# reading levels/band



## sabby52

Just being a little nosy, plus wanting to see if my son is on track :) 

What age is your child/ children and what reading level/band are they? ?

Thanks :)


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## RachA

That's kind of a hard one to compare as schools use different banding. My sons school uses colours. He's in year 2 and is on orange banded books. I would say that the books he is reading are similar to The Gruffalo. 
Also it depends on the teacher. During year 1 his teacher kept him on a lower level book band but his new teacher is encouraging him more and he put Daniel on a higher level because he knew he'd respond well to it.


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## lindseymw

I have no idea what band or level my Eldest is on at School. They take him to the Key Stage 2 Library for him to pick a book rather than the collection for Reception. He has brought some randoms home including World War II & Chemistry.

At home, he is currently reading an Encyclopedia & Roald Dahl collection.


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## mummy2o

DS is 6 almost 7 and currently on level 2-4 of the Kipper books. He does have autism though so will behind the rest, but at least he's reading some books by himself, which is more than he did last year. Although he can read the collection of Dr Seuss' books as they interest him.


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## Tinylo

DS1 was 5 in August and is in year 1, they have colour bands on their books. He's on green that vary in style from comic strips to information to general stories.


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## karlilay

I have no idea?! How do I find that out lol?


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## alicecooper

My DD is 8 and her reading level has been pretty much too high to be measured for about 1.5 years years now. She has always been a strong reader. She can read pretty much anything. She LIKES reading things like the Famous Five and other similar Enid Blyton books.
Obviously with more complicated books though she would struggle more with comprehension rather than reading. She can read all words perfectly, but whether she knows what they mean is another matter.

For example, if I pick up one of my books here, Lydia would be able to read this fine :

"It was just possible, Colin Gomez conceded, that his self-justifications had been just a bit too glib."

But she wouldn't have a clue what it meant lol.

So her reading level his extremely high, but her comprehension level is about that of the Famous Five or perhaps JUST slightly higher.

My DS1 is 6 and he struggles a fair bit. He can manage some Julia Donaldson books, for example the Whale and the Snail, but nothing more complicated that that. Even then he would have to take it very very slowly and sound out each word extremely carefully.

My DS2 is 4 and he can't read yet - I'm going to start teaching him soon though, I'd like him to have the basics down before be starts school in September.


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## JoolsH

Colour bands should be similar order in all schools. They start in foundation pink red yellow blue green then I get bit mixed up maybe orange purple turqoise white in y2


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## JASMAK

My son is 10 and reads Harry Potter, my daughter is 9 (has autism) and reads small novels, my daughter is 3, and can read Shakespeare ;) Haha. We don't have levels here....they are on grade level though. Not behind. My son is grade 5, my daughter is grade 3


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## bungle

What reading stage is your son on Sabby? (I'm a teacher) x


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## sabby52

bungle said:


> What reading stage is your son on Sabby? (I'm a teacher) x

He is in Primary 2 which I believe is year 1, he turned 6 in October and his reading stage at the moment is 10-11, his books have a white or lime green colour band and they also say level 22-24, so I am kind of confused at what this all means lol x


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## sabby52

karlilay said:


> I have no idea?! How do I find that out lol?

There should be a stage, a colour band or a level on the back of her reading book x


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## bungle

Hi Sabby, assuming they are white band books your sons reading then he's doing incredibly well for his age. Over here our book Bands (in many schools) run as follows:
Pink
Red
Yellow
Blue
Green
Orange
Turquoise
Purple
Gold
White
Lime

The 'average' child we would hope would be reading turquoise books by the end of year 1.

But if in doubt just ask your child's teacher x


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## Lucasmum

That is the colour scheme used in my DS's school, he started year 2 in September and has read near enough all the lime books.

