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Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

Primary education

Reception reading levels

42 replies

forehead · 21/05/2009 15:25

My dd2 is 5 and in reception. She has just finished stage 4 ( blue band) of the Floppy phonics books and is going to start stage 5 this week. I just wanted to know whether this is a good reading level for her age as i don't really understand the reading levels.

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Feenie · 21/05/2009 15:40

Yes, it is! She is clearly doing very well.
Blue Floppy Phonics are Stage 3, though, and Stage 4 are red, but it's still good.
Why not ask her teacher?

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forehead · 21/05/2009 15:57

Thanks Feenie. I will talk to her teacher but i don't want to come across as a pushy mother.

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forehead · 21/05/2009 16:00

Feenie i have just checked DD'S book and it is actually the Songbirds books. Does this make a difference.?

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scarybear · 21/05/2009 17:51

The average ORT level is 3/4, that's book band yellow/blue for the end of reception. As far as I know, that is.

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ICANDOTHAT · 21/05/2009 17:56

Here for Oxford Reading Tree:

www.oup.com/oxed/primary/treetops/2/tree.html

Look at far right hand side to see age.

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CarGirl · 21/05/2009 17:57

I have to say probably half of most reception age children move to year 1 without being able to read/still on the starter books.

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mrz · 21/05/2009 18:06

The Floppy phonics & Songbirds books are levelled to Letters & Sounds phases which means she is reading in the expected levels for a reception child. (Green, Blue & Red are reception levels)

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mrz · 21/05/2009 18:07

Cargirl I would be very worried if half my reception class moved up to year 1 unable to read and so would the Y1 teacher.

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CarGirl · 21/05/2009 18:12

Well there were at least a third of the class still on the first stage "blue" books rather than having moved up.

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seeker · 21/05/2009 18:15

I would expect at least half if not more of a Reception class to move to year one unable to read!

What is your definition of reading, mrz?

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CarGirl · 21/05/2009 18:17

I thought that too, it depends on your definition of reading. Yes they could sounds out some words but it was torturous to listen too until nearer the end of year 1!!! Only my very very academically able was reading in reception class IMO

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mrz · 21/05/2009 18:36

All but a handful of my class do not need to sound out every word most are quite confident and accurate with reading the words and answering questions about the text afterwards. My confident readers have just started on the orange level stage 6 books and can pick any book from the box provided by the library to read independently.

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kittywise · 21/05/2009 18:45

Yes, what IS reading???? My 5 year old is reading level three, my seven year old had gone through the entire ORT by the end of year 1, she could read the FT if she wanted to and can spell pretty well any word correctly ( don't know how, I suppose it is a very good memory for letter patterns) BUT comprehension is another thing altogether.

I think too many parents put emphasis on how high up their kid is on a reading stage. What that means is they can read the words and some kids are good at that some take longer , it's not really indicative of anything at this early stage.

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mrz · 21/05/2009 18:48

Which is why I said I expect my class to be able to answer questions about what they have read to show they understand.

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forehead · 21/05/2009 19:08

I think it must be very difficult for a year 1 teacher to teach the curriculum if a child cannot read. Despite the fact that my dd2 is on stagr 5 of Songbirds she actually reads at a much higher level and will probably be free reading soon. This is because i taught dd2 how to read before she started school as i did not want her to begin year 1 as a non reader, as this would limit her ability to access the curriculum. My ds will start school in September and i am teaching him how to read.

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MollieO · 21/05/2009 19:14

My ds's reading ability varies according to what he is reading. For example he finds the Songbirds series easy and just reads the words with doing very little sounding out but the Kipper, Biff and Floppy ones are slower going. His teacher told me that the Songbirds ones had words you could sound out whilst the others had more key words which just had to be learned.

His teacher and TA place a lot of emphasis on reading comprehension so whatever he reads he also understands.

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lockets · 21/05/2009 19:14

This reply has been deleted

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MollieO · 21/05/2009 19:15

Should add that ds is 4 and in reception.

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lockets · 21/05/2009 19:35

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katiestar · 21/05/2009 19:58

In our reception year group most of teh children are on blue (stage 3) or red (stage 4) One or 2 are a bit behing this and a couple are way advanced of this -one on stage 9
I think we have quite an able intake though.

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mumtoone · 21/05/2009 21:09

Does anyone's school use the Jolly Phonics books? If so, what sort of level would a child usually be on by the end of reception?

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kittywise · 21/05/2009 21:14

When ds1 who is now 10 came to the end of reception he had just about worked out that his name began with S. he hadn't got a clue about reading or writing really.

He now reads pretty complicated books, easily teenage standard. I just wanted to reiterate that early reading ability isn't very indicative of future academic progress, to anyone reading who is worried that their reception child isn't reading yet.
Think on this, in Europe they aren't taught until much, much later. Some children are ready at 4/5 some are not ready until 6 or later

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cazzybabs · 21/05/2009 21:16

WOW - mrz...I think i have had 3 childrne this year who are super dooper readers, most came up on ORT level 2 (although we have lots of other books in our scheme too) and this is an independent school...which goes to prove money doesn't buy you advanced reading levels

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cazzybabs · 21/05/2009 21:16

We use Jolly phonics books with other things and the 1st level - the red books are at the end of reception/start of year 1

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mrz · 21/05/2009 21:26

cazzybabs I don't use ORT and I'm not really sure how Songbirds Rigby Star and Big Cat fit in with them. My school is in an area designated "deprived" and there are 30 children in my class.

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