reading age dropping by a year from last year - so in real terms two years less...

[Tomsk]

We've just been to parents evening, and dd1's reading age has dropped by a year, plus she's obviously a year older. The teacher's not concerned, as her reading age is now the same as her chronological age, but I'm concerned about how this could happen. I know she's having a really bad time at school at the moment - she says she's got no friends (it's a very small school with only two other girls in year 3), she's crying in the mornings, awake in the night (every night since the start of term) crying at school...

So I guess what I'm saying is - are her bad statistics a product of her having a bad time, or indicator that the school's not right for her IYSWIM?

(If this sounds familiar, I have namechanged - I used to be another womble but someone in rl discovered my username )

Hang on, if this has happened between year 2 and year 3, could it not just be that the bands are slightly different? What I mean is that a level 3 (say) at KS1 is not the same as a level 3 at KS2.

This seems to happen to a lot of children when they move up.

I can see this could be worrying, and I would worry, but remember that it is just a test result and doesn't necessarily reflect your daughter's real reading ability. Did you ask what kind of test they used - decoding only, comprehension, cloze? After all, reading ages are just 'made up' numbers based on the results of some large number of children of various ages taking the same test.

I know you're not really as worried by the reading age as by the implications that your DD is very unhappy and that this is having an effect upon her work. She does sound rather sad. Have you had any more luck in your conversations with the school, or any more thoughts about moving? I think very small friendship pools can be tricky.

I mentioned to the teacher that her reading age had dropped, and she was suprised - she said she'd look into it. But this concerns me in itself - the teacher knew that she'd got a 3 in her SATs for reading in the summer, but didn't think it odd that in this test she came out as exactly average.

I asked whether the way it was tested was different in the juniors - the teacher said that they use book 2 rather than book 1.. whatever that means!

We're going back to see the Head again on Friday. DH is dead set against moving schools, but the more that happens, the more I want to move them....

I really wouldn't worry...the change from y2 to y3 is a big one...more independence etc., and settling in to a new class after the summer hols can cause a drop back. Are you still happy with her reading at home? Is she as confident / reading same sort of books etc.? If so, by all means keep an eye but you'll probably find that she leaps back up when she feels more settled.

Sounds like the friendship issue is more of a concern. Perhaps you need to talk to her teacher about how unsettled she is and try to find some solutions to that (and I wouldn't say moving her is a solution unless there are serious issues that you haven't mentioned here)

There are other issues, Rachels103, see here and I think they are probably clouding my judgement, I just wanted to take this out of context to see whether it was an issue for concern, IYSWIM.

Ah, I see...I think I posted some kind of response to this thread - certainly read and thought it.

So...I still wouldn't see the reading age issue as a massive cause for concern, but in light of many other and worse problems, I would probably be considering moving my dc too.

Hope you get it sorted.