At home he is currently reading the Enchanted Wood book set to me :flower:


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## kerrie24

Both of mine went on to 'free readers' in yr 2.That means they weren't on colours/levels anymore and read difficult books aimed at teenagers/adults.Nathan has been tested at high school and his reading age is 18+ (he turned 12 this month)


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## RachA

There's a lot of really good on here. My son is on orange - he's not too bad at really, he's just a bit inconsistent. He also only really enjoys reading when it's his choice.


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## kerrie24

You might find your son is better at maths,pe,science or design.They all have their individual skills


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## Pink1981

Sophie is 6, 7 in august. Shes in year 2 and has just gone onto Stage 10 reading books. No idea if that's average or not but i'm very happy with how she is doing!


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## RachA

kerrie24 said:


> You might find your son is better at maths,pe,science or design.They all have their individual skills

lol - i know that's true and his talent will come out at some point but at the moment he isn't better at anything - he's fairly poor all round. He does love science but because his writing and maths is so poor (compared with his classmates) he does get a bit stuck with it all.


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## Noo

Now year 4 - Free choice reader since midway though Year 1. I believe lime green was is last reading level before free choice reading?


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## lindseymw

Noo said:


> Now year 4 - Free choice reader since midway though Year 1. I believe lime green was is last reading level before free choice reading?

What's 'free choice?' Joshua doesn't have any coloured bands on his books. As I said earlier, they take him to Key Stage 2 Library and let him pick a book? Would this be free choice reading? They started this around 4 weeks after he started School in Sept (he's in Reception).


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## Noo

lindseymw said:


> Noo said:
> 
> 
> Now year 4 - Free choice reader since midway though Year 1. I believe lime green was is last reading level before free choice reading?
> 
> What's 'free choice?' Joshua doesn't have any coloured bands on his books. As I said earlier, they take him to Key Stage 2 Library and let him pick a book? Would this be free choice reading? They started this around 4 weeks after he started School in Sept (he's in Reception).Click to expand...

He just takes any library book he likes as he has finished the reading scheme


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## lindseymw

Noo said:


> lindseymw said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Noo said:
> 
> 
> Now year 4 - Free choice reader since midway though Year 1. I believe lime green was is last reading level before free choice reading?
> 
> What's 'free choice?' Joshua doesn't have any coloured bands on his books. As I said earlier, they take him to Key Stage 2 Library and let him pick a book? Would this be free choice reading? They started this around 4 weeks after he started School in Sept (he's in Reception).Click to expand...
> 
> He just takes any library book he likes as he has finished the reading schemeClick to expand...

Ah right. I have a feeling they skipped the reading scheme with Joshua. He just bring homes whatever book he wants from the Library (at one point it was a chemistry book designed for Secondary School! I had great fun learning about Chromotography!) He has been put on the Gifted list so it could be why he has never brought a 'coloured band' book home.


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## BabyJayne

This has made interesting reading for me as I am struggling to find out a lot about the reading schemes etc.

Madeline is three and is in morning nursery at school. She has recently been taken out of the nursery group and put with reception class for reading, writing and spelling. She is doing fantastically well and loves it (I was worried about pushing her as she isn't 4 until June, and is the only one from her nursery class to be put into the group as she is quite far ahead of the others for the time being). The books she brings home are very simple and repetitive and she is just whizzing through them - I don't think she is on any particular programme though at the moment. 

Any teachers out there - should I carry on at home with some harder books that she seems comfortable with, or follow the school's lead? Obviously she is very young, and I don't want to dampen the enthusiasm she has for reading by giving her things that are too hard, and then her losing interest.

Thanks (and sorry if I have hijacked the thread).


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## lindseymw

I don't see any reason why you can't try 'harder' books with her if she is enjoying them.

Joshua started reading at the age of three. He never started with "simple" books that had one or two words on the page. The first book he read was "We're going on a Bear Hunt." Now, he currently reads "Book of Knowledge" as he had read his encyclopedia within a few days.

Try the Leapfrog Tag for your DD. This brought Joshua on leaps & bounds. Don't bother with the Tag Junior.


