Reading bands

[Itsallfuckery]

Just wondering what reading band your year 2 children are all on? My dd is coming home with lime books since moving from white, but I’m sure with dd1 we jumped from white to free reading in year 2. These books seem so blinking tedious!

Dd is also being held back. Yes you can/should read other things at home. However, it's wasting our time, even 10 or less min reading say purple when we could be getting into a chapter book. Or project x grey/lime etc book.

I just read the chapter books with ds. Also ended up reading normal picture books too that are designed for adults to read to children so often have harder vocabulary.

Tomorrow, back when my ds's teacher said ds can't go beyond lime in KS1, I felt baffled. But we passed that stage now, and I don't think it really mattered.
Funny thing is, they do have online reading scheme in ks2 as well, which goes up to yr6. So basically he skipped all the levels in between and put on to the last ks2 level since start of ks2. Wonder why they couldn't allocate him with ks2 books while in ks1. School systems are weird sometimes.

Thankyou for the book band chart, I had no idea the bands continued for so long, as the highest we’ve ever had sent home until now was white, but as I say that was a few years ago. I guess our school has introduced lime in that time, and possibly beyond. We are free reading at home, and enjoy encyclopaedias etc, so I’m sure we are on the right track. I just wish the book band books were a little more engaging, even the project x ones with a slightly more involved plot don’t hold dds interest for long, I feel it’s literally just decoding words for us, where as with the longer chapter books and non fiction, we can discuss the storyline and make predictions etc after, so it’s not a case of there being no comprehension, it’s just boredom!

Ds1 is on grey, but they do their own levels after ORT orange. At a guess considering the type of books he's bringing home I would put him at about purple/white.

Dd1 in y2 is on topaz. I think it's bloody ridiculous because she can read more or less any book. I tend to get our own books to read after a cursory zoom through the school book.

DS was held back in Reception. He went on to Green before Xmas and stayed there for the rest of the year. I nudged several times and ended up supplementing with books at home. When he started Y1 he went turquoise straight away and then purple after half term.

I figure they do it to show progress from one year to the next, by holding back in Reception it boosts their stats for yr 1. Although happy to be corrected by someone who knows.

I don't think it's stats because noone collects stats on reading levels. I think it's convenience. It's more hassle to have one child on a different level to the rest of the class, having to get books from a different room, having to check there's nothing age-inappropriate etc. At our school they also do guided reading in groups so the whole group bring the same scheme books home. So my very fluent chapter book reader is bringing home level 4-5 books. Teacher knows that's not her level but didn't want her to feel left out.
At previous school DS was often held back, turned out they hadn't actually bought the higher levels yet (new school). Pure logistics.

"I figure they do it to show progress from one year to the next, by holding back in Reception it boosts their stats for yr 1. Although happy to be corrected by someone who knows. "

As catkind says no one collects information on which book band a child is reading only on the skills and knowledge relating to National Curriculum expectations. Book bands don't correlate with the new curriculum so absolutely no advantage in limiting which books a child can read in any year group.

Though we have experienced the showing progress problem with NC assessments. Said fluent chapter book reader was assessed as working towards EYFS 40-60 goals when she started school. They could teach her nothing for the rest of infants and still show good progress as far as reading went.

We don't keep books in classrooms they're available in a central area accessible to all classes.

Catkind it's possible to show progress from any starting point unless of course the child doesn't actually make progress.

Yeah, but if you don't bother assessing up to where the child's actually at, you don't have to bother teaching a child who's inconveniently outside the norm, you can just show "progress" by assessing against the next set of criteria.

Yes I sound cynical. I don't see how else I can interpret baselining a child who can read (and who's told you they can read, and whose preschool have told you they can read in case you didn't believe pushy parents) without once hearing them read in the first half term.

I kind of agree with cat. I don't think my ds has progressed during infant years at school tbh, all the progress was made at home regarding literacy and especially maths.

In ds’ case I think it is laziness by both the teacher and the school this year. In both maths and reading he is ahead yet he’s not given challenging work. He’s an easy child to hit targets and they are coasting.

I don't think it's laziness of teacher ime. I just think they are out of their depth, tbh, in my ds's teachers's case, or lack of time and resources.

I suspect it's laziness or poor teacher knowledge in the case of catkind child too. Baselining on entry informs teaching.

I think new NC is very convenient way of assessing able children imo. As long as they say GDS, it really doesn't need to show how much progress(or not) the dc made in the year. Old one at least was very visual to see if the child has progressed from lv2 to lv3 whatever, or more precise sub level degree. Though my ds stayed on lv3 for reading at the start of yr1 to end of yr2, so which was pointless as well.

Tbh it isn’t just this that informs the decision. Ds also has some writing delays and they aren’t assessing that either. They know they should be but because he’ll hit his targets they aren’t

With ds I have also been told they want to let other kids catch up.

Has anyone been told that their child needs to read x number of words a minute before being moved up a band?
DD is in y1. A month ago her teacher told me she would like DD to move up a band, but they tested her and she can't read 70 words a minute, and until that happens she won't be moved up. There was even talk of moving her down a band but I said no way.
So does anyone have any experience of this?

The old assessment measures like the new were never intended to be used in Y1,3,4 or 5 and technically sub levels didn't exist in the National Curriculum. Progress should be clear without the need to assign numbers of letters or colours.

The new interim framework for the end of Y2 sets out a reading speed of 90 words per minute which I assume is where your child's school has based this stupid expectation