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

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

Primary education

Moved up a reading level due to lack of books?

18 replies

fatfloosie · 31/01/2013 11:24

Just wondering if DD (in R nearly 5) has been moved up a level due to lack of books. Is this a possibility or a ridiculous idea?

I'm sure at pink, red and yellow level we read tons of books but after only about 8 blue level books she has been moved up to green. I'm a bit baffled because everytime she's been moved up a level before I've thought that she was more than ready, but this time it was completely unexpected. I thought yellow to blue was quite a leap in difficulty and DD was definitely finding it harder.

She is at an infant school in a deprived area which gets quite low SATs scores. There were some changes to the catchment area recently which mean that DD's year has a higher middle class intake than previous years. Is it possible the school hasn't previously had to provide many of the blue level books to reception before and doesn't have enough to go round?

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igivein · 31/01/2013 11:49

Maybe you need to check with the teacher. At DS's school the books are all held centrally rather than split between classes, so children from different classes are using the same resources based on what level they're at rather than which class they're in. I would have thought it's done this way in most schools, so it's unlikely there's a lack of resources at a particular level for a particular class. Maybe the teacher thinks she's doing really well and is ready to move up.

lorisparkle · 31/01/2013 11:49

I would have a chat with the class teacher if you are not sure she is on the right level of books. They may just want to stretch her if she is doing well.

lorisparkle · 31/01/2013 11:50

Sorry cross posted! The books are held centrally at my DS s school too.

simpson · 31/01/2013 12:02

How did your DD cope with the book??

My DD found the jump from red to yellow the toughest (and then from green to orange).

I would not have thought they would have done it due to a lack of books but if she finds it too hard, have a word with the teacher about going back down.

My DC school have all their books within the classroom and the reception class only tend to have books going up to stage 5 in the classroom (DD is in reception) but would take a child out to go to the yr1 or 2 classroom to change their books weekly.

redskyatnight · 31/01/2013 12:18

Lack of books seems an odd reason if she's only read about 8. (surely they can find some from another year group). How is she finding the books - maybe the teacher thought she was ready to tackle them? Alternatively - how do they get the books? At DD's school the children pick their own and books occasionally end up in the wrong box, so she's come home with one that's too hard.

DD was moved up a level due to lack of books (not that there weren't many, just the rate she was reading through them) but it was done with the caveat from the teacher that we would see how she went. Not the same as your case I don't think.

learnandsay · 31/01/2013 13:04

Sounds like a strange reason to move a child up a level to me. I wouldn't have thought a Reception class would be struggling to find books at the higher end anyway, because presumably not many Reception children need them.

How is she finding them?

piprabbit · 31/01/2013 13:10

I think it's far more likely that she is doing well and the teacher has decided to stretch her. Well done to fatfloosie JR.

fatfloosie · 01/02/2013 12:38

Thanks for your replies.

The books are on shelves outside DD's classroom - they're certainly for all of Reception but I don't think they're for Y1 and Y2 as well. The books are allocated by the teacher or TA. DD has never chosen her own.

Having done some detective work on DD's reading diary, she actually had 12 blue books including one duplicate and they were all main ORT Red Stage 4 books - at the other levels there were books from other schemes and some shorter ORT books.

DD doesn't seem to be finding the green books that much harder than the blue books because I'm only helping her with a few words (and I was still helping her with some on the blue books) but she says she is bored after about 10 pages of one book and doesn't want to read anymore. I just say ok and fill in her reading diary and put them away. She gets two books at a time, changed once or twice weekly, and previously she almost always read both of them at her own insistence.

Don't know what to do for the best. Would like to stick with the greens and hope she learns some other useful skills like perseverance, but don't want to risk her losing confidence and going off reading.

Also don't want to interfere with teacher's decisions unless absolutely necessary. I have managed zen like acceptance of everything so far and would like to keep it that way if possible (fairly certain I was one of 'those parents' at DD's nursery ).

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learnandsay · 01/02/2013 12:48

What are other people's comments in the diary about the green books saying?

fatfloosie · 01/02/2013 14:08

She's only had two lots of green books so far so there's only one teacher comment - can't remember it exactly but probably "good reading, just helped with a few words" (it only ever says some variation of that or "excellent reading" ie no help). She usually comes home with new books on a Friday so I'll be interested to see if it says anything different today.

Actually that's made me realise that when she's been put up a level before the teacher has always read one of the old books with her and then a few pages of one of the new books (they usually only read one of the old books) but that didn't happen this time.

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learnandsay · 01/02/2013 14:13

If the teacher is giving her the books, listening to hear read and then writing "good reading" in the diary it's probably because she thinks that your daughter is reading well. I can't think of another reasonable explanation.

fatfloosie · 01/02/2013 14:20

Yes you're right I'm probably worrying unnecessarily!

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simpson · 01/02/2013 15:50

How many pages do the green level books have in them?

I remember there was one point where the books got too long to do all in one go so we split it over 2 nights or DD read some before tea/bath and then the rest afterwards.

RiversideMum · 03/02/2013 09:35

In my R class, when children become very fluent readers, we do a reading age test. The results of the test fit in with the colour bands. It is not uncommon for children to progress through the bands quite quickly at the "early fluent reader" stage. This may be what has happened - we often give children the choice of 2 colours is their reading age test indicates they should have skipped a colour altogether.

greenpostit · 03/02/2013 09:49

I wouldn't worry. My dd is also in reception and will be 5 in a couple of months. She was on yellow and was recently moved straight to green with no blue books ever sent home. When I was last in the classroom, I did not see any blue band books at all. My ds was on blue band for just a week before moving to green (couple of years ago). It doesn't seem to have done either of them any harm so I would just forget about it and help her with any words she can't manage.

fatfloosie · 04/02/2013 11:39

Ah simpson I think I will try that. I've always left it open to DD how much or how little she reads but she may have got into the mindset that she should be reading both books and is feeling a bit daunted (they are 24 pages now). She didn't want to read at all on Friday and half-heartedly read a few pages when I tried again yesterday. I will try agreeing how many pages to read before we start so we can frame it more positively as 'achieving target' rather than 'stopping when we've had enough'!

That's interesting RiversideMum. DD's books were switched to the new level without any comment in her reading diary or any record of her doing any reading (hence my speculation about lack of books), which would fit with her having done some kind of test.

Thanks for reassurance greenpostit. I haven't noticed much difference between blue and green myself. I will try not to worry. It's quite possible that it's just coincidence and DD is just a bit under the weather and her reluctance to read has nothing to do with the actual books!

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Thewhingingdefective · 04/02/2013 12:44

In my experience (I have 7 yr old DS and DD) sometimes they are on one colour a while then other times they progress quickly through a couple of levels. There is a big gap between mine (DD on last level - grey which is level 3, and DS on green which is top of level 1. DS was on blue for ages and really struggling but he seems to be getting it now and I expect him to move up quickly.

I can't imagine any teacher would move a child up a band to one beyond their capability simply because there were not enough books of that level. At my children's school the books are all in the corridor outside the reception classes but any of the KS1 children use them. Teacher, TA, child or parent can pick one or two books as needed.

Thewhingingdefective · 04/02/2013 12:45

Ps, I didn't notice a big difference between blue and green either.

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