End of reception reading level

[Cleosinsttropez]

Hello!

My son finished reception on Oxford Reading Tree level 7/Turquoise reading band. We’ve continued reading with him over the holidays and have worked our way through the library’s turquoise collection.

I was googling to see what the next level is so I could buy him some books when I came across the attached reading guide. I was quite surprised to see turquoise band is the level for the end of year 1.

I was wondering how accurate this guide is? Trying to establish if the chart is about right or, in practice, most children go beyond this and it’s a base level?

For context, my son turned 5 a few days ago, he’s one of the youngest in his year. He is at a private school where they read with them individually 4 times a week, we read with him too. His report was excellent but there were no comments specific to reading other than he’s coming along well.

I am friendly with other parents but I don’t particularly want to message them to ask what reading level their kids are on, I don’t want to come across a competitive parent but I’m just interested to try and gauge his level, especially compared to his autumn/winter born peers, if he is actually quite far ahead, or if this is relatively standard.

Would appreciate if any teachers had any input or how this tallies with your reception/year 1 age child.

Many thanks 😊

It says my image is under review, it was similar to the chart found in this link: https://cdn.oxfordowl.co.uk/2019/07/19/13/52/18/160/OxfordLevelsAndBookBands.png except it had a target age, too.

You know what is next, the table shows it.

FWIW my son finished all of these by end of year one and was on free readers, (not privately educated - not sure of relevance here) so I would suggest buying them in bulk

My advice would be don’t worry about levels. When he is in school read their books with with him but make reading at home about reading for fun don’t be concerned about the level.

Go to the library like you are but let him pick books he wants to read. If he can read it alone fantastic if not enjoy sharing it together.

@Boreded Thank you- I know what colour is next, that’s not what I’m asking, it’s just I’m surprised to see the chart would indicate that this level is for the end of year 1. I mentioned private school as I know 1:1 daily reading is unusual for state schools (at least for the ones we viewed) So your son was on dark red/level aimed for year 6 at the end of year 1? That’s interesting and gives me some context!

Daily reading at primary school is not unusual.

Get your DS to develop a love of reading rather than charging through bands they will be doing at school. Go to the library and get him to choose something he would like to read. Reading for pleasure is a dying pastime and should be encouraged rather than forced through boring books on bands.

@Sirzy thank you. I stuck to levels this time around because I wanted to maintain his reading level over summer, but we can definitely just read non banded books, we’ve enough of those 🤪

@MrsElijahMikaelson1 thanks. My son is enjoying the reading level books at the moment thankfully, they’re not biff chip and kipper ones as he doesn’t like them much- he asks to do his reading so I’m happy he’s not bored with them!

@Cleosinsttropez I would say turquoise at the end of reception is good but not unusual if that makes sense? So out of an average class of 30 you would have 7 or 8 children at that level or higher (judging by my nieces/ nephews state schools) . And I’m sure the number will be higher at a private school so that might be why the school havent mentioned it.

I think the chart refers to “80% of children will reach this level by X age” rather than expectations for a child at a private school with engaged parents! So much of learning to reading is practice so both those things really make a difference!

Also, my children really liked Biff Chip and Kipper/ Songbirds/ etc. Never sure why there is such a hatred of banded books on here! (Admittedly the Read Write Inc books were roundly rejected so maybe it depends on the reading scheme!)

@Cleosinsttropez Turquoise is roughly right for the end of Y1.
However, as a teacher, I can say parents are often more concerned about the colour band their child is on and whizzing through those than whether they understand what they read and can make predictions and inferences.

Comprehension plays an important role as they go through the book bands. Take note of the questions and discussion points at the back of the books to help him get used to the wording and question style. 'I wonder why/what.....?' are great questions for this age group as there's no right or wrong answer, you're just looking for their opinion/ideas.

@HelloDarknessmyoldfrenemy thank you, that’s really helpful and has given me more context on the chart IRL. You know he used to like biff and co until end of summer term, I think he got character fatigue! He also found the magic key that popped up in the books quite random, he’d be like hey where did the key come from! So he’ll generally choose a different schemes books now, he does enjoy songbirds though!

