Obsession with reading levels in Reception, bringing me to tears

[mowmylawn]

My son is an August born child currently in Reception. We had parents evening recently and I came out of it wanting to cry (OK actually crying).

The school does reading levels via Reading Recovery and PM (they look to level-out the same) and my son is currently on level 3. According to all of the charts, this is where a child in reception would be expected to be in Reception term 3. Fine, great.

However, our school has set a target for children to be on Level 8 (!!!) by the end of Reception. This, according to every chart I've seen, is what would be expected of a student at the end of Term 1, Year 1.

My son is 4 and a half years old. The teachers are making out that this is some kind of tragedy and there's no way he's going to be ready for Year 1. I wish I was exaggerating.

Someone please tell me I'm not going crazy and that this is a ridiculous target? If a kid can reach it then awesome, but to expect the youngest kid in the class who is still obsessed with dinosaurs to be reading over a year above his age? UGH, I hate these reading level obsessions!

Are you in the UK OP? Not many schools seem to use Reading Recovery, because it entails having specially qualified RR teachers (expensive). It's still popular in NZ/AUS and Europe I think. If school are worried about your child, they will/should make sure he gets loads of extra time with support staff who will practice with him all the time. My advice would be to let the school do all of the teaching, and you concentrate on reading to him, and help him really enjoy books. A love of reading and knowledge of language/words is what really matters in the long term IMO. Good luck!

I really wouldn’t worry. Just read with him for pleasure every night. Children are made readers on the laps of their parents.

Well - we do know not all children can read effectively in primary schools. So they don’t all catch up.

The point is though that why is it Reading Recovery? Is he doing phonics? Just get loads of fun books that you read to him and try and vary the diet away from school books. I used to get my DC to try and read anything we saw including “No Parking” signs, supermarket info signs etc etc. It doesn’t have to be books! Quizzes in museums/ places of interest that you do with him and anything that uses words is good! Build up words you see in real life.

Curious whether the school was private or state. Seems harsh to expect that level from ALL kids in reception.

I think it depends what books the school is using. At our dc school end of reception is level 3. But of course there are some kids still level 1 and some kids level 6 by the end! Level 8, would be considered at year 2 level....however, level 8 books at our school have loads of text and if you can read level 8, you can read RD (chapter books).

Chronological age should be taken into account, it is ridiculous at Reception stage to expect all children to reach the same level by the end of the year. I would write a strongly worded letter to the HT stating that you expect your DS to be treated as an individual. He should have individual targets based on his chronological age and ability/progress to date. Just try to make sure your DS enjoys books and stories and read to him and with him at his level as much as you can.