Please can someone explain infant level reading schemes to me?

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DS is halfway through Reception and, I think, doing well with his phonics and reading. Our focus has been on getting him happy and settled at school and less on the academic side, so I've been pleasantly surprised at him picking up his sounds and basic reading as well.

A fellow parent told me yesterday that her DD (in DS's class) is on level 5 reading. DS is on level 1. I assumed his books were about right - average - for his age but am now wondering if he's struggling without me realising. So what's the normal range of reading levels for Reception? I have no idea ... didn't even notice the numbers on the front of DS's books until this mum pointed them out to me yesterday.

Thanks.

My dd, in reception does not have one series of books only - I think it depends on the child. Recently, she was started on a scheme called 'Jelly and Bean' which is much better for her because she no longer guesses the words and has learned how to sound them out effectively. But some of the children in her class read Oxford Reading Tree.

We've been subjected to all sorts and one series completely put ds off reading for a term. Such a shame as he was doing very well but got completely bored by having books with words and no story. We then got books without words that had stories which made no sense at all. I got some very helpful advice from other MNetters and got Oxford Songbirds and Jelly & Bean. The transformation within a short space of time has been revealing although I think he is back to the level he was in at nursery so we've effectively lost 1.5 terms of reading development. I was very trusting of the teachers but think in hindsight that I should have been proactive earlier.

My two were still on stage 1 ORT books when they left reception. They are now reading stage 8/9 books in Year 1.

I think it's important that books aren't too tricky for them - reading needs to be a pleasure rather than a chore because if they develop a hatred of reading it'll be very hard to turn things around. Keep it light and fun - it's not a race.

Thankfully we use the Bood band system so we get a large variety of books from lots of different reading schemes sent home - we've never suffered from Biff & Chip fatigue.

Thank you for the link-up to understand what the stages of ORT mean. DS1's reception teacher told us that he was ahead in terms of reading, but never was very specific (and frankly, we didn't care so long as he was constantly challenged - something she has been great about doing).

Now I can get some sense of where is is, but still doesn't mean a thing to me, just that he seems to be a good reader.

Some in ds's reception year are still on picture only books. I thnk everyone goes at their own pace. Not sure if ds is being 'constantly challenged' though. Interesting question to bring up at forthcoming parents' evening. He is definitely a reluctant reader but when he's persuaded to read he does so very well and has always loved me reading to him. I'm careful not to push as I don't want to put him off.

MollieO - thanks for the link to ORT's, erm, 'tree'! That's really helpful.

I'm with you on not wanting to push and switch DS off - I feel the same. He can be reluctant, and then when he gets going, he enjoys it and wants to do it again. But we do each of his six-books-per-week only once (unless he wants a repeat), and his word bag maybe once or twice a week. He doesn't read school books every night, and I like it that way.

at critter. Ah, I can see it now. Done so subtly, too. I'll have the feelers out for this now!

Six books a week? Gosh I thought we had a lot getting four a week. He doesn't have a word bag either. Not sure how I'd cope if he did! Sounds like a lot of homework to me.

I don't do the school gates thing so I manage to avoid this on the whole. Not sure anyway I'd want people to know that ds has no playdates and is on Level 1 for reading.