Year 1 book bands help and guidance.

[KeenGreen]

Year 1 DS came home today with his first reading book of the year.

The school uses the Big Cat Little Wandle scheme.
At the end of reception he was on Red band 2A sometimes 2B.
I know this is still behind where he should have ideally been.
Over summer we have continued to practice phase 3 and 4 sounds and words.
We’ve read everyday and read songbird phonics and Oxford reading tree at band Yellow from ‘this bear can read’ box. We do flashcards and fluency pyramids and he has been doing well and making progress.

At the start of year 1 I thought they’d start on the same band as at the end of reception. But today he’s come home with Phase 2 pink band. This is lset 1 just SATPIN sounds with one word per page.
He’s been reading full sentences for ages.
He was on this band a year ago, more or less. October half term!

I am hoping that they don’t actually think he is basically a year behind and it’s a mistake.

I plan to politely enquire via a note in the reading record. But before I set myself up as ‘that’ parent, does this sound right or a mistake?

The reason I feel it may be a mistake also is because it is a very dark pink perhaps was mistaken for red?

So as not to drip feed - we have strong suspicions of ADHD and concentration is a big issue and he guesses words based on the pictures even though he is capable of reading them.

What would you do in such scenario?

I also feel like we can’t do anymore to support him at home we do a lot already, read every day without fail. He reads to us then we read a story of his choice to him. We filled 3 reading records last year and he got a prize for hitting the top threshold of more than 200 reads at home early in summer term.
I don’t want to burn him out and overdo it particularly when he is so tired after school right now.

I worry I clearly have more belief in his abilities than the school and they’ve written him off! But this is maybe my mum anxiety going into hyperdrive.

Just ask his teacher about it. “Hi, I wanted to ask about x’s reading book. This seems very basic and below his ability - he’s been reading sentences fluently for months. Is it right that this is what’s coming home for homework?”

I learnt very quickly to ignore all the banding at school. I just buy Oxford reading books and go up each level with my ds. They might band him as pink or whatever at school but I know he can read much higher. I also found quite soon that the slow progress is very demotivating and it's better to just read a book a day and finish a pack of books and then onto the next one.

Often they band lower at school because kids are shy and won't say the answers in relation to comprehension or forget sounds when under pressure or fail to read with expression.

I think as long as he's doing it well at home I wouldn't worry.

Thanks, yes I will check with teacher.
There is no opportunity to just see them and to ask something like this casually.
So I will stick a note on the reading record for review.

Thank you sound advice.

We were already a band ahead with the books we get from This bear can read monthly box.

So will keep doing that 😊

His comprehension and expression are good when reading. But he will make little mistakes and definitely not fluent or always sight reading.
We were working on fluency with fluency pyramids for phase 3 and 4 over the summer and longer multi syllable words (as per phase 4) as well

Children often dip over summer - out of routine and out of regular/daily targeted phonics lessons.

Might well be like you say they have mistaken the pink for red though, or it might be that he needs a little refresher and will move on quickly.

Carry on doing what you're doing but no harm in querying it with the teacher.

They probably haven't heard the Y1s read yet this year, and have played it safe and dropped everyone down a book band to build confidence, on the assumption that most parents won't have done much reading with their DCs over the summer.

Of course, you've done a fabulous job!

I'd suggest putting a polite note in the book band explaining that he has made good progress over the summer and you're keen to have him reassessed. I'm sure it'll get sorted out in a week or two.

How fluently is he reading? Little Wandle scheme is very clear that the books they take home are books they should be absolutely confident with, with little to no sound out required.

Just ask when you collect him today . It’s a good time to have a quick chat or ask questions like this.

Thanks all,

An update.

I couldn’t just ask at pickup because he had clubs.

I put a note in the record and later on a whole class email came from the phase lead to say its based from an assessment that happened last week.

So it’s based on one assessment within the first 3 days of Year 1?

However, a note in the book today says it’s based on this plus last year?
I’ve responded to the email.

