KS2 New Reading Books

Book Bands

We are very excited to announce that we have invested in a new scheme of ‘real books’ for KS2 to take home to read.

When we talk about ‘real’ books, we mean books that have not been developed specifically for a reading scheme and have been written for the pure enjoyment of reading, which we feel is vital to help the children to develop a love of reading. They have however been carefully banded by text level, vocabulary, sentence structure, the density of the text and narrative style. The knowledge that the reader is assumed to have, is also taken into account, the emotional maturity needed to fully engage with the text and the complexity of the story as these features will impact fluency.

The book bands from lime upwards have changed and brought more in line with our curriculum and assessments.

Phonetically Decodable Books

As you will be aware, last year we introduced Rhino Reader books for Early Years and Key Stage One pupils who are still developing their phonic knowledge. These books are fully in line with our phonics scheme and the children progress through these levels as their phonic knowledge develops. The children are asked to re-read these books at least 3 times throughout the week as this is proven to develop fluency and allow children to make faster progress in reading.

The children in KS1 are also able to take home a colour banded book, which may not be entirely phonetically decodable, to read for pleasure and to support other areas of reading including their vocabulary development.

Please speak to your class teachers if you have any questions regarding your child’s reading or supporting your children to read at home.