Year 2 Oxford Book band - should you be told if DC go down

[Spaceformetoo]

Should you be told if your Year 2 DC has gone backwards in the Oxford book bands?

DS(6) brought his first reading book home today and he’s gone down a band, from Yellow to Red (well aware he is badly behind, he flatly refused to try to read until last April). Now he is very enthusiastic reader and always tries hard.

He started the Yellow books in early July and his reading record book where he was having 1-1 with a volunteer reader has comments such as ‘beautiful reading,’ ‘perfect reading,’ ‘good reading, well done,’ ‘ very clear reading, well done’ etc. Reading with his teacher and TA’s have the same comments and a meeting with his teacher at the end of the July term confirmed that he has made significant progress since he decided to start trying to read in April.

We continued reading with him during the summer holidays, 3-4 times a week, having obtained several Yellow band books plus did some Twinkl worksheets and the result is back to Red level books?! I’m hoping it’s a mistake but if not I’m quite upset. Surely a parent should be told, even just a quick comment at pick-up time, that your child has regressed by a whole band??

I pretty much ignore what they send home from school. We get books from the library or Reading Chest and work through the levels progressively at home and don’t pay a lot of attention to what they send from school. They sent DS home with a book 3 bands lower than what he’s reading at home…

We got sent home a book which was the same colour as the one DS had in July with a note saying to speak to them if we felt it was too easy or too hard. So many children regress in reading over the summer and many leap forward. They may have done it to start them off easy to build their confidence. It may have been a mistake. Have a quick chat with the teacher at pick up and see what their thinking was.

Dd (yr2) came home with a book below the band she was on in her first week and said everyone did so the teachers could find out where they were after the long holidays.

Two weeks later and she’s gone up to the level above her end of yr1 level, so i assume the teacher heard her read and reassessed her. Could it be something like that?

My DC has been put down 2 bands since summer. They are finding it far too easy so I've asked for them to be out up one level again via the diary. No idea what teachers will make of that but DC will not remain motivated to read at that level.

I'm another to suggest getting a reading chest subscription. Red and yellow books are so short that the 2 a week they usually send home from school is not enough to keep practise going. I did this last summer when mine was between R and Y1 and I was able to keep his reading going at the right level for him (which at points was 2 book bands above the school). I've just stopped the subscription as he reads well enough now for school reading books to be supplemented with our own array of children's picture books at home.

Some schools send home easier books than they read in school to help with confidence.

(My elder DD finished yr1 on Yellow. Shes 10 now and while her reading isn't as fluent as some of how friends, she happily reads novels based at her age range. Shes also suspected to be dyslexic and they are assessing her again for the fourth time)

I really wouldn’t worry about it. Children often dip after a long holiday. Maybe put a note in the home school book asking if he can have a book from both levels to help get him back to where he was in Year 1?

Lots of children do no reading over the summer and regress. Also books get mixed up, he may have been given a misfiled book from the correct section. This happened to DD several times over the years at infant school. Don't be downhearted, read something else over the weekend and simply ask on Monday.

We've had the same .... read every day during the holidays as wanted to keep her in the routine of it.... we read a mixture of orange/turquoise/purple books at home.... shes been bringing yellow and blue books home!

I don't think she's actually read to her new teacher yet, so will give it a bit longer before asking for her to be moved up and see what happens :)

Thanks for everyone’s replies. The teacher and TA’s have apparently read with each child and I know of one who has gone up a band, two who have stayed the same, and I don’t know about anyone else.

I’ll speak to the teacher on Monday. Getting DS to read has been such an excruciating process and while he’s way behind, he has made a lot of progress since April and this just felt like a slap on the face (more because I’m so conscious of him being so behind compared to others).

I think it’s pretty standard to go down a band or two after the summer, go in easy to get there confidence back up and for the teacher to do their own assessments. Some children may have barely read at all during the summer.

I know it’s difficult not to worry about your LO being “behind” but as you’ve said he is making progress and that’s the most important thing.
I would suggest reading 3/4 times a week is really half of the week and isn’t enough. It needs to be daily. Keep up the phonics flash cards daily too and this will increase his fluency and help confidence. Help with daily sight words for high frequency and common exception words this also helps with confidence. I’ve taught many children who were on red/yellow at beginning of year and were caught up to the recommended level end Y2 with enough daily support! Please do as others have recommended and read read read. The book from school should be one of many many books per week.

@BuffyFanForever thanks for the tips. To clarify - we read daily with DS. He reads his school reading book at home every day, and at bedtime we read him 4 stories. It’s only during the summer holidays that we read 3-4 times a week as he needs some downtime too.

@BuffyFanForever sorry to clarify again! In the holidays he did a school reading book 3-4 times a week. We have always read 4 books at bedtime since he was 2.

Unless you are so short of cash that you can’t afford the bus fare to the library or to buy second hand books at a charity shop, and as a result have no books at home at all, then ignore school reading scheme books and do your own thing with whichever kind of books most interest your child.

Level scheme books are mostly very boring and repetitive and kids, parents and teachers all hate them - they are almost designed to put kids off reading. The only reason they exist is for schools to keep a rough tab on where each kid is with their reading, but even then it’s virtually meaningless given many schools only hand out new books once every week and re-evaluate reading levels once a term. At the end of the day, unless your child is seriously, seriously behind where they should be, their level doesn’t matter. There is no official reporting of reading band level statistics and they don’t count in things like admissions to new schools.

My year 4 child has gone from being a free reader to level 9 (gold) over the summer. We had a note in his book bag to say that the teacher had listened to them all read and some children had been moved up or down the reading levels.

Ellie that is crazy and surely more about that teacher showing progress than the child dropping back. As gold are really no different to free reading.