Where is your year one child on reading levels and maths skills now?

[MGMidget]

I just wondered as I have a year one child in a prep school but seems to be doing fine by their standards but when I read some posts on here I wonder if she is quite behind. Learning has been very disrupted for over a year now and it feels like they are repeating/revising lots because of children having different learning experiences during the lockdowns. Ours wasn't good very little 'live' teaching and what there was was more general chat with parents making business calls and drowning out/distracting the lessons or technical glitches resulting in lessons not going according to plan!

On return to school all the children seem to be given reception level reading books which were very basic. They have stepped it up now but I am wondering what others experiences have been.

Honestly mumsnet is the worst place to start a thread about reading bands, i have no idea why but it happens every time - you've asked what's average and parents who know their kids are top of the class turn up!

For what it's worth I have one who picked up reading really quickly and she was absolutely not free reading in year 1, she was still working through book bands.

My kids who were more average tended to track the reading bands on reading chest: www.readingchest.co.uk/book-bands#a eg orange by end of year 1.

Sometimes they were a book band behind. Post pandemic my 7 yo and 9 yo are reading at similar levels. It's definitely had an impact on the 9yo who has lost a lot of confidence despite us reading at home. So I'm sure there are similar impacts all across the school. They seemed to catch up after a slow start in Sept so I believe they will again. Are you able to email the teacher and ask what they think?

SushiGo so does that mean if we think our child is a strong reader we’re not allowed to say for fear of upsetting others? It’s not boasting. For example with mine I have no idea, honestly, where he is in comparison to the class. The teacher would never discuss this with us and rightly so. All she said at the parents evening was he is ‘on track’ for reading. We have a parents whatsapp but again the idea of discussing what reading band your kid is on on there...just no! I do know there is one free reader ie off the schemes in the year, because her mother told me when we were chatting but there could be others.

Of course you can post whatever you want but you must be aware it's unhelpful to a parent who asked a generic question but is really trying to work out if they should be concerned or not.

My DD is year 1 and hasn't yet grasped the concept of blending/segmenting even simple CVC words. I'm sure she will get there but we are definitely hitting an issue that the reading books are too boring for her on an interest level and too difficult on an ability level.

Maths wise my DD is possible a year behind/WTS ARE.

Just to be the token example of a really struggling reader. She is also November born so one of the oldest.

This thread is usually MN bonkers rubbish. There is such a huge jump from EYFS to Year 1, because the curriculum is not lined up so many children falter and seem to lose ground and that’s not counting in the pandemic. We currently only have around 65% at ARE and 5% at greater depth (so around 3children out of 90). The rest are working towards and definitely have gaps.
Please don’t worry and panic even more at this stage-it’s year 1. Get them used to being back in school and focus on their enjoyment of learning and reading for pleasure.

And a year 1 reading Harry Potter-I call bullshit. And they shouldn’t be as they are far too old in content.

@Mumofsend

My DD is year 1 and hasn't yet grasped the concept of blending/segmenting even simple CVC words. I'm sure she will get there but we are definitely hitting an issue that the reading books are too boring for her on an interest level and too difficult on an ability level.

This was an issue for DS3 (autistic and ADHD). He's now Yr3 I don't feel he really learnt the beginning phonics properly either but his ability to memorise words masked it.

In the end he was just picking school books of interest and just worked through them slowly.

I now buy books according to his interest of the time. Comic style books work really well for him.

He can read well enough but it's not "there" in the same way as DS4.

@ArianaDumbledore that is interesting, my DD is also Autistic and ADHD. She is just starting to memorise words so I think she will bypass phonics. Fine by me but school aren't thrilled!

Another important point is that pushing children to read texts that are too challenging means they lose comprehension. It's not a race. Trust your child's teacher.

@Mumofsend I think DS3 also got very distracted with the pictures in the early phonics books. He would also look to them for clues. His biggest reading leap was when he started on chapter books.

He is down as having passed the phonics screening (apparently got the pass mark) but I'm not convinced he really did. There were a lot of strange things going on at that school with him (he's no longer there).

There is such huge variation between schools.
Orange would definitely not be top
at this pt in yr 1 at dc school.
I think it is true y1 or reception kids reading hp. Dc1 could have. (Y1 we were reading chapter books but she wouldnt read any without pictures).
And they definitely do have the comprehension.
Reading harder stuff is how they develop comprehension.
(Dc1 is still in top 5% against national criteria in y4).

I dont think schools saying they are doing well/badly for actual age helps as for a summer born age may be 5.8yo but obviously the eldest being say 6.7yo is where the expectations are and the 'top' of the class likely above this.

The 'ability' varies a lot. In yr r there was a 4.8yo who had maths lessons with yr2.
Bearin mind that the best at learning reading don't necessarily have the best ideas to write about or best comprehension skills.

