Can a teacher answer my question?

[Healthfreak95]

To keep it short & sweet, could or would any Irish primary school teachers be able to answer my question. Or British if it’s the same sort of thing. I’m just wondering what the difference is between level 2 & level 5 readers. A friend of mines son is just finished senior infants (almost 7) & is struggling and how it was compared was that he was on level 2 readers & the rest of the class were on level 5s. Thank you!

I'm not a teacher however I'm pretty sure that the levels will be the Oxford reading tree (ort) levels.
The books in each level have the same types of words and sentence structure, so in level 1 there's generally no words just pictures, level 2 would be very short sentences such as "this is chip and biff". As you go up a level the sentence structure, type of words an complexity of both get more difficult and longer sentences are used with more sentences on each page until they reach a level of ability to read proper books with just words and no pictures.
Basically your friends dc is quite far behind on his reading skills and probably needs a fair bit of extra help to grab the basics of reading, which is not uncommon and I'm sure that once he's grasped the basics he will soon catch up as 7 is still fairly young but it might be worth having a conversation with his teacher about whether there might be something behind his slow reading development like dyslexia or if they can recommend any stranger strategies that can be used at home to help him progress.
Sorry about the wall of text but hope it helps @Healthfreak95

Other strategies not stranger, bloody auto correct 🤦‍♀️

Unlikely to be oxford reading tree as thats out of the ark.

what phonics scheme do they use? Will be on the website.In fact their whole reading approach will probably be on the website

They still use the ort at my nephews primary school along with jolly phonics so it could well be

Ort has a phonics series, so still could be. They are used as part of the Floppy's Phonics scheme.

We use Little Wandle. These are referred to as phases, and phases are broken down into sets.

I doubt it's Oxford Reading Tree as that would mean the whole class would be incredibly behind if they're on Stage 5 at age 7. I don't know about Ireland, but in England Reception would generally be reading Stage 3 by the end of the year, Stage 5 would be year 1 (age 6). End of Year 2, age 7, the majority of the class would be much further on than Stage 5. Stage 2 is CVC so would be incredibly behind for a 7 year old. Hardly anyone uses ORT anymore as they're not fully decodable so don't fit with approved schemes.

It's impossible to answer I'm afraid, without knowing the scheme. However, what your friend does need to ask is what they're doing as a school to help him close the gap and what they can do at home to help. It seems quite late for the school to be telling them their son is significantly behind his peers (assuming this is indeed the first time such a conversation has ever been had).

that doesn’t mean it isnt out of the ark!

I will find out! Definitely phonics of some sort. I was just wondering what an example of stage 2 would be as my friends ex with whom he shares this child is very blind to the fact he needs extra help and basically in denial & he is trying his best to help. School are going to give him extra help one on one but this child’s mother tries to blame school instead but she does very little with him at home & as my friend has him weekends as he works long hours and Monday - Friday his help he gives can only go so far. Thanks for all your replies but I will find out about what system they use! He is in an Irish primary school.

that doesn’t mean it isnt out of the ark!

It has been updated and has series if books which are phonetically decidable and match with certain approved phonics schemes such as Floppy Phonics.

I think you're thinking of the older books.

I am not
I am very familiar with all of the SSPs