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?

Mine were. They went through all the phonics lessons to cement learning. There were a lot of bright kids in the groups anyway and the teachers were very used to differentiating.

We accessed both school and public library for reading material. We couldn't afford to buy the books as one DS would read 8-15 books a week at speed.

Some of mine are at secondary now and I put their excellent grades down to their book addiction. I let mine read what ever they fancied and put no emphasis on stretching them academically. Mine read purely for the love of it which often meant reading slightly below their ability level. A friend once recommended quantity/reading joy above difficulty/pressure in primary. He mentioned something about quantity and a holding a wider range of scenarios and writing styles, also fostering a love of reading.

I agree, it wasn't challenging in terms of text, lime level books there seemed even easier than real lime books . But at least in KS1, he enjoyed the selection of books, which included genre he normally wouldn't touch.(play, poetry,etc.)
Did have technical issue at the beginning, but seems to be ok now.

No bug club here. Been suggested books to read over the summer for him by the teacher, as I mentioned the summer reading challenge, and since they are nowhere near purple it has made me realise that he may well start next year off the book bands, hence the question.
It's been an odd year though. He was a non reader in october, now that's definitely not the case.
At home I have bought books but he much prefers Minecraft or Lego encyclopaedias or manuals on how to make a netherportal over fiction or a human body book. At the moment.

Ds's school really don't mind what the children read, as long as they read.
My ds's choice sometimes included games strategy guides, first aid manuals, computer programming text books, survival guide books, etc.
Listening to him reading them aloud was odd for me though.

Older 'classic' children's books can have gentler themes coupled with slightly harder language, so might be good for a younger advanced reader.

So for example

• Milly Molly Mandy
• Ballet Shoes
• Swallows & Amazons + the other 11 in the series

Lol, I'll send in the minecraft books. Be nice for him to further explain the joys of making netherportals to someone other than me.

My daughter was very advanced at the end of reception, but not quite free reading. They still all do phonics (read write inc) everyday to help with spelling etc, she is in the top group but the reading is still very easy for her. But I do think it has been of benefit in terms of helping her spell so not complaining. For actual reading the top group all read the same book (banded lime but done by the school themselves so could be anything, we've had some roald dahl for example), and in fairness although the children are high ability the books are not really challenging my daughter most of the time. Unfortunately I dont seem to be able to get her interested in
reading more appropriate books at home, she can pretty much read and understand any word now but is not interested in longer books.

Vickster - same problem, my ds is good at reading & always has been but just not interested in reading for pleasure, I can't understand it as I lived my life through books at his age! (Probably too much in a way, I internalised too much of fictional characters and their opinions, some of which were very old-fashioned. Something to look out for with quiet bookworms who read a lot of older fiction especially, it can make them "a bit odd" to peers who don't/havent read as widely or read more up to date material).

Sorry to ask a slightly different question but what are the woodpecker ort books? I'm getting these now instead of biff and chip and never seen them before.
They are a book with short stories in and vary from stage 6 to 9.

Quick google tells you it's very old series published in 1987!

My eldest was a free reader by the end of reception too - she read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory over the summer holidays before Y1 - and so her Y1 teacher had her as G&T but she left before the end of the school year to teach abroad and my daughter was taken off G&T because apparently the school 'don't do that anymore'

As far as I remember, she went into the Y3 class whilst her own Y1/Y2 class did their phonics lessons, but I can't remember what she did during that time. At first the teachers thought she couldn't possibly have any comprehension of what she was reading but after she was explaining some of the jokes in the Roald Dahl books she was reading, they believed her. She's now in Y4 but she spent such a long time at school being told she was a fantastic reader etc etc that it all went to her head and she got really lazy when it came to applying herself to her work. She's still quite lazy at school so I wish they hadn't made such a fuss about her reading.

My middle one was also able to decode pretty much anything they put in front of her by the end of reception (think she got a reading age of 14 for her reading test, which just involves actually reading, not comprehension) but her comprehension was not anywhere near the same level so she wasn't a free reader, just on a high book band until her comprehension skills caught up. She also went up to the Y3 class whilst Y1/Y2 were doing phonics.

Vickster My middle child is the same. She's 8 now and although she's perfectly capable of reading much longer chapter books, she quite often chooses picture books from the library rather than more challenging texts (things like Shirley Hughes books, or Oliver Jeffers ones). She's just not the book-crazed addict that my eldest is. She enjoys reading but would rather be outside.

Don't confuse length with challenge. Many picture books have extremely challenging text

My youngest son could read and understand well by the time had finished reception, and was a 'free reader''. He just read school library books after that. But he was still involved with phonics lessons, although it was more about spelling then. I still heard him read every evening , at home.
Our school has book bands which go up to things like pearl and sapphire ( can't quite remember what the last band is) , but anything after lime is considered free reading.
The problem with reading schemes is that the further you go up, the content is aimed at older children. If your child is that good a reader, and truly understands what they are reading, and can give you a good definition of unusual vocabulary, then just let them read 'ordinary' books aimed at their age group. Some beautiful picture books have quite challenging texts, but are age-appropriate.

Hah cross posted Mrz!!

To update, he is now off the book band books and reading small chapter books and working on his comprehension and recall.

My son was allowed to go and chose books from the KS2 library, and similarly when he was older could access the year 7 and 8 library in year 5. The school should be able to tell you how they would deal with this.

Tbf I avoided the subject until recently. But ds' teacher is the literacy coordinator so I spoke to her and she has assured me that they have made some provisions for him next year.

my DD was "free reading " by year 2. She totally understood words, meaning and comprehension....I think some teachers cling to this idea many dc cant when they can.....No teacher I have spoken to has had a real grasp on what dd does understand....

But I have not found major interest beyond getting them to read to be fair. Anyway her and her friends some of whom are also voracious readers are still on level 14 in year 4 !!