Free reading by end of reception... what happens in year one

[Tomorrowillbeachicken]

Sorry to annoying but looking for some help. If a child is free reading by end of reception what did they do with the child in year one and two when the other children were reading their reading books in class?

Flumplet – take him to the library. There is plenty of suitable material out there, but make sure you have a quick check yourself, so you know it's suitable.

In my experience the able children just sit in a corner by themselves and just read silently most of the time the rest are doing reading lessons. At best they get reading comprehension worksheets to do while the others read in groups with reading books. We now home educate as the school never extended able children...

ijustwanna, my ds would have nightmare with that, and he is 9 now!

Mine were reading a LOT of the dreaded beast quest, dinosaur cove, astrosaurs, jack stalwart, Mr Majeika, Oliver Moon etc by the end of reception. All age appropriate.

By the end of year 1 they were both reading some of the gentler Michael Morpurgo e.g. the butterfly lion, adolphus tips, kaspar prince of cats etc Then DS2 became obsessed by atticus claw for a bit. They simply had these books in place of Biff and Chip. They still joined in all of the phonics lessons which I was pleased about since those decoding skills are useful even when you "can read" since they will constantly be coming across new words.

Both of mine still regularly come out with odd pronunciations for words they have only ever seen written down in books.

For phonics lessons, ds had normal lesson in reception as others, plus sent to yr2 for letters and sounds. In Yr1, he was sent to yr2. In yr2, he stayed in yr2.
But I think getting basic phonics is important, even for able readers, and ds never complained.

Littlepinkmouse, teacher here. I have never sat an able child in the corner with a book. There are plenty of methods good experienced teachers use to lead a group of readers of varying abilities.

Ty all. I wonder if sitting them in corner will happen less with the progress scores?

"In my experience the able children just sit in a corner by themselves and just read silently most of the time the rest are doing reading lessons" oh dear you've had pretty poor experience.

"Free reading by end of reception is gifted & talented, surely?" Free reading has so many different definitions so it's a pretty useless guide to reading ability.

"If a child is free reading by end of reception what did they do with the child in year one and two when the other children were reading their reading books in class?"
They read their reading book.

"Would they continue with phonics lessons?"
Yes. Have they learnt the 180ish common ways the 44 sounds can be spelt in English?

Ty mrz.

"In terms of phonics, there isn't any phonics to teach so they are wondering what to do there too." So your child knows 11? 12 ?ways the sound "ae " can be spelt in English?

Yes they continue with phonics it becomes more phonics for writing.
Reading wise there is focus for advanced readers on inference, comprehension, grammar, punctuation and applying what you learn from reading In your own writing.

Just because you can read any book doesn't mean you can comprehend it. Irony, humour, inference, sarcasm are all quite advanced concepts. My dd was a great reader but she of course still had a lot to learn! Non fiction, poetry, plays are all good to read as,well as fiction.

Tbh, able reader can easily be challenged compared to able mathematician at school.
If they love books, they will just keep reading books which interest them.
Even slightly unchallenged books can be good for other purposes rather than just decoding.
I still enjoy reading children's books as an adult, so why not children, just because they can decode every word.

Mrs- I meant free reading in the sense that the op did - i.e. Child has progressed through all the reading stages to the top band by end of reception, which is pretty good by anyone's standards.

Yes I understand that but it wouldn't mean the same in other schools. The Ops child is reading purple book bands which is good but by no means exceptional in reception.
At age 5 a child's receptive vocabulary is relatively small which places a limit on ability to understand what they are reading unless supported.

Mrz, my ds jumped from purple to lime in one term....anything can be possible, ime.

He can easily read purple and can pretty much read anything tbh.
He's gone up two bands this half term and tbh the band is still very easy and he can comprehend the books. Verbally he's advanced anyhow so he is now just catching up with that too in his reading.

Hi OP, we're kind of there - DD was probably free reading by most interpretations of the term before she started reception. Our experience in reception is she does sit in the phonics lessons, which are basically singing practice for her but she enjoys it anyway. She has a chapter book which she occasionally reads from to the teacher. And they have much higher expectations from her for writing and spelling. I'd expect similar in year 1.

There are plenty of books they can read that are still age-appropriate but more challenging in terms of vocabulary and complexity. Old stuff is often good, winnie the pooh etc.

All very well saying there is phonics they don't know. The stuff DD doesn't know is not going to get taught in year 1 (or year 2 or year 3).

Ignore the reading ages, but a word-reading test like Schonell (google it) is quite interesting for seeing roughly where the limits of their vocabulary and their phonics lie. I also think of DD as having very strong vocab, but that was what ran out first.

Jumping book bands wouldn't be a good indicator as unfortunately they don't match national curriculum expectations.
I've taught reception children who were total non readers at Christmas and lime band by the summer but I wouldn't class them as free readers because they still have lots to learn. We never stop learning and improving

Just curious as I went on the website for the reading chest. Where else can I find books listed in the book bands in the UK? Is there a series that is better for special needs? Something with tactile, noises, anything like that?

Mrz, free reader seems to me the way school try and cap the progress(or justify not getting resources ) in KS1. Unfortunately my ds' year didn't have many advanced readers, it could have been different if there was, they could have carried on up to lv 16 like some other school does, or had to think about the way to differentiate at higher levels.

Quite often free reader simply means "we haven't got any suitable books so read what you like".
We don't use book banding so that doesn't limit expectations.

Tbh, I don't think our school(or this particular teacher) is so good at tracking children's progress,
They don't mind children reading any books, which is good.
But also, my ds was out of books to read on bug club last term, and took forever for teacher to reassign books, and now he is out of books again for over two weeks, even he has told the teacher already as soon as he finished the last book. And we get weekly homework to use bug club!

We cancelled our Bug Club subscription because we had so many technical issues with it and the books just weren't challenging (or inspiring) good readers