We did so much over the summer and I saw progress from where he was at the end of reception even. So I’d have thought they’d start at the same book level they left on at least. Not 3 bands below.

I know the scheme want complete fluency but I feel him repeatedly reading words with the most basic phase 2 sounds is just going to put him further and further behind as he’s not reinforcing phase 3 and 4 especially when they start learning phase 5 later in the term.

So I’ve officially turned into ‘that’ parent but I’ve been polite in communications with school and I don’t want to question them I do want to trust them to do a good job, I know they can go off what they see only. But I honestly feel like they are not seeing what I am and importantly not seeing him, it’s like they’ve written him off (I know that sounds dramatic)

The whole thing has made me very disheartened and like I can’t trust my own judgement on this.
I work in education in an adjacent way at a higher level than Primary I won’t say too much in case outing. But I do know my stuff to some extent though I appreciate I’m not a current primary teacher.

I get that’s the scheme but that’s a bit silly in my opinion because then he’s not practicing any other sounds and will get further behind.

They do a lot of work practising decoding with new sounds in phonics lessons. It's really important that they learn to read with fluency. As a Year 2 teacher, my biggest issue is the children who come up being able to sound out and blend words from Phase 4 and 5 perfectly well but being unable to read Phase 2 and 3 books with any automaticity. They take longer to be able to read fluently than those who develop automaticity when reading the early books. If you can't read fluently, you cannot approach texts with any comprehension.

If your DC is already reading the books with 90% of the words read automatically then speak to the teacher about a different level.

The thing is, they will have done the assessments and will understand exactly what they are looking for. Its great that you are practising at home, but it's very different, especially when it's your own child. I think you need to trust them, they've definitely done the right thing in freshly assessing after the holidays- it would be far more concerning if they hadn't. Also, there's no rush to go up the reading bands.

That does sound low for year 1. My dd has also just started year 1 and they also did reading assessments as soon as they started. We got told they may move up or down book bands so it doesn’t just start ion what they finished on at end of reception, it’s their ability at that point in time.

My dd school was like this - “we only send home books we know they can comfortably read”. It drove dd nuts with boredom.

My ds (now in Y2) is at a different school and here we get a book from the band they are currently on (and he has automatically been moved up a band to start this year, which he is reading well) AND we get a book that is a “stretch” so he can attempt little bits of it with parents support. So this means he started the term an Oxford band 7 book and an Oxford Band 9 book, both of which have been read and we will now reread before the switch next week. My ds is not a keen or good reader but he’s come on very quickly with this approach.

So I suggest - ask the school when will they next reassess.

Then write in his reading log every week “dc Read this in 2 minutes no mistakes, ds said it was boring so we read our own book for the rest of the week: {write down name and level of book}”

@Readyforslippers i just think this is not the right advice for all kids. My dd was reading chapter books at home and school was still holding her on Biff and Kipper. I would make her read a little bit then I’d let her stop and read her own book. If a child is bored, their love of reading will quickly turn to utter hatred.

I also trusted the school a few years later when they said “oh don’t worry she’ll learn spelling naturally since she’s such an avid reader”. This also turned out to be false. For some kids that maybe true but not all.

Some schools are objectively not amazing and cannot be blindly trusted!

Thank you it is helpful to think about this bigger picture.

We just read the book through twice and I asked him to read without sounding them out the second time we did it fast.
there was 3 words he sounded out on the first go round mostly because he wasn’t properly looking at the words and was focusing on the picture and guessing.
Rest was sight read and fast the second time around 🤣

Thanks for explaining about the automaticity that does make sense, but I worry about him not practicing blending phase 3+ enough,

He was in the mood for it today so seized the opportunity to run through the flashcards with him, we did all of them from phase 2 and 3 in a jumbled order and there were only 2 sounds he hesitated on / needed prompting on. ‘j’ (no idea why think he went blank and got it when he looked at the picture on the other side) and ‘air’ needing reminding said ‘ar’ at first.

