Year 3 - book bands gone backwards

[Letsmoveon]

DS(7) has moved into Y3 at a Junior school (linked to the Infants) and parents were told that all children will be sent home with phonics books that are on lower bands to what they were on in Y2. They have been assessed for phonics and reading ability and have new bands, which will be lower because they say that initially they will be putting emphasis on vocabulary and really understanding what they are reading rather than just being able to decode and blend words.

DS has possible dyslexia (being investigated) so he was on Green band at the end of Y2 but he came home with Pink, which he whizzed through perfectly within about a minute. He became absolutely distraught when he realised it was Pink and his teacher moved him to Yellow. Two of his friends have gone from White/Lime bands back down to Orange.

Has anyone heard of this method of reading assessments before? Children shouldn’t be moved up a band until they have surely demonstrated a full understanding of what they are reading anyway? DS knows he is behind in reading and his confidence has just hit a new low at being given Pink/Yellow books (he has always been able to explain the story of what he is reading).

To go from green to pink is seems crazy! No wonder your child was upset! As a teacher I totally appreciate where they're coming from with wanting to focus on comprehension and vocab but this still doesn't explain such a drop in book band colour. There also isn't much vocab or complex comprehension activities based on pink level books. In our scheme, that's a drop of 4 book bands. There is a bigger problem with assessments between the two schools somewhere along the line if this has happened to lots of pupils. Worth a discussion and see if they can explain it.

We have gone from yr1 to 2 (same school) and a lot of the kids have been dropped by two bands - something to do with a new reading scheme introduced by the Government..?
I think the school could have explained better as they are very disheartened.

This has also happened at my Dad's school. All children have been out back a stage for the reading books sent home, like you said on new government guidelines for reading schemes.

Yes I noticed this! Year 6. Asked DD why she'd chosen a much easier book than usual and she said that was the reading band she'd been told she was on.

Will be following up with school next week as no communication as to why this is.

Ofsted are asking for evidence when it comes to book bands/reading.
It used to be done on teachers/TAs opinions. Now more schools are moving to objective rather than subjective assessments for book bands and as a result some children move to a lower band.

Another sad child here. She's y5 and was on grey band books at the end of y4. She has brought an orange band book home today after their reassessment, a drop of 7 book bands!

She has read to me every single day over the summer so I'm really struggling to understand why, but she's deeply disheartened by it.

Not my yr3 experience.
Dd has gone up 1 level since before the summer holidays.
However they have sent an instruction home that books need to be read 3x maybe new gov't guidelines??

That's a helpful explanation from marigoldpetals. Schools are terrible at communicating sometimes.

Has the reading scheme changed? We now use RWI and pink is midway through the scheme rather than the starting level (as in traditional book bands). Schools now have to follow completely decodable schemes so most have had to dump their current schemes and buy into a fully decodable one.

Were you able to get anything out of him about the assessment process they used to determine book bands?

Our school uses PM benchmarking, example here shop.scholastic.co.uk/resources/437532 , this one is level 5 which googling suggests is red book band. images.scholastic.co.uk/assets/a/31/38/pm-benchmark-literacy-assessment-kit-example-student-record-level-16-1935880.pdf would be orange book band.

They have to read accurately plus answer the comprehension questions correctly to be on a level. DD did very badly on this the first time, she was completely thrown by being in a new environment with a new teacher and couldn't manage basic questions like what a character's name is. She is OK now, but DS does badly on an going basis. For him, it seems to trigger exam like stress and he hyperfocuses on reading accurately at the expense of comprehension (at home normally he's the other way round, good at comprehension but getting substituting similar meaning words / swapping word order means he's at 95% accuracy rather than higher).

Is it possible something similar happened with your DS? It would be worth talking to school to find out exactly what they think it is he can't do that's meant he's been moved down, it could well be that's something he can already do in a home situation.

One sad kid is here. My daughter started her y1 with books in gold band. And her teacher insists on her reading books with phonics c-a-t cat. She understands what she is reading and can retell the story.

Thank you for posting that link @CrabbyCat it is really useful to get an idea of how they assess it (even if our school uses a different scheme).

I am in a pre prep and as I understand it ISI/Ofsted are looking for children to be able to fully decode the books they are reading rather than them being the 'next step' or logical step. We haven't officially put kids back but are reviewing the kids that have come into Y2 going through all the stages to see at what point they are not secure and several children are going back bands until they are secure on all sounds appropriate at that point.

We had information evening this week. Up until lime level they now assess them 3-4x per year and there is an assessment matrix on fluency & comprehension which feeds into an algorithm which determines which book band they should be on. My dd has gone up a level over the summer but if other schools are using the same thing then could explain changes?

Many schools use Read Write Inc to teach phonics and pink band is midway. However, with books that are sent home pink band is one of the starting bands. It's difficult to generalise because all book schemes are different. Some schools only send home phonics books, others send home reading scheme books and some send both.