Reading level in year 1 primary.....what should I expect?

[Panyanpickle77]

Hi, DD has just started in year 1 primary, and seems to be doing well with her reading. She's come home today with a note in her reading record saying "well done you've gone up to level 4". Is this a good acheivement as I have absolutely no idea what level she should be on (ok makes me look like a bit of a sap but there you go lol!)? Any info gratefully received. Cheers

I think as long as she is progressing that is great - it can be counter productive to compare what levels other children are on.

Every Primary school have different levels. For example, at our school Dc choose out of abox that is colour coded, we do not have level 1,2,3 etc. There is a mixture of fiction and non fiction. They have to read a good wide selection before they are moved onto the next level. You will also find that children from other schools are on higher levels than your DC (this happened to my DC), when I spoke to parents about how impressed I was about their DC, I realised that my Dc were slower because they were having a wider reading matter, rather than just one reading scheme for example The oxford reading Tree. I did not mind this then, because my DC can read more or less anything, and they are not just learning a certain style of print!

I'm not interested in what level other children are on, I'm just wanting an average for this stage. I wouldn't dream of asking anyone what here child was reading, as its got nothing to do with me. Is there an average level that they hope kid will reach is probably a more appropriate question.

levele depend on what reading scheme it is - if it is oxford reading tree then google it and I am pretty sure the parents page (or somewhere) give you average levels for ages. But the thing is that is all it is - average. there have been threads on this before and someone posted a link to the levels page I am talking about, but google should find it.

Cheers . I'm pleased if she is doing well in relation to her peers, but I'm more concerned that she is doing well on a personal level.....I'm just not sure what the "levels" point to? She's reading the "Ginn Reading 360" books if that has any bearing.

I've checked my ORT level table and level 4 is second term yr 1 ie ages 5 to 5 and a half. Sorry can't link to actual table

Sorry can't help with Ginn

hum, can't find anything useful on the Ginn books.

Cheers indignatio, thats all I was looking for. As long as she's not struggling and is on a par for age, I'm fine. (I suppose I could just wait till tomorrow and ask her teacher at parents evening, but I didn't want to much of a dope for not having a clue lol!). Cheers all xx

mrsaek - the ORT levels that indignatio is referring to are a different scheme to the Ginn ones, so the levels won't necessarly correspond. I can't find anything on Ginn levels though.

this is the problem I had! I think I'll just wait till tomorrow and ask her teacher, showing how dumb I am at the same time lol!

Ginn blue are the average at the moment in our year 1 class

It's not dumb at all - why (how) would you be expected to know. Hope the meeting goes well.

The new one is lime green, but her last one was blue. I'll google and see what I can find

I can't find it at the moment but on the dfes website is a list of reading colour bands and what level they equate to I'll keep looking. Sounds like he's doing well though.

If they are the ORT colours (ie the school reading scheme used books from all sorts of reading schemes) then green (after blue) includes books of level 4 (average reading age mentioned below) to level 7 (ie 6 to 6 and a half).

It has to be remembered that there is a huge gap between the age of the oldest child and the youngest child in year 1. Also some children will have been at school for three terms and in some areas some children might have only had one term of education.

It sounds like your DD is doing well.

Here's a link to the ORT Guide to Parents - there is a chart a few pages down. It has levels and colours but the colours aren't always right. Some of them aren't the same as the colours we had last year (Yr 2)

ORT Guide to Parents

I would have thought that there would be some sort of universal colour scheme, as it would all become a bit confusing otherwise. Taking that into account, it looks like she is at a level appropriate to her age and year group........I shall see tomorrow, if the teacher is happy then so am I!

cheers Niecie I'll have a look at the link

our school uses alot of different schemes which are coloured with little tape bands - so ones of a similar level are a similar tape colour. I definately haven't noticed any theme running through the colour levels of the different scheme books at the level ds is at. Also some are numbered, others are names, so that doesn't work either.

There IS a universal colour scheme I'm sure of it - unless I dreamt it . Our school use a variety of reading books - ginn are our main scheme books. They are all classified under different colour bands which is the same as what I've seen on the gov website. I'm on a mission now to find it!

I think in DS's infant school they probably added books to a colour which weren't part of ORT. I am wondering if they used an old version of the colours - some of them were the same as the chart, some weren't.

The is a gov book which grades all schemes to the same level (though my mum did it through her infant school and said it was crap (lots of books at the wrong level). I'm not sure if that it coloured (or whether schools just colour it themselves). I suppose if it is then schemes may have started following that colouring.
DS is on the blue basket atm - and last week had some level 3 ORT books and this week has a level 4 one and a level 5 one - . Not sure what that says about their baskets!

Our school uses colour bands across the various schemes - ORT, Rigby, Ginn etc - someone linked to it on here once.