How are your year 1 readers doing?

[imamearcat]

I know there's a big range etc. And have looked over previous posts, but this year has been a bit different to usual years!

Summer born DD in an independent school. She was on red for ages until I emailed her teacher this week and not she's come home with blue! I'm a bit annoyed at the teacher tbh but that's another story.

I'm hoping blue is ok for a younger Y1? I have read with her a lot over the summer and it seems like it's starting to click. But I know some kids in her class are reading chapter books!

5 year old DD is on orange and reads them without too much work involved. I think she'll likely move up soon, reading is her strong point.

Handwriting though? Whole other kettle of fish

Practice here is our saviour and nemesis. Over first lockdown, we managed 3 weeks of reading each day then quickly became nothing (both working FT full on jobs- 3 kids), and we completely neglected their learning, just to cope. Everyone told us not to worry but she forgot how to read!
Dds school are great, we gets 5 books each week and flashcards and she's getting into the swing of it again, with lractice.
She has great handwriting, phonics is strong but my God she can see the same tricky word on every page and it's like the first time she's seen it!

Mine is on orange but reading them very easily. At home she reads chapter books (Roald Dahl at the moment). She was on green before lockdown back in reception. We read a lot of Oxford Owl online during lockdown and she was mainly reading (and understanding) turquoise, brown, purple. It just clicked at some point around Easter.

They didn't assess them when they went back so they put her back on green which were way too easy. I contacted the teacher and they assessed her on the next level up and moved her up. I wish they'd baselined her rather than just moving up one level at a time as she is still finding them easy, but I guess there is a reason for it. So I have just left it. We only get two books a week since COVID so she's just reading a lot of her own/ Library books.

They have only just moved on to new phonics at school; they've been repeating phase 3 for all of the first half term.

DH & I worked all the way through lockdown but we got my parents to read the e-books with her via facetime which worked really well.

Tbf this is a guess based on how ridiculously easy her books are. Trying to get information from dd about what she does at school is like trying to get blood from a stone
She has had books that are way too easy for her pretty much from day 1 of learning to read though, we've always just given her challenging books at home. I'm starting to lose faith in the school if I'm honest, for this and for various other reasons.

Aah the quote didn't work, that was in response to
“I'm shocked at hearing children haven't been heard reading at school in a month or more.“

Me too. Mine in years 1 and 2 are heard weekly

I find the system quite confusing. My son was on stage 7/8 (turquoise/purple) of Biff Chipper in reception (he was an early reader so pretty fluent) and being given early easy chapter books (as someone mentions upthread stuff like Horrid Henry). In the first half term of year one he was moved back down to stage 3/4 so I asked the teacher why and she said that’s where she assessed him at. Anyway since half term he’s on stage 9 (gold) which is about where he was in reception. I don’t get the leaping about. I have a sneaking suspicion he is mucking about when reading to the teacher or assistant ie not reading properly, maybe because the text is too easy or boring. And there are children in the year who have come off the reading scheme as they don’t need it. So there really are all levels.

I don't think they will be reading chapter books yet? That sounds really advance. I think the oxford reading tree link has already got the expected levels. DC2 is a very strong reader (compared to DC1) and she's on orange. She can read the picture books like Julia Donaldson at home. Or a joke book. I've never seen her pick up one of the chapter books and read!

Just turned 6 year old who is in primary 2 is on Red band Oxford book

No idea if he behind , ahead or at the right level for his age but he has definitely made a lot of progress since being back in school so I'm pleased at that.

@NotGenerationAlpha some children will be reading chapter books. At the same age, DD1 read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to herself, and I know she read and understood it because she was able to tell me exactly what the differences between the book and the film were.

@Smellybluecheese - we are in exactly the same position with DD2. She finished Reception on blue, we spent lockdown and summer reading with her and she's now reading fluently. School have levelled her up to between blue and green, which is honestly a joke.

Oh, and in case I come across as being obsessed by reading levels, I really am not (and in DD2's case her writing is a long, long way behind her reading). It's just that I find it baffling that DD's reading is advanced at home (and she can tick all the boxes of understanding inference, making predictions etc etc) but not apparent at school.

@NotGenerationAlpha what can I say other than she is definitely genuinely reading chapter books to herself (and to me). She's reading the Giraffe, the Pelly and Me at the moment, having just finished the Twits. We talk about the stories and she is definitely understanding them (she corrects me on details). She also likes Horrid Henry as mentioned by previous posters. Oh, and Flat Stanley was a big hit. I think there is a really wide variety at this age and they all catch up by the end of year 2. At least that is what teacher BIL tells me. She is one of the older ones in the year (nearly 6) which probably helps.

@onemouseplace Yes, it's very frustrating. The school reading books are pretty pointless, really. But we plod on with them because I assume there is something I am not getting about why she is still on them.

@onemouseplace if it helps, I know other parents at school are equally baffled and it seems to be the same for quite a few of them. I am assuming there is a reason behind it that isn't apparent to laypeople - we have parents evening in a couple of weeks so I am planning to ask about it then. As you say, comprehension, inference etc all seems to be fine here too.

Thanks everyone.

She's just read all of 'What the ladybird heard' to me so I'm not too worried now!

