Year 1 reading test ? what what?

[user1488823055]

So I've just left our parent teaching consultation for our 6 yearold DD in year 1. She's been doing really well at school only that they have introduction a new reading test which now puts her from top to a year behind in reading! I know this is only a test and next year it will be something different but slightly concerned that last parents evening she was in top group for everything and now I am told she needs extra teaching. At home shes come on noticeably with maths and English. Does anyone know what this test is? Her teaching said 'its definitely not Biff Chip and Floppy.'

Phonics practice test?
www.theschoolrun.com/year-1-phonics-screening-check

Nope asked that, not a phonics test a reading test

No idea then.

Could they be talking about the y2 sats? Which increased in difficulty last year? If so, I'd say y1 is a bit premature to be worrying about it!

I don't think there is official reading test for yr1. That must be something to do with your own school. But it's very odd she would go from top to year behind...unless your school's level is very low nationally.

All I can find online is about year 2 yeah so that's why I'm confused that they are testing my DD. The teacher did say that they had suddenly increased the difficultly.....strange. She did say most of the class didn't do very well. Not surprised if it was aimed at year2!

No very good school, why we moved to the area x

slightly concerned that last parents evening she was in top group for everything and now I am told she needs extra teaching

I presume you asked them to explain this discrepancy? What did they say?

What books is she reading currently? Is it her decoding or her comprehension that is the issue?

If they used test aimed for yr2, they can't say children in yr1 are year behind, surely? Is your school super selective or something?

Comprehension is good, she understands and predicts the story and meaning is what I was told. She reads three books + a week - Biff Chip etc and red dragon series I think its called level 3, From her school and then some extra ones she has at home.
When I asked why they said they were not expecting the tests to be like this/hard and that the powers that be had increased the difficulty of the tests that they were conducting last year.

I just wondered if anyone new what the tests were so I could see an example online to understand what the hell they were on about x thanks everyone for replying xx

Yes, I think you have to ask the teacher/school. It doesn't sound like normal practice.

thanks thats ok then, thought I was going mad

There are no statutory reading tests for year 1, so it's just something they have bought in, presumably.

Our school tracks the progress of children in every year to see if they are meeting age or year related expectations. These are presumably based on the national curriculum for the year the child is in and the teachers must be assessing the children regularly - though whether this is through formal testing or continuous assessment I'm not sure. I'd guess that the tracking of pupil progress is required in all state schools in England, though the actual process will vary between schools.

The expectations for primary school children were all changed last year and the demands have increased a lot.

Biff Chip etc and red dragon series

This one? www.goodreads.com/book/show/28877.Red_Dragon
That's a tough book for a year 1 kid... surprised they don't get nightmares!

A year behind now though would be half way through reception, which meant she's not secure in enough phonics for the year one check - I'd imagine based on the kids I know that that would need a pretty poor cohort to be top at the end of reception without that, many kids in DD's class were there in reception.

Many schools use commercial reading tests. It's normal practice. There is a huge range available to choose from. Some test single word reading, some sentence reading, some test reading accuracy and comprehension. They give a reading age, standardised score and percentile. I imagine the school has used one of these tests.

We have reading tests by Pearson. They are half-termly and correspond to book bands. They are similar to SATs in style, and involve reading comprehension.
We also use them for maths assessment.

www.pearsonschoolsandfecolleges.co.uk/Primary/Assessment/All-Assessment-Resources/Progress-and-Assess/Progress-and-Assess.aspx

Should add these are quite challenging! But we do Bug Club in school, (which is also Pearson) and Activelearn, so the questioning is the same .

Every school I've worked in have used something different. My current school has used a Nelson reading test (that's about 100 years old ), Rigby Stars tests and last year PIRA and PUMA tests.

I would ask to speak to the teacher again to find out what kind of test it was and where exactly she is struggling. In my experience children are much better at answering retrieval questions but can find the inference questions tricky. To know how to support your DD you need to know where she struggled.

That should be Rising Stars, think Rigby Stars are reading books. That's how many different tests I've seen, can't even remember the name

I agree inference questions are what children find difficult. This last half term several children in Year 2 found putting events in order of occurrence difficult, even though that is something we go over time and again.

Pira reading test is used in schools.

Are you sure it wasn't that they tried last May's Y2 SATs reading paper on the class, and when they said 'a year behind' what they meant was that the class still has over a year to go until they sit their actual Y2 papers, so it is perfectly fine for her not to have achieved top marks? As in, she's a year behind (the level she needs to be at in a year (and a bit)), so all is good?

You can download last year's SATS papers from .gov.uk and show them to your child to see if those were the ones.

It just seems surprising that the teacher would have needed a test to show her that your child was 'a year behind' when she/he had previously judged your child to be ahead of (class) average. That would indicate that the teacher really did not know your child very well at all. And did none of the 'continual assessment' we are constantly assured the teachers do.

That said, level three Biff&Chip books at this stage in Y1 sounds unusual for top group. But I do know that some schools have strange policies regarding their home reading books. What sort of other books does she read at home?