Able 6 year old reader not being challenged

[bluesky45]

My 6 year old (year 1) has finished his phonics scheme at school. They have now put him on orange band books, biff, chip and kipper from around 25 years ago, the books are honestly so tatty! Such a contrast to his phonics scheme books which were literally brand new!
He is reading these books with ease, they present no challenge. He reads the book each night and can answer comprehension questions on the book. Sometimes we stop part way through and I ask him prediction based questions or inference etc.
At home, he reads more challenging books and he has expressed that he finds biff, chip and kipper books boring. I have tested his reading age (I am a primary teacher so used reading age tests we use at my own school). It suggests his word reading age is 9 and his comprehension age is 11.
What should I be expecting from the school in order to push him? He is working his way through the book band, reading every single book on the level before he moves up which I don't think is necessary when he finds the books easy.
His teacher has suggested sending home 2 books at a time (hasn't materialised) and sending home comprehension questions to answer (again, hasn't materialised) but I feel the books themselves don't offer any challenge or interest to him.
Where do I go from here in asking the school to challenge him? Thanks for any advice!

I just used to sign ds reading record & we would have maybe 5 minutes each morning in the car to have a quick look at the book. He read whatever he wanted at home, by mid Y1, he was reading chapter books like Humphrey the Hamster, Paddington, Olga da Polga, The Wombles, The Wishing Chair, Secret 7. We had a few of those reps who dropped sample books at work & I often bought collections for ds.

I would just buy books. We bought some book sets that were not very expensive, or you could get books from the library. Our reason was because we were rubbish at remembering to return the books on the correct day to school so would take longer to get new books.

Honestly here. Just don't do the reading at home. Read your own books at home. I think looking for extra challenging books etc is a not required and honestly just makes you abit of a pita for the teacher as lots of kids at that age are at different reading levels .

I wish more schools could be a bit more upfront about the requirement for sticking to the scheme etc. Yes, everyone knows about the existence of libraries etc but it is frustrating when a school simultaneously wants and doesn't want you to engage with the reading scheme.

Our school have taken the time to explain that they have to take this approach, which means we haven't wasted time trying to get them to give our able y1 reader books pitched at his level and are just working through the reading champion books from the library.

I've given up replying to the ones who keep saying take him to the library and schools don't have time for this. Problem is, the teacher should have time for this, it's important he reads books at the appropriate level of challenge. He's not some sort of free reader at 6 years old. He's not off the scale gifted. He's able, he knows all his phonics sounds and can decode. I'm well aware of books he can read, the issue is school books. If all you have to add is "take him to the library" then don't bother, I've seen that reply already.

@MissCatLady yes, he's finished the school phonics scheme books. He plodded his way through that and I appreciated the fact that they sent them home in order, a few from each 'set' to correlate with a group of GPCs. DH wanted him to skip these saying they were too easy but I wanted him to go through them all to make sure there were no gaps in his phonic knowledge. He's now on books that aren't phonics based, as in they don't focus on one particular sound or groups of sounds like his previous books did. They are simply stories. He was taught phonics on his own in reception as well as joining in the class phonics (I think it was more of a quick look at the GPCs that were coming up in his new books a couple of times a week rather than a full phonics 1:1 lesson!).
I do agree that for most children, that's the best way to teach them to read and it's certainly what's currently working for my younger DC in reception.

@Isitthathardtobekind don't worry, it's not like a quiz after every book. We just discuss the book and chat about it, either throughout or at the end. "Oh, I wonder why he did that? Where do you think they will go?" Or sometimes I just model to him making a prediction or inferring so he can see what it sounds like. "I think the magic key is going to take them to xyz because blah blah blah. Shall we keep reading and see?"

@SandSunWaves in what way is it interesting?
He does actually lie. He will lie to me to try to get what he wants such as "no, daddy didn't say we had to turn the TV off." I'm fairly certain he would not lie to a teacher though. It's just not his personality. He is the sort of child that always wants to please and do as he is told. And I'm not just looking at my own child with rose tinted glasses. He has his own issues, just not around this!
My other child on the other hand certainly does lie, he will look you dead in the eyes and lie straight to your face!

I'm in a similar boat with my Y1 dd OP. Also on Orange but can read and comprehend at least a couple of bookbands above this. Luckily her school only ask that she reads a couple of times a week and my dd neither knows or cares what I write in her diary. I read the school books until I think she's fluent and understands the subtleties of the story (usually just a couple of times) then we read what we feel like.

I think the school need to compromise a bit here tbh. Either they agree that he only reads the allocated book until you feel he's got what he needs to out of it then he freereads or they put him on an appropriately challenging bookband. Politely but firmly tell them that you won't be playing games and that your priority is teaching him to love reading.

Sadly I would suspect that this is more to do with ofsted expectations and the current obsession with having everyone nothing to read except books that are directly linked with their phonics teaching.
What phonics teaching is he currently having?
Any decent teacher would have recognised that these books are not appropriate for this child’s ability level and taken 10 minutes of their day to find him something that he can actually progress on.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised though if this is just school policy- moving children ‘ahead’ is not a popular thing right now.

Friends of ours got their kids to read their dull books backwards. The kids loved it, it tested their ability to read individual words without clear context, and they then got on with 'real' books.

We do a word each when DS is flagging. Me, him, me, him etc. Apparently this is hilarious.