@MyTwoDads thank you, this is also really helpful! I feel a bit guilty it’s taken me a year to look into book bands but I take your point. The school has really hammered home the importance of comprehension so we’re big on discussing the book, predicting what might happen, why a character did something and how they might be feeling etc.

Appreciate the tips and input!

My son finished all of them and was put on free readers, I think if I remember correctly one other boy also finished them too.

There are always going to be plenty of kids ahead of the reading guide and plenty behind it. It doesn’t matter what the others are on, it is just a guide that tells you based on the curriculum expectations where they ‘should’ be. Being ahead really isn’t against the norm…just buy all of them and then let him work through them.

Also it doesn’t matter whether they do reading with him every day in school or not, not if they have a parent at home who is working with them on it. But yes he was reading plenty at school with the volunteer ‘teaching assistants’ (most of whom where parents of the kids I went to school with).

It's lovely that you care so much about promoting reading for pleasure with your son, but please please please try not to obsess about book bands - they suck all the joy out of reading pretty quickly as children get older.

Personally I hate the idea of any kid being told they can't borrow a certain book from the library because it's too high, or too low, a band.

If it's too low - well sometimes we all enjoy an easy, relaxing read that doesn't tax us - there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

If it's too high - well we all learn differently and many kids will build reading skills by attempting books that teachers/parents might instinctively see as too "challenging" for them.

I am dyslexic, and can well remember being way behind my peers in the reading bands at school. Then I had a lovely teacher who let me borrow one of the chapter books we had in a special box. I read the whole thing in one night, and over the next few weeks I borrowed them all, reading then in one night. The pleasure I took in this obviously enabled me to build reading resilience, and by the end of primary school I had a reading "age" of something like 16 - having been way behind my peers only a couple of years before.

And I went on to read English at Oxford, and now I am a teacher and pretty much obsessed with getting kids to read for pleasure!

Your son might be a bit ahead of his peers reading wise, but I wouldn't build too much on that at this point, as progress isn't always linear - he may stay a little ahead, he may accelerate even further ahead, he may fall behind at some point.

But if you can somehow create an environment whereby he continues to love reading, you will have given him a gift beyond price, and will (research shows) be contributing hugely to his long term chances of success and happiness.

Turquoise is very good for a reception boy. Both of my girls were on blue by the end of reception and have always been ‘exceeding’ for reading and comprehension. You’ll get loads of posts telling you he’s not special etc but realistically he’s cracked it and is doing very well. In practice, once they’re past purple I’ve found they can pretty much read most things and it’s really about expanding vocab and endurance.

I wouldn’t be too quick to push him up the bands. My eldest accelerated through them rapidly in the first half of the autumn of year 1. I found some of the book content wasn’t that great for her age. I think it can also be tempting to get them reading chapter books too quickly. I actually found with both of mine, they were quite resistant to moving from picture books to chapter books despite being quite capable of reading them. I regret pushing my eldest into more complex books. She ended up just not being fussed at all in year 3 and it became a battle and a chore. It was only really in year 5 that she returned to loving reading.

With my youngest, I’ve been much more cautious about moving onto chapter books and have basically let her read what she wants in year 2. I don’t really care if that’s been dogman or Zog. Making it fun is more important than hitting off the ‘I’ve read Harry Potter and Matilda by 6’.

He’s doing well. My children raced through the book bands along with a good handful or two of others, and were at ‘greater depth’ for reading throughout infants (which I’m sure he will be). When they can read fluently and quickly comprehension becomes the focus, especially from year 2. So I would just ask him questions and to make predictions to work on that. My eldest is going into year 6 now and is at the expected level for reading. Whilst she doesn’t struggle, she also doesn’t love it or make much time for it, and her comprehension no longer stands out.

And I agree with @bunnycat101I think o pushed the chapter books too soon. Let them choose what they want to read and focus on enjoyment. Pictures bring a lot of joy to early readers!

Thats impressive, especially as he's young in the year. Our scheme is totally different in school but I get some of those from the library to mix up our home reading and she's on light blue and green.

We expect all of our Yr1’s to be free readers by the end of Yr1. I will have free readers coming up to me from Reception . We are a state school with incredibly high standards and very experienced staff.