5&6 yr olds do not have the comprehension to understand the themes running through Harry Potter-that’s just ridiculous! Only on MN are there not only zebras instead of horses but unicorns as well🤣

@MrsElijahMikaelson1

5&6 yr olds do not have the comprehension to understand the themes running through Harry Potter-that’s just ridiculous! Only on MN are there not only zebras instead of horses but unicorns as well🤣

I’m not a parent of a HP reader (yet) but that’s really not too far fetched. At that age the majority of the words could be read by an advanced reader and the plot could be taken on face value.

As a case in point, to a particularly stuck up person who always boasted about everything, my very reserved mum had me read a page from a Catherine Cookson novel when I was four to shut her up boasting that her older child could read some words. There is not a chance I had a clue what it was about, I was a sight reader and just read the individual words out. My comprehension was very poor until I was forced in school to read easy books in school. I was very ahead in memorising the words, but no more advanced at understanding them.

My DGS (I parent him) is on orange at school and purple with me at home. He is late summer born. He lies in the top third (I asked). There are 5 or 6 on turquoise and purple and then DGS's possy of 5 on orange. He is a greater reader but shocking at phonics. Failed his phonics screening assessment with 22/40. His teacher said other children of his reading calibre got 37ish on this test.
He is in the top group - which I think is quite large. He's just taken a standardised test and got 104 on it which puts him high average. He can count in 2s, 3, 5s and 10s. Tell the time to quarter past/ to. Add and subtract multiples of 10 to a 2 digit number and he knows odd and evens. His school is ethnically very mixed (we are outer London) but a highly sought after church school so lots of aspirational parents.
I am a teacher in a very deprived inner city school. I regularly take a peak at our Y1 data to see how DGS compares. At our school (2 form entry) there are 3 children reading above orange and maybe 8 on orange - the rest range from green down to lilac. The average would be blue.

My ds is on light blue, it clicked with him during lockdown and he’s really enjoying reading now. Our school don’t rush them through the levels at all and make sure they really understand what they’re reading. He’s at a similar level to his three older siblings (my oldest is doing GCSEs and predicted a level 8 in English) and so I know he’s doing fine even though reading these other posts it looks like he’s behind lol.

DD is 6.5 in year 1 & currently on orange band. We have tried to keep up with daily reading as much as possible through lockdowns though we were provided with no books and had to buy our own. Now she brings home 2 books a week from school. However they have only listened to hear read once since September & not at all since schools reopened in March. She's now off isolating again so missing her more time from school. Worried she is falling behind, DS was at a much higher level in year 1 & he's summer born whereas she is one of the eldest.

To give a slightly different perspective on this. My son in year 1 (6.5) and CAN read any text you put in front of him fluently BUT his ability to comprehend and discuss the meaning of the text and think around it is still at a more normal level for his age and so school have him on Gold books which seems a good fit. I don’t understand why some people feel there is a rush to the finish to be free readers, there is so much to be gained for them continuing to do guided reading and discussing the stories and such. It really enhances their vocabulary, literacy and
love of reading, I think!

I just tested my DS (almost 6) out on his brothers stage 9. No problem reading or comprehending it. So clearly levels don't mean that much, his ability is greater than his level, but there isn't any rush. As a parent I have found that the school don't push the levels. It has always been me asking to put my children up a level. Don't know why, but it has never happened unless I've asked.

There really is little difference after stage 6. Just a bit longer.

I don't really agree with streaming kids from very young as the youngest in the year can catch up.

Ds2 is on oxford reading tree level 10, no idea about colours. That is based on the two books that have come home for the weekend today!

Ds1 was much slower to learn to read than ds2, but now has a reading age of 15 at 9y11mo. So I think the whole process is less than linear.

If progress is happening then I would not worry.

Does your prep school not do puma tests or similar? My DD is in year one and we have parents evening coming up and before Easter had reports with puma scores in. That’s the o my way you will know whether your child is below, at or above expectations for their age. Btw no live lessons in the most recent lockdown at a prep is pretty unacceptable IMO.

@Fitforforty

If you google the Oxford reading tree you can see the colour bands with expected progress per year. My reception child is on yellow but we did or attempted phonics and reading with her toddler sister in tow.

I teach and think the ORT overestimates where children should be. It's unusual for most children to be on the levels they suggest for each year. I teach in a school with consistently outstanding reading results in Y6 so have no concerns about children being further down the levels than ORT suggest they should be.

Also some posters have mentioned children moving onto free readers. In many schools, children will be kept on colour bands (burgandy, black) right through primary.

I don’t think you can really compare to others OP. There is such a huge range in reading ability (and comprehension) in the first few years of school. Children get there in their own time.
My daughter could barely read at the end of Y1. Now she’s at the end of Y2 and she’s reading chapter books to herself every night and understanding them. She loves reading and has motivated herself to get better recently because she has been desperate to read more interesting books. Without that self motivation I don’t think she would have progressed nearly as far.