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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

reading levels for reception

27 replies

dee0468 · 14/07/2009 16:51

My May born dd is reading red level 9 books. Does anyone know if thats good or bad. When I was in class the other day there seems to be alot of levels above this one.

I have no idea what scheme it is. I think they use different schemes.

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MoonchildNo6 · 14/07/2009 17:11

All schools use different colour codes. My DS1 is a great reader but they send all sorts of random books home at all different levels, I just read them with him and send em back. If your DC is reading then that's great don't worry too much about the level yet just keep her interested.

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Hulababy · 14/07/2009 17:59

Without knwoing the scheme it is very difficult to know where she is TBH.

Many schools in England follow a similar colour scheme of books and books from different schemes, plus some non scheme books, have been put into colour coded groups according to difficulty. Some schools also use there own groupings.

AFAIK the national (for want of better use) colour groups begin lilac, pink, red, yellow, blue, green, orange, purple, turquiose, gold, white, lime.. (not 100% on full order)

However you mention level 9, so I thinkt he red coding is not linked to the above scheme. level 9 of any scheme is unlikely to be in the red catecory from above.

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mrz · 14/07/2009 18:55

Very close Hulababy they are
Lilac - pink - red - yellow - blue -green - orange -turquoise - purple - gold - white - lime

My reception class levels vary from red to purple

red = within expected level in reception
purple = NC level 2c

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MollieO · 14/07/2009 19:09

So if my dc iis on lilac at the end of reception class should I be concerned?

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mrz · 14/07/2009 19:18

Lilac books are usually wordless but it really depends how many terms in school (my class is a single Sept intake so 3 terms) a child who has only been in school one term can't be expected to have made as much progress.

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Hulababy · 14/07/2009 19:41

Ooh, I nearly remembered right

The Y1 class I work in vary from red to gold. They have been in school 4 terms now. The majority seem to be on blue and green thouh, with a few turquiose/purple. I still have some of red and infact one of those can't actually read those at all (EAL though).

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MollieO · 14/07/2009 20:05

He's been there 3 terms and doesn't seem to be doing much more than he could do at nursery. Our lilac books have words and are stage 1+ - ORT.

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MoonchildNo6 · 14/07/2009 20:21

My ds1 is on green but is an excellent reader and just got level 9 for reading on his Foundation stage report but from the above description that doesn't seem right?

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mrz · 14/07/2009 20:23

MollieO the books you are talking about have a lilac cover? If so they aren't lilac level (confusing I know) they are pink level which is the stage before red.

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mrz · 14/07/2009 20:29

Moonchild sorry it's confusing I know but your son will have achieved scale point 9 on the EYFS profile on his report (indicates an above average child in reception) NOT level 9.
Green is usually considered level 6 in the reading levels - lilac being 0 etc.

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primarymum · 14/07/2009 20:31

Bands and cover colours don't always match so check that you are looking at the colour of the "book band" and not the colour of the book! just to confuse things further, books with the same colour cover can be in different book bands levels. Many of the "old" ORT scheme books are not the same colour band as the book spine, so for example a "Blue BookBand Level Book" from ORT could be anything from Stage 2 to Stage 4!

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MollieO · 14/07/2009 20:38

Am confused but assuming lilac is in fact pink then still not much progress considering he will be in year 1 in Sept. His last book before we finished for the summmer was a blue 'Stage 2' labelled ORT Songbirds so I assume that may in fact be red. I wondered at the time if it was sent home so that his teacher could say he had reached the expected level, when in reality he hadn't.

He loves books but has no interest in reading. Does homework reluctantly and seems to struggle on the basics. His teacher said that it would just 'click' one day but I had thought that this would be during reception.

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MoonchildNo6 · 14/07/2009 20:40

Sorry Mrz that's what I meant. He has been sent home books from different publishers who all have different levels, he has between level 6 and level 9 depending on what publisher but his early years report was 9 and stated he had acieved all goals and in addition reads books of own choice with some fluency and accuracy. If he is only on green books ( which seems average from your earlier post) then this doesn't seem right IYKWIM?

