What level per age?

[mummyhaschangedhername]

Just that really, mine are on the dreaded Biff and Chip series. Just wondering what ages and levels everyone's children are on, as an average.

For clarity, mine are not good readers, two have additional needs so I know they are way way behind average, but I'm proud of how much progress they have made.

Mine;

Reception year: they haven't even started her, she's on the level 0 with no words 🙈
Year 2: level 2 and level three (although ready for 4 next change)
Year 4: level 6 but read it impeccably.

My year 4 boy has only been reading since juniors, he was out of school for 9 months and hadn't even started reaching before that as school struggled to engage with him, one of the year 2 children has significant Learning needs. The other one is lazy and I think he's possibly dyslexic (I am, as is my father, plus my husband shows signs but was never diagnosed).

I know they are very behind, but kind of what's to gauge on average, especially for those in schools that are in less affluent areas. My mum bought the series and we read with them to try and help them along, but it's a struggle, I've always read to them and they see my read a lot. The three oldest, boys, have all progressed a lot this year but even still I am aware they are very far behind and my daughter who hasn't even started yet worries me but then most of the class are not reading yet either (although I'm doing high frequency word cards with her).

Can tell you the stated expected level book bands for my own children's school if that helps (but bear in mind we're a fairly high achieving school in a very leafy middle class area and take with a pinch of salt accordingly).

Our expected levels are Yellow band (so ORT level 3) leaving Reception; Turquoise (ORT level 7) end of Y1; Lime (ORT 11) end of Y2... we don't have any higher in terms of expectations as we're only an infant school.

Mine were ahead in terms of reading and it's now starting to level off into Y2 - some of the real late starters have absolutely shot up in terms of reading as well.

This is what ORT say:

Level 3 end of reception
Level 6 end of Y1
Level 11 end of Y2

www.oxfordowl.co.uk/for-home/find-a-book/oxford-reading-tree-levels/

I guess some schools might aim higher at the end of Y1 so there are less levels to get through by the end of Y2.

This has something about the levels going beyond 11. I don't really understand why 'brown' (which is supposed to be Y3) covers levels that aren't up to 11, and doesn't go beyond that. Perhaps it is because they change the content, even if they don't change the level.

www.oupjapan.co.jp/sites/default/files/contents/eduk/projectx/images/PX_Origins_Chart_2014.pdf

It is specifically in relation to project X but it is similar to the one I found somewhere at some point on the Oxford Owl website (was a while ago now). I think this reflects the new expectations, within which the expected level is higher than level 16 (which is what it was in the old NC tables I think).

The switch to decodable reading books affected the levels as well.

Lots of publishers mark their books with a band, but they aren’t very consistent in how they do it. The equivalent banding of phase 3/4 isn’t the same across publishers and often that band is higher than the level that used to be expected when schools used look and say books in reception.

Our school seems to have different coloured bands from other local school but in terms of ORT I think the expectation is level 3 by end of reception. I only know this because DD had a report recently saying she was ahead of what was expected by end of reception and she's on ORT level 4. I think we're a typical Mumsnet reception reader...as she's August born and 4.5 but reading year 1 books.

We have really good results strangely despite the fact the children enter school at a much lower than expected level, our "valued added" is good, but I know most of us as parents keep asking why our reception age children haven't moved on to stage one yet. About half the class is on stage one and no one is on level 2. Certainly something to look at with my governor hat on.

As for my own, I'll keep pushing them, I think one problem is they only move them up when ready, I know one had to keep pushing a lot in the past so will need to do that too.

I've done volunteer reading with children in school but I probably should have been more aware of expected levels really.

I think that there’s a lot of discrepancy between what different schools define as ‘ready’ to move up. SOMetimes there’s a discrepancy between what they’re sent home with and what they read in class as well.

The NC says books in year 1 should be closely matched to the phonics knowledge of the child. Obviously that’s not statutory for EYFS, but it’s a good rule of thumb to be using in Reception or for older children who still need decodable reading books.

When you say value added, is that the KS1-2 progress measure?

My daughter is in year 1 and on stage 8. They seem to have moved her through the stages really quickly and although she is very good at reading I think she may have benefitted staying on each stage a little longer.

My little one in nursery, starting reception in September hasn't started any Biff or Chip books yet. They just pick and bring one home from their little book corner.

@RafaIsTheKingOfClay - yes, I guess the value added is the increase in grades I guess. It's a measure of the impact of that school I guess. So all children are inspected at reception and from that we can make predictions on what "grades" they will leave primary with. Different schools have different impacts on how much that is likely to change by. So despite the fact our children start lower than average, they finish at average usually. Although it's an imperfect measure as it includes all children including those in our AN unit which will severely impact out score this year, but swings and roundabouts.

I was talking to my husband about it today and said how he needs to be more proactive with the reading. They usually all read with me and my mum every week day, but he can maybe help out on the weekends when things slip more.

I'm certainly going to raise it at our next governor meeting too.

Sorry about all the "I guesses" I wrote that over a few sittings because I've had deliveries and projects all day (house renovation), plus I'm very new to the governors so only just had training on this, so I'm still getting my head around it.

I had a very able reading dc. They could decode and blend cvc at 3.5yo. But i didnt do any more because i wasnt sure about the tricky words. By the end of yr r they could read brown/grey band so like 12+. Our school were very slow to move up because they only read with the teacher very rarely. In fact i knew they hadnt been because when they did suddenly levels were skipped.
What i did was reading chest from maybe Jan of yr r. So we were consistently reading maybe 3 extra a week of the decodable books. As we only got 2/w from school. I was also moving dc to the level i thought they should be at. So several ahead of school. So by the end of yr r they were 2y ahead by school yrs and probably 3 because they are young in the year. To me the system of teachers deciding levels seems crazy as they are so busy and possibly rarely listen to kids.
It is practice that is needed and so more books and longer ones if tye child is finishing them quickly. Tbh it has made little difference as many other dc have seemed to catch up this year but it has increased their vocab and we have read so many books already. However i realise now we would have been better maybe to balanve out with the maths which seemed to suddenly get harder in yr1

Your children are doing fabulous op, that's all that matters.

I'm a massive reader and dd couldn't have been less interested when she started reception. I was slightly gutted!
She stayed on red level during the whole of reception and then began to show some interest in year one and then flew through the levels. She began to read for pure pleasure and is now in year 3 and is on ORT level 18 which is at the top end of the class.

Dd tells me that some dc are still on red, others on green etc, they're all so different and in a class of 30 there will be no average.
Last time I remember my dd was on "pearl" as they use colours but I've not checked what the current colour is as she's not long been moved up.
Ds (16) has never picked up a book for pleasure and only read in primary school because he had to, despite being a great reader.

Our school has a very working class, low achieving catchment.
Dd age 5 is the best reader in her year 1 on level 8. Her BF is on level 4 and there are certainly others below him.
Ds was on level 4 at the end of yr R