. It enhances their cognitive abilities, promotes social interaction, and contributes to their overall well-being and mental health. Additionally, reading opens doors to various opportunities and enriches their understanding of the world around them.

Why does Llangan School send home reading books?

We strongly encourage reading at home as a way to reinforce the skills and progress your child is making in the classroom. Every week, your child will bring home a reading book from school. We kindly request that you allocate just 10 minutes a day to reading with your child. For younger children in Reception, Year 1, and Year 2, reading with an adult is highly beneficial. Older children in Years 3, 4, 5, and 6 can read independently but may still require reminders and encouragement from parents. Our nursery children will also greatly benefit from being read to by an adult. All children have been issued with a reading record, children in the junior phases are able to complete this independently, and we ask parents of children in the infant phase to record books read.

How does the school choose the correct reading book?

To ensure that your child is reading books that are of an appropriate developmental level, we regularly assess their reading skills using the Salford reading test. This test provides us with a reading age score, which we use to assign the appropriate book banding level for our child.

What is book banding?

Speaking of book banding, we have transitioned from the Oxford Reading Tree Scheme to a book banding system. This change allows us to incorporate different reading schemes under one comprehensive system. Each book band represents a specific difficulty level and is color-coded for easy identification. The transition between bands is gradual, ensuring that children experience a smooth progression in their reading abilities.

This chart gives an indication of the range of Book Band levels at which most children will be reading as they progress through the school.

The chart shows the Book Bands for an ‘average’ group of children but children are all individuals who learn and make progress at different rates, so the chart is only a guide. As well as periods of rapid progress, your child will probably have periods of consolidation when progress is not as obvious. Although this may seem worrying, this is the time when they have the chance to develop confidence in using and applying their newly acquired skills.

It is really important that children develop their comprehension skills alongside their ability to read the words on the page so you may find that your child is able to read the words fluently but continues on the same Book Band colour for a while to enable them to focus on developing their understanding.

Class teachers assess the children’s reading on a regular basis and will change their Book Band colour only when they are confident that both the comprehension and word reading targets have been fully met. Please discourage your child from seeing the Book Bands as a race through the colours, but help them to understand that each band will offer a range of books which will help them in developing different reading skills.

Thank you