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## Racheldigger

Rowan's school uses the Oxford Reading Tree system (Biff, Chip and Kipper), and she has gone through stages 1, 2 and 3 in her first two terms, bringing her first Stage 4 books home after the Easter holidays. I don't know if this is good, bad or indifferent as the teachers won't tell me (I suppose they don't want us parents getting competitive), and there doesn't seem to be a massive amount of difference between the stages.


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## WW1

Racheldigger said:


> Rowan's school uses the Oxford Reading Tree system (Biff, Chip and Kipper), and she has gone through stages 1, 2 and 3 in her first two terms, bringing her first Stage 4 books home after the Easter holidays. I don't know if this is good, bad or indifferent as the teachers won't tell me (I suppose they don't want us parents getting competitive), and there doesn't seem to be a massive amount of difference between the stages.

This might help 

https://www.readingchest.co.uk/book-bands

It shows the Oxford reading tree, book colour and age expectation. What year is your child in? I'd not worry too much about where your LO should be - she's working through the stages well and that is the main thing.


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## RachA

That link was really helpful WW1-thank you.


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## Logan's Mum

Great link! Really shows how my son has progressed. He is in Reception class (5 years old this coming July), and is on Green :flower:


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## lovejoy

This is interesting.
I have no idea what these colours mean as my daughter is only 3, but is reading and spelling some small word, cat, dog, cup etc etc. I'm glad she's picking it up soo quickly, as I struggled with reading and spelling at school and to be honest the teaching supporting wasn't really there. So I'm doing my best to keep up with her and prepare her for school.

Any good recommendations on books would be appreciated. DD doesn't start school until next Sept, due to her birthday falling in Nov, I hope she's not too bored in reception class.


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## Racheldigger

Cool, thanks for the link, I understand now... the books Rowan's school is using are very old, and they were obviously published before the Reading Tree was re-coloured to the Book Band system, because the Stage 5 books she's bringing home now are yellow, while the link says they should be dark green. She's doing pretty well, then, because she's five and two months, and has reached an age five to six stage: much kudos to her teachers, because she could really only recognise about four words when she started school!


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## morri

we don't use banding at all here. We only start primary school at age 6/7 so that is when most kids start reading, some kids maybe able because they learnt at home but they dont teach reading or anything academical in kindergartens(3-6) here.


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## mixedmama

I'm a year 1 teacher and we follow the Oxford Reading Tree scheme (Biff, Chip and Kipper books). If you have any questions about ORT book bands/stages feel free to ask.

At this point of the year, my top readers are on stage 8 (only two children in the class) and the lowest stage is stage 2. Average readers are usually on stage 4 or 5 by now, depending on how they've progressed with the books. Higher than stage 5 is an above average reader :)


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## mixedmama

Racheldigger said:


> Cool, thanks for the link, I understand now... the books Rowan's school is using are very old, and they were obviously published before the Reading Tree was re-coloured to the Book Band system, because the Stage 5 books she's bringing home now are yellow, while the link says they should be dark green. She's doing pretty well, then, because she's five and two months, and has reached an age five to six stage: much kudos to her teachers, because she could really only recognise about four words when she started school!

She's doing very well! Well done to your DD!


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## sabby52

mixedmama said:


> I'm a year 1 teacher and we follow the Oxford Reading Tree scheme (Biff, Chip and Kipper books). If you have any questions about ORT book bands/stages feel free to ask.
> 
> At this point of the year, my top readers are on stage 8 (only two children in the class) and the lowest stage is stage 2. Average readers are usually on stage 4 or 5 by now, depending on how they've progressed with the books. Higher than stage 5 is an above average reader :)

Dec came home with a stage 12 book this week, it didnt have a colour band on it but it was called Hampers great escape, his teacher also gave him a level 13 book (didnt have a colour band either) and told him to read that one as well although it is not his reading book, it is called The First Emperor. 

So I am guessing that his reading is fine for his age, I always thought his reading was average but from what you have wrote it seems he is above average :shrug:


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