He then chose one of the partner texts sent to us from this bear can read - star 3000 this is phase 3 and he was 50/50 blending and sight reading his parts.

So all in all I do think they’ve assessed him too low and I worry it’s just got to put him further behind to be stuck here.

But I appreciate they’ve gone on how he performed on the day. Clearly he didn’t perform his best that day in the assessment. I am disappointed they didn’t factor in how early into year 1 it was and getting to know a new teacher it probably felt like too much pressure.

Thing is I trust the teachers judgment and get they can only go on what they see.
My default is always to trust the teachers, I might ask a question or clarification but ultimately I trust their view on it and support at home whatever they suggest.
But equally surely the reception teacher’s judgment should be trusted also? And she had him 3 bands above this.

I trust that’s what they possibly saw in that one assessment on what must have been day 2/3 of year 1 with new class and new teacher.

But it just doesn’t make sense they wouldn’t also consider where he was at the end of reception as part of this.

My default has always been to trust the school and support their suggestions at home. But this just doesn’t sit right.

Im not in a hurry to move him up bands for any specific reason other than not wanting him stuck with the very first level of books and missing out on opportunities to practice decoding more challenging texts and falling further behind.

Sounds like he's doing well and improving fluency with practice is great. It may be he was just a bit rusty after the holidays.

You've had lots of fabulous advice already but.just wanted to query how often he reads to an adult at school? Dd is the same age and they ready to an adult weekly and as such are 'assessed' regularly and moved up (or not) quite regularly. They've used the word 'assessment' but is there the possibility that it's not quite as big a process as you envisage and so might happen quite regularly anyway? Additionally dd sometimes goes up a couple of bands at a time - although I'm not sure exactly what scheme her school use as we have numbered books currently and she's on band 11.

I agree that they can’t necessary be amazing all the time. I do really like his school it has so much going for it.

I also appreciate they are under a lot of pressure in an underfunded system.
A thought never far from my mind on raising such things and being an annoying parent!

I really like this approach of a secure book and a stretch book, thank you for that.

This is the best then of both worlds and is essentially what we did tonight. So as the school don’t do that we will do it ourselves!
Read whatever school give plus our own ‘stretch’ book 😊

I’ve just ordered a bundle of phase 4 Little Wandle books from Vinted these can be our stretch ones. 😊

Not sure how often they are read with. Once so far (Monday) recorded in his record.
they just said ‘regularly’

Weekly would be great if they use that information to move him up if needed, because I know that Little Wandle do assessment once a half term (or at least did in reception) so that was the only time their band was reviewed last year.

I did assume that it was a similar assessment they did last week. But could have been different

He can't practice sounds he hasn't learnt or been taught yet though. The point of the reading books is to read 3 times at school across a week in their lesson (first to decode, second for fluency, 3rd for comprehension and that story teller voice), and then they take them home to show off their reading to you! The aim is to consolidate and celebrate their reading skills and to help foster than love of reading.

He WILL practice the other sounds when he is secure in previously taught sounds. There is no point rushing through, that is what will set him back further and it also risks disheartening and putting him off reading because it won't give that chance to consolidate or show-off his skills.

Just read books for pleasure alongside the books that come home and do wat you're doing.

I’d be really cross with the school! If the reception teacher has him 3 bands higher the school are being ridiculous.

I’d say that the books they are sending home are denting his confidence as they are too easy and ask for a re-assessment asap.

More of a complaint about Little Wandle but why do they read the same book so many times? My son totally refuses to read it more than once as he just says he has already read it so we never read any book that comes home from school and just supplement with our own. There needs to be more flexibility in the scheme!

Thanks but he is secure in all phase 2 and 3 sounds
and can blend phase 4 words.

My point is that if he is stuck on very early in phase 2 he won’t be practicing blending the new phase 5 sounds when he learns those later.
blending in context of a book is better than just blending sounds discreetly.