spellings so if (and it's a big if) the school are matching the books to her phonic knowledge then I think I would expect her to be reading books within those stages.

Zoflorabore · 05/03/2017 14:28

Dd's spellings this week are about the silent letters with words such as "gnat" "knee" and also words like "their"

I find it baffling that she is doing so well at spelling and i test her randomly on old words yet she is still getting books that do not challenge her.

It's sad to see that others are in the same situation. All we can do is continue to support our dc at home and retain their love of reading.

mrz · 05/03/2017 14:42

Stage 5 of Letters and Sounds teaches the alternative spellings (depending on how good the teacher's phonic knowledge is )
Phase 6 teaches prefixes and suffixes

mrz · 05/03/2017 14:44

Stage 3 Songbirds are roughly phase 4 (ccvc and cvcc words as well as double consonants) from memory.

Original poster

MrsEms · 05/03/2017 14:54

Zoflorabore, my DD had knee, gnaw the other week. I do the same with randomly testing of words and she seems to do well with these then we get given these books that...

OP posts:

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 05/03/2017 15:47

CVCC, CCVC and one spelling for a number of the vowel sounds, so phase 3/4 but not in the same order as L&S.

Possibly the consonant digraphs are in there too, but they might be in Stage 2.

mrz · 05/03/2017 16:18

Level 1 is roughly phase 2 Level 2 is roughly phase 3 and Level 3 is phase 4

Original poster

MrsEms · 09/03/2017 13:36

Thanks for all the replies.
Mrz do ORT levels match to phases similar to songbirds?
She got a level 2 book last night (Wobbly tooth)

OP posts:

mrz · 09/03/2017 17:22

It depends whether they are the newer phonics books or the original version. Newer ones will be in line with Songbirds.

Original poster

MrsEms · 09/03/2017 17:47

It's a 'tatty looking' book.
It was just with you saying songbirds phase 3 is roughly phonics phase 4 I was just wondering if it meant a stage 2 ORT was phonics phase 3. It said stage 2 and school have put a blue sticker on it but it seemed really easy.

OP posts:

mrz · 09/03/2017 17:55

An older ORT doesn't match any of the phases as they were written for an entirely different reading method

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