DD1 was a late summer baby, progress was slow to begin with but by the end of year 1 she could basically read anything. I was so worried initially but we just read everyday and eventually it clicked.

This evenings yellow book was a non fiction about Bees.

The book reads:

'The Bee flies to a flower. Some pollen sticks to the Bee. The Honeybee flies to the next flower. Seeds are made when the Bee drops pollen into the flower.

My dd reads each word perfectly, and I think to myself, wow I think it's starting to click.... and then she reads so purposefully and confidently

'Seeds are made when the Bee drops love into the flower'

Now I'm wondering if she's read it at school already and memorised it (wrongly!) Made me grin though, a loving Bee 😍

Posting this as Collins bands are slightly different to Oxford. Our school does Collins.
resources.collins.co.uk/Wesbite%20images/CBC/CBCNewCurriculum.pdf

School have just given us access to

www.mycapstonelibrary.com/login/index.html

Which is much more useful than sending home books. Due to COVID and the rules around switching books and sharing resources we weren't getting regular book changes sent home, so while we read a lot with DD at home and she has a good selection we were struggling to figure out where she was in the bands.

This way they can self access a load of books in each band on the PC or tablet.

DD is yr 2 and purple.

My March born yr 1 is on yellow books and is deemed at the top of her year for reading. It all depends on the levels of the rest of the class.
As long as she enjoys reading then she'll get there. It's like getting them to eat vegetables - force it and you'll put them off for life!

Don't worry about the colour of the band!!

How is she with phonics sounds? Is she confidently blending CVC words? How is she getting on with High Frequency Words/Exception Words? There are 100 to aim to get under her belt and this early stage and you can work on this with flashcards. You can also read other books with your child that aren't school books, if you don't feel they're being challenged enough.

I've been on all sides of this. Taught it, had a struggling reader, a precocious reader. Now, everyone is all over the place with lockdown variations and I think we're all needing to do more at home that's tailored to our child - it's too much for teachers. All you can do is keep with the phonics grounding, keep the love of stories alive, persist with tricky words flashcards and do your bit at home.

I also think the colours are a bit all over the place and more advanced readers can 'read' the bits in easy books that less advanced readers are supposed to look at the pictures and infer, especially with ORT.

They definitely can read chapter books young.
Dc1 could read well by 5.0yo. Easily lime band and books like squish mcfluff or isadora moon. Not keen on books without pictures.
Now y4 with a reading age 3y ahead.
Dc2 is 5 already and can read cvc words doesnt have such a good memory. Reception are only just starting satpin etc. Im not keen on getting books home though blergh.
Reading eggs phonics stuff has been good.
The problem with school stuff is as a parent i know where dc is but they want to be in control. If i had control dc2 would have worked through the level1 phonic bug books in mabe a week or 2 in sept and moved on. What they will do is only 2 books a week and that will take till Easter! It's such a waste of everyone's time and effort too changing 1 book at a time also increased covid risk etc. I would prefer the online books (which would also help if isolating etc)

I have a question for parents of fluent readers - either because they are older or because they learnt early. Generally speaking (and despite the best slowing down efforts of school) do children progress from blue upwards quickly because at about blue the penny just drops? Mine could read cvc words before school but his reading never took off during reception and in fact went backwards for a time because he refused to read and ended up back on red (from yellow) at the end of reception. I bought into reading chest after reading about it on here. Sometime at the end of the summer it just clicked for him and I think it was because he became so fluent with high frequency words that he started to read unfamiliar words through the context of the sentence rather than breaking them down phonetically because he had the speed to carry the sentence in his head - of course this doesn't always work and occasionally he will have to read a word phonetically (which I insist on and he hates). So at blue it all suddenly clicked and whilst school still have him on blue (which is fine because they are sending more interesting books home other than Biff and Chip) I have spent about a month on green with him and have just moved him to orange. He read his first orange book at about 99% accuracy. He doesn't have the stamina to read a book all in one go and he read it over 2 days but apart from that it is all in place - comprehension is good etc. I had a quick look on Oxford Owl and turquoise and purple don't look much more difficult, probably because high frequency words make up such a large portion of the text. So my question is - once kids hit blue, do most rapidly become fluentish readers?

I have a question for parents of fluent readers - either because they are older or because they learnt early. Generally speaking (and despite the best slowing down efforts of school) do children progress from blue upwards quickly because at about blue the penny just drops?

Yes, this was the case for both of mine. By the time they could read blue books, they could basically read all of them. It’s then quite frustrating going through the levels slowly for the rest of the year.
I’ve never been all that bothered what level they’re on at school though, they just read material that is appropriate for them at home. So for example one of my DC is currently on turquoise (year 1), but is reading short chapter books like Isadora Moon at home.

DS is in year 1, the bands red/blue etc seem to vary between schools and publishers so hard to say really. The other local school's bands certainly don't match his school, and his school sent home a book we have at home and they both had different coloured bands.

I think DS is doing pretty well considering his reception year was decimated, he's gone up 4 book bands since September but he was put back a band on entering year 1 due to all the missed school.

At Christmas last year his school friend read the whole of bloody Owl Babies in an assembly, but I think that's quite exceptional.