Books bands aren't used in most schools now, as they don't fit the phonics schemes the government have forced upon us. The schemes insist you send home their books, which don't really fit the old book band system. Biff and Chip are practically obsolete now, as they are not decodable books (apart from the Floppy's Phonics ones). Children need a lot of sight word knowledge and inference skills from the pictures to work out some of the words (with words such as 'water', 'children', 'bike', 'cake' etc appearing in 'red band' books, long before they've been taught how to decode such words in phonics).

These days, we are only allowed to send home decodable books, where the children can read each word independently using their decoding skills as the words will all match their current phonics level. Yes, scheme books are even more boring than Biff and Chip now! Personally, I still feel there's a place for Biff and Chip books, but Ofsted will disagree with me as it's all about phonics these days. All the other skills involved in learning to read aren't valued under the current National Curriculum.

However, from my previous experience of teaching under book bands, this chart is accurate. It shows the average expectations. By the end of Reception, most children will have been reading 'yellow' books. Naturally, some would still have been on pink or red, and others would have been working beyond this (with some well beyond, like your son).

Clearly he is a very able reader so I wouldn't fret about rushing him through book bands in the summer holidays. Just enjoy reading for pleasure. Let him choose the books he wants at the library. If he can read turquoise band books, he'll be able to cope with most basic early reader chapter books. However, if he chooses one which is too hard for him, you can read it to him. That's not a problem. There's still a lot of value in him listening to you read. It's also fine if he would rather select some picture books to flick through at leisure, or for you to read to him. There are so many brilliant ones out there aimed at 5-7 year olds so definitely don't abandon picture books yet, especially from a comprehension point of view. Also, have you considered the non-fiction section? (Again, for pleasure, not for him to read independently).

It's great that you're so keen to help him progress, but the summer break should really be about reading for pleasure, to help keep them ticking over with their reading skills, rather than ploughing through more scheme books. There's plenty of time for that again in September.

my son was on the white level at the end of reception. He has just finished year 1 and is on grey. In my limited experience, i noted that there is a big variance in reading levels until year 3, when most kids will start the year as a free reader. My other child is dyslexic but also managed to hit reading targets in line with this. But it does take longer to move up the levels as the reading books become longer and more complex. My children also attend private school.

My dd just turned 5 end of reception and was able to read chapter books - state school but they only read about 5 mins every 6 weeks 1-2-1.

They also wouldnt put exceeded on reading reception report - her comprehension was also amazing.
Most kids became free readers during y2. So the chart is pretty far out.
I dont think state vs private is comparable as our state only had 2 reading books a week if you were lucky...

Worse in dc2 year they insisted on reading every book twice. And too much focus on soubding our so that kid was still sounding out in y1 though they didnt need to!

I think that chart is more of a minimum-expected than an average.

It's like milestones for babies - i wouldn't worry about doing them earlier than expected, as long as they're getting met.

Thank you everyone for your replies! Sorry I’ve been a bit slow at replying!

@Ilovelurchers thank you! I promise not to get obsessed with book bands, I’ve only noticed them as the colours of the books changed during the year and I only googled at this point to see if I could buy the next level. I completely agree it’s not linear and similarly, it’s not a race. I should be clear we’re not only reading banded books- he chooses whatever books he wants from the whole children’s section, then we will go over to the early readers and choose some banded ones. The reason I suggested them is because I’m conscious of summer slide and wanted to maintain the level he’s at at school- we still read other stuff. But having said that, I’m happy he’s enjoying the stories, if he was pushing back with them I wouldn’t be doing it with him. But thank you, I note all that you say! I’m glad you had that teacher that helped you flourish, it’s amazing a difference a teacher can make!!!

@Bunnycat101 thank you! Good to know. I had a look at some of the higher levels and there doesn’t seem to be a huge amount of difference between them, they’re just a bit longer so as you say will be endurance linked. I won’t try and push through bands, I’ll just follow whatever school is doing in terms of reading for homework and the rest is just for fun. He did show interest in chapter books and I got a heap of Michael Rosen and Dick King Smith books (the latter mainly because I loved them as a child!) and he read the hodgeheg as he liked the story, but the others weren’t illustrated enough for him so didn’t really hold his attention, so it’s interesting what you say about chapter books. I think his preference is illustrated just because it’s more fun, do you know the Detective Stanley books? They are wonderfully illustrated!

