Individual Reading Books
As children move on from phonics-based texts, individual reading books are grouped into colour bands. As a school, we follow the Oxford Levels and Book Band colours which you can find a list of below with the general expected level for each year group.
Teachers will decide when children move through this scheme based on their fluency and comprehension. We use a benchmarking system which allows us to check children's attainment and make sure they are at the correct level to continue making good progress. All children will move through the colour banded levels at their own learning pace.
Children read these books with members of staff in school and they will also be sent home to be read with parents. Please find below lots of information about how to support your children at home with their reading including example questions and links to videos for phonics support. There is also an explanation for you of how the book bands work in each class form year 1 upwards. See our phonics page for more information about how reading is taught in Reception.
In school, we record on a tracker who we are reading with each day so that we can ensure everyone is read with. Reception and Key Stage 1 we read with each child each week and in Key Stage 2 this reduces to once every two weeks. We also have a tracker to record your child's colour band so that we know the date they moved through and can see how long they have been on a level. You can see these trackers below if you are interested.
Library Books
In addition to their colour banded book, children also take home a library book of choice each week. This is to promote a love of reading and encourage children to read books for their own pleasure. This book of choice is from a wide range of text types in the class library and may sit outside of their reading stage. We encourage families to share these books together with children and support where necessary. This is very important to ensure children's self esteem around reading is strong.
Fluency and Comprehension
Each week, children are taught fluency and comprehension through teacher input. They have chance to learn new vocabulary, practise expression and fluency and answer comprehension questions in line with their age-related expectations.
These reading lessons focus on the VIPERS reading areas:
Key Stage One
| VIPER | Content Domain Reference |
| Vocabulary | 1a draw on knowledge of vocabulary to understand texts |
| Inference | 1d make inferences from the text |
| Prediction | 1e predict what might happen on the basis of what has been read so far |
| Retrieve | 1b identify/ explain key aspects of fiction and non-fiction, such as characters, events, titles and information. |
| Sequence | 1c identify and explain the sequences of events in texts |
| VIPER | Content Domain Reference |
| Vocabulary | 2a Give/explain the meaning of words in context |
| Inference | 2d make inferences from the text/ explain and justify inferences with evidence from the text |
| Predict | 2e predict what might happen from details stated or implied |
| Explain | 2f identify/explain how information/ narrative content is related and contributes to meaning as a whole |
| Explain | 2g identify/explain how meaning is enhanced through choice of words and phrases |
| Explain | 2h make comparisons within a text |
| Retrieve | 2b retrieve and record information/ identify key details from fiction and non/fiction |
| Summarise | 2c summarise main ideas from more than one paragraph |
Class Stories Plan
As pupils progress through the key stage, the level of challenge they face in these lessons increases through the complexity of the texts they encounter. These texts are planned carefully across the school to ensure diversity, increasing complexity of vocabulary and subject matter, a range of interests and the chance to introduce the children to new and classic authors. You can see the books that we have chosen to share with the children in our long term plan below. These books are read out loud to the children during the school day as a class book and their comprehension lesson is then based on an extract from the book - this means that they have knowledge of the wider text which they can apply during the lesson.
School class texts overview.pdf
Skylark Y1 Reading Overview.pdf
Skylark Y2 Reading Overview.pdf
Goldfinch Reading Overview.pdf
Swift Reading Overview.pdf
Skylarks Reading Level Tracker.pdf
Weekly Reading Tracker template.pdf
Try to read to your child every day. It’s a special time to snuggle up and enjoy a story. Stories matter and children love re-reading them and immersing themselves in them.
Please see below for information about the school books that will come home and how to support your child when reading with them:
