Age related expectations and being a free reader

[elliejjtiny]

Firstly, just wondering if being a free reader requires a particular level/standard of reading or is it at the teacher's discretion like the pen licence?

Also I'm confused about age related expectations. Is it extremely broad/vague? I'm wondering because my 10 year old has moderate learning disability so his IQ is probably in the high 40's. He is plodding along though and he managed to be a free reader in year 5. He has to work really hard with his school work. His memory isn't great so he has to keep practicing everything, otherwise He forgets. His writing is illegible and he is working on learning to tell the time. He is at age related expectations for reading and maths and working towards for writing.

My older dc and my nieces were free readers in year 2 and learnt to tell the time then as well. Which is fairly average I think. My now 12 year old got 105 and 107 in his year 6 sats which again is very average so it's not like I'm comparing my 10 year old to a genius. I just don't get why my 10 year old can be doing things 3 years later than his brothers, have about half their IQ's but still be at age related expectations. Also "working towards" with writing sounds like he is nearly average but not quite but his writing is completely illegible with no capital letters or full stops. Sometimes he remembers to put spaces between the words but sometimes not. He is brilliant at practical things though and loves to help with cleaning and diy.

The definition of 'free reader' varies from school to school.

Some schools just use the foundation scheme of whatever book scheme their school uses, other schools require the kids to go through the foundation and upper levels of the reading scheme. Some schemes have 9 levels, others have 30. You can't compare kids who are following completely different schemes and requirements.

It sounds like it would help to have a conversation with your DSs teachers to better understand the expectations and grading they are using.

My dc is in yr6 and a competent reader but is not a free reader, and is reading above their age according to assessment, so think it is down to the school/teacher

It's usually a nonsense unfortunately and doesn't make any sense.
It can also kill a child's self esteem.
My dd struggled but can now read novels. Her vocab is also very good and she's doings really well in her English tests eg 70 /80.. Her book band id still very low.

I was very honest with both dc about the feeding scheme and I don't buy into it at all.

Think it must vary, my dd1 was on library books (same as free reader) in year 1, dd2 year 5 (but she's dyslexic)

Thank you everyone. I have asked the school before about how far behind ds is with his learning but I always end up with a very vague answer. They are always very positive as well which is obviously a good thing but it's not always helpful. It's always "we think your child will benefit from going to handwriting club" rather than saying that ds is behind with writing. They have a nurture room where children go to work with a TA either 1-1 or a small group. At ds ehcp review the teacher was trying to talk about what the nurture room was for while staying positive and not mentioning special needs. Ds sighed and said that he goes in the nurture room because he has a disability.