@Talkwhilstyouwalk thank you, so interesting about the chapter books. I’ll need to try and find some more picture books, as I’m quite sure he’s memorised most of the ones we have at home, I’m not convinced he’d be reading any of the words! We will keep working on comprehension- may I ask, did you do any specific comprehension tasks with your children, as in an excerpt and some questions relating to it, or was this just through questions about books being read?

@ShrinkyDinkyPetal thank you for the information, it’s interesting to see where other children at and I really don’t want to be that parent at school!!! I’m also surprised there are so many different schemes, pre my son going to school I naively assumed it was standardised!!!

@Seashor thank you- I’ve googled free readers and the info I’ve got has different definition of free readers depending on key stage. At your school what reading level on the ORT would be classed as free reader, would it completing them all, so dark red? I’ve flicked through some of those books and would immensely impressed with a 4 year old reading them. Or would be it another stage, I think I read elsewhere it was white?

@BoleynMemories13 thank you. What you say about book bands makes sense- the books sent home from school are from all over the place (the earlier levels there were more biff and chip, which annoyed me because, as you say, they had split digraphs in, one book is called the pancake or something and I thought how do I read this with him!) but the school have banded them in line with the ORT, but it means some of the books will say purple- the school have assessed as a bit easier so will have categorised it as turquoise. It means there’s a lot of variety in the books coming home at least. But the levels definitely don’t match the phonics level they’ve been taught. By the end of summer term the class were half way through twinkl phase 5sound mat, whereas I’d say from Easter the books at home were ahead of the phonics learning.

thank you for experience with the chart, that helps put it in perspective for me. Noted re scheme books, in my recent post I explained that I was conscious of summer slide, so got the same level band books just to maintain his reading level- I’m not just saying this, he’s genuinely enjoyed the stories, the creepy castle range, ginger bread man, Hansel and Gretal etc. if I got any form of pushback from him, I wouldn’t do it with him, we’re big readers in this house and don’t want to put him off! We do read other books for fun, too. Chapter books (bar the hodgehog) haven’t really held his attention a yet. I’d be really grateful for any illustrated book recommendations, he loves Julia Donaldson, Kes Grey and Jim Field, all the funny bones books, Detective Stanley Range, Paw Patrol books etc.but if there’s any for that age group that you’d suggest I’d really appreciate it!

@lostinchaos thank you. From my googling of this it seems a lot of things tend to even out around year 3, I guess it’s developmental. White at the end of reception does look really advanced though, well done to him!

@Lllaaad thank you! Chapter books haven’t really held my son’s attention yet, did your daughter have a favourite? It’s a shame there’s such a difference between reading in schools- we viewed a mix of state and private schools (we only went private because we didn’t get any of the 6 schools we applied for and they gave us a school in borough, but really far away- I’m in London) and all bar one state school aimed for once a week reading with a TA, once a term with the class teacher, with 2 group reading sessions a week. One school didn’t send home a book, it was a link to a book to be read on a tablet and that was half termly, which didn’t seem enough to me!

@Kingdomofsleep thank you- that makes sense!

Oh there are so many authors I love for this age group!

Apologies for the copy and paste job, but here's a list I made the other week on the Children's Books group on here -

Julia Donaldson
Sue Hendra (the Supertato series is always a firm favourite with Reception)
Nick Butterworth (Percy the Park Keeper)
David McKee (Elmer)
Tom Percival (especially the Big Bright Feelings series)
Rachel Bright (The Lion Inside etc, another great picture book series, illustrated by Jim Field, aimed at slightly older children due to the complex storylines and vocabulary)
Catherine Rayner
Emily Gravett (Lessons from the Forest series) Peter Bentley
Giles Andreae
Gareth Edwards
Mark Sperring
Lucy Rowland
Jill Murphy
Judith Kerr
Shirley Hughes
Jez Alborough
The Ahlbergs
Mick Inkpen
Michael Rosen
Nick Sharratt (especially the You Choose series, another very unique concept).
Kes Gray (Oi Frog series)

Happy reading!

@BoleynMemories13 thank you so much! There’s a children’s book group? Off to find it! Thanks again