Dear Parents/Carers, F2 Lilac Pink Red Year 1 Yellow Blue Green
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Dear Parents/Carers, Over the next few weeks, we will be making changes to the system we use to grade the reading books that the children bring home. All books Lilac will be placed in a colour band and will no longer be given a number or F2 Pink stage. The same system will be used throughout the school, making it Red easier to track the children's progress. Yellow Blue Over the next week or two, we will be assessing each child’s reading level. Year 1 Green In the past, the emphasis has been on decoding skills. However, we will Orange now also be looking at their comprehension, because reading success Turquoise depends not only on being able to read the words but also on their Purple understanding. This also means that children need to use the punctuation Gold to make sense of the text. When we assess the children, we will be Year 2 White analysing their errors to understand what their next steps are. Obviously, this will take some time for us to get to grips with, so we hope that you Year 3 will be understanding while we get round every child. You might feel that Lime your child has ‘gone down a level’. Please be assured that this is not the Year 4 case, because we are also looking at comprehension. Brown Year 5 The colour band system begins with lilac books. These books have no Grey words and will be given to those children who are getting ready to read. Dark Blue Lilac books can be used to teach a child how books work and to encourage Year 6 Burgundy them to tell a story using the pictures. Each colour band then increases Year 7 Black in difficulty and will be used to develop different reading skills. The final band is black and will include books suitable for older children who are confident, mature, fluent readers able to cope with challenging issues or language. Please note that not every child within a year group will be at the same level. Some will be working above the levels and some will be working below. Up to turquoise level, children are expected to move fairly rapidly through the colour bands. However, they need to read accurately and understand what they are reading before they are moved up a colour band. It isn’t just about decoding the words – it’s also about understanding the text. Once a child gets to purple level, progress through the bands will be much slower. A child on white/lime level books is now a competent reader. At brown level, children are able to tackle most books, but there is now a greater emphasis on reading with fluency and expression and understanding at a deeper level. The content of books at a higher level may not be suitable for a child of a younger age. Therefore, once your child reaches white level, they could be on the same colour band for up to a year. This does not mean that they are not making good progress. We are excited by this improvement to our reading books. It is important that children of all ages read a variety of books both fiction and non-fiction from different schemes and authors and we plan to invest in some new books so that there will be a much wider range available to the children, making it easier for them to find something that they will enjoy. If you would like more information about colour banding, please feel free to come into school and speak to your child’s teacher. Thank you for your support. L Taylor .