The early book bands correspond with the phonetic stages. During all these bands, children read aloud and the focus is squarely on learning how to read fluently whilst understanding what’s being read. These are the reading scheme based book bands. The most important aspect of learning how to read is enjoyment. Read wide and read every day. Continue to select books based on interest level, fill your bookshelves with the classics and encourage children to read absolutely everything. We always have a few book banded books on the shelf, but mainly we fill the shelves with a variety of classic fiction, poetry, a wide range of factual books and educational magazines. The best rule of thumb for selecting appropriate books at home is much better than the book band system.

The book band system is invaluable for schools, but it’s not a system optimized for reading at home or 1-to-1 tuition situations like homeschooling. It’s a system made for teachers and classrooms. As a parent, don’t get caught up in book bands outside of a supervisory capacity. It’s great to be able to understand the system and keep an eye out for slow or too rapid progress, or as is often the case, your child’s reading book not matching their reading level, but that’s pretty much the most use you’re going to get out of it. Learning how to read is a hideously complicated endeavour for both children and their parents. In UK schools, reading is taught using synthetic phonics and it takes about 3–5 years (or more) to create fluent, confident readers able to enjoy books like The BFG, The Secret Seven or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. During this time, their reading books are graded by difficulty levels known as book bands.

In preschool and much of reception, children are only able to read part of the phonetic alphabet which instantly disqualifies them from reading books outside the phonics schemes. For a year or two, life revolves around them reading their book band book daily whilst their main source of entertainment will continue to rest squarely in the act of being read to. Once they reach Lime Level, it’s a whole new ball game where book bands have much less of an impact. Collins Big Cat Phonics - Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised | Big Cat for Little Wandle Fluency Sets The Reading Lions series contains 6 clear levels from First Reading to Independent Reading, allowing you to select the right books for your child

Big Cat Reading Lions help you to support your child’s reading development at home. Each book in the series has been created by leading children’s authors and illustrators, and carefully levelled by educational experts, meaning you can enjoy reading with your child at every stage in their reading journey.For more details, Booklife has produced an excellent leaflet on what children are expected to achieve in each band. Book Banding is a popular way of organising children’s reading books. It’s a system that allows schools to choose books from a range of reading programmes and know that they are of the same level of difficulty. The system ensures teachers and parents can be confident that children are reading books matched to their current reading ability. Furthermore, the system means that children can develop independent reading habits by choosing suitable books based on their interests and preferences, which helps to foster enjoyment and a love of reading.

Children reading books from bands 1 – 7 (Pink to Turquoise) are early readers who are still developing their understanding of phonics. To reflect this, many books in these bands are written to complement phonics teaching. This means that children can apply their growing phonics knowledge when reading independently or with a teacher or parent. These varied titles offer pupils breadth in their overall reading experience. Starting out with predictable and patterned texts, titles broaden to poetry, traditional tales, varied genre fiction, information books, play scripts and biographies from a host of popular children’s authors. Each book looks unique and enticing, guaranteeing your pupils never get bored of reading their Big Cat scheme books. Big Cat for Phonics for Letters and Sounds Created to support your Key Stage 2 struggling readers, ensuring that your pupils practise their decoding skills with books that appeal to their maturity. Each title features illustrations, photographs and subject matter suitable for KS2 children at an accessible KS1 book band level. Big Cat Letters and Sounds 7+ Developed in collaboration with two English Hubs, Wandle Learning Trust and Little Sutton Primary School and validated by the DfE. It comprises classroom resources to support the Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised SSP and a range of phonic readers that together provide a consistent and highly effective approach to teaching phonics. Big Cat ProgressA series of beautifully presented books fully aligned to Letters and Sounds and is banded from Lilac to Turquoise. Big Cat Phonics for Little Wandle Letters and Sounds Revised There are 19 bands in the Book Banding system for different levels of primary-aged readers. These bands are numbered 0 – 18 but are more frequently referred to by their colours, from Lilac (the first band) to Pearl (the last band). Each band contains fiction and non-fiction books, and some of them also contain poetry and playscripts. Brown (Year 3–5): Readers now mainly read silently and afterwards discuss what they’ve read afterwards. During discussion, they are able to find references by skimming the text to support their opinion. You may now read your book whilst they read theirs. Lime (Year 2–4): Contains sophisticated word plays and puns and the narrative voice is distinctly separate from the characters’ point of view. Some silent and some aloud reading.

Sometimes you may find a book that has two book bands marked on the cover. These are called dual-banded books, and they have been written for children whose chronological age is higher than their ‘reading age’. These books tend to be about topics and experiences that are relevant and interesting to children in Key Stage 2, but with words and sentences that best support their current reading level. So, for example, if you found a book with a Pearl (18) and Green (5) label, it would be written for a Year 6 child reading at book band level 5.Most Primary Schools in England use book bands in conjunction with synthetic phonic schemes to teach children how to read. Each book band matches their reading level as well as their level of understanding, allowing them to gain confidence and independence without ever feeling that reading is ‘too hard’. The Book Band Colour Coded System A challenging read, may need some help from a parent or a dictionary. Will probably require a second read through to fully understand it. Step 2: Let them decide if it’s at the appropriate level using the five finger test. The Five Finger Test As my daughter progressed through the levels I found it invaluable to have a general estimate of the length of a book she’s expected to be able to read. It allowed me to instantly eliminate books that would be too difficult — but it only works one way. Lower band books cannot be long, but the upper band books can be very short as long as they use a more complex vocabulary and structure. In addition, factual books are shorter than fiction and poetry books are always significantly shorter than everything else. Early Book Bands