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ThingOne · 14/07/2009 20:43

Well my DS1 is on the ORT. He reads "red" books - average for leaving reception but his actual literacy levels are way below this. So reading books is not the only way to start. My son is just bored by the "boring" bits but enjoys the stories. Maybe your son is getting all his building blocks in place first!

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goaway · 14/07/2009 20:59

Moonchild, my dd also got a 9 for reading but is on gold level atm.

I agree, green level doesn't seem quite high enough for a 9, probably more like an 8. It shows how subjective these numbers are.

At the end of the day, who cares anyway? They will never be required to produce their EYFS report in their future lives and green is very good for reception.

Threads I have read on mn seem to indicate that early reading ability is not linked to future academic success, so I am not reading too much into the 9 anyway.

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mrz · 14/07/2009 21:10

Moonchild the other book bands continue into KS2 and aren't just for reception year a child reading green level is working above reception expectations

A very rough indication of expectations is
reception pink/red/yellow/blue
Y1 blue/green/orange
Y2 orange/turquoise/purple/gold

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lottysmum · 14/07/2009 21:11

Hmmm...surely the EYFS grade is down to whether they have met the goals detailed on the evaluation sheet....not what level /colour book they are reading.....

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MoonchildNo6 · 14/07/2009 21:17

To be honest I am just grateful that he likes reading!

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mrz · 14/07/2009 21:25

To be awarded scale point 9 in the EYFS profile The child has achieved all the early leaning goals for reading. In addition, the child reads books of own choice with some fluency and accuracy. A child reading green level books should be capable of this - green is roughly equal to a NC level 1b.

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zeke · 15/07/2009 08:21

My son is on blue band at school (summer born boy) and achieved a '9' for reading and linking sounds to letters. He does read those fluently though and can read turquoise level fairly easily, and when he feels like it happy families ( approx purple in two sittings) and puffin young readers ( approx gold - a few pages). Maybe some schools would have him on a higher level. My son is quite immature and loves his blue band books.

Another boy in his class got moved recently straight from blue band to gold band!
So, I would disagree with the 'green isn't good enough for a level 9'.

I should add that he got a 4 and a 5 (my son) elsewhere on his report, so evens out to average!

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noideawhereIamgoing · 15/07/2009 11:00

Red is fine at the end of Reception - it's what my summer born dd was on and she's just finished year one in white band.

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redskyatnight · 15/07/2009 11:09

The EYFS goals and book bands are entirely different though. My end of Reception DS is on blue band books - but only got a 5 on EYFS goals. He can "read" the books quite fluently because he recognises many common words, understands how the story structures are likely to develop and has identified strategies for working out unknown words. But he can't blend words so he falls down on the EYF goals.

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smee · 15/07/2009 11:10

I haven't a clue what you're all talking about and my son's in reception too. DS is happy, has lots of friends, is apparently a lovely child to have in class who is making good progress across the board. He is starting to read, but personally I don't care what level he's at. All that matters is that he's started school and is enjoying it. Surely that's enough at just turned five

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filchthemildmanneredjanitor · 15/07/2009 11:13

those colours bear no resemblance to the colour coding at our school.

there is a huge range of abilities in any class at this age and it's not really useful to compare your child to others. if his teacher feels he's making progress that's all that matters really.

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zeke · 15/07/2009 13:12

Yes, that makes sense redskyatnight.
My son is on blue because he needed to work on his expression and not losing his place. He should probably be on green now but definately not purple or gold - I think that would really put him off.

He is able to read any phonetic word, including multiple syllable and is able to recognise when a phoneme doesn't sound correct, or a vowel needs to be short or long etc, and change it almost automatically - so can 'work out' tricky words he does not know, if they aren't too tricky. He knows the first 100 high frequency words on sight and also approx 80% of the 'next 200', so his fluency is pretty good. However, I still think blue/green band is correct for him on an everyday basis despite the fact that he is capable of reading and understanding a gold band book - he wouldn't need much help with them but it would be a real slog for him due to the amount of times he would lose his place if he didn't point to the words.

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