The Reading Journey

The books that are sent home for your child to practise their reading skills are grouped into different band colours. Each band has a focus on a particular set of sounds within the words and is matched to a particular phase of phonics.

Your child will progress through the colour bands as they master the skills (such as word reading accuracy, fluency and comprehension) required to move confidently on to the next colour increment. Opportunities for regular reading and skill practice are key elements in your child's journey in reading.

We aim for our children at Malin Bridge to become confident, enthusiastic and empowered readers who view reading as an enjoyable pastime and read for pleasure. 

Reading Record Cards

Each child from FS2 to Year 6, who is reading books that belong to our colour-banded reading system, has a reading book and matching reading record card sent home on a daily basis. Our new reading record cards are a replacement for the reading record books that we used in previous years, but work in a similar way in terms of being a log of which books have been sent home.

Our reading record cards have a bookshelf image on the first page, space to record which books have been read in the centre and 'next steps for reading' outlined on the back. The cards sent home will match the book band each child is currently working on. To replace comment writing following each reading session at home, we ask for the new reading record card to be ticked and we'll do the same when an adult listens to your child read in school too. Reading really does support learning in so many areas, including language development, effective communication, confidence, self-esteem and creativity.

Please encourage your child to read regularly at home and to read each book twice before returning it to school to be changed as this will enable them to revisit new words as well as strengthen comprehension and fluency. When a book has been completed, one of the books on the bookshelf (at the front of the reading record card) can be coloured in and decorated.

We ask that all children bring their reading book and reading record card into school every day as it enables us to change books and listen to readers much more effectively.

If your child has progressed through all of the colour bands within our book band system, they will become a 'free reader' and will have the opportunity to choose their own reading books. Across key stage 2, many of our free readers are getting the opportunity to get involved with 'Bookopoly' where a selection of books and reading based challenges are outlined on a game board and successful completion of different coloured challenges leads to a wide range of prize incentives. The 'Bookopoly' game boards also include a range of recommended reading books and Little People, Big Dreams books that have been assigned to each year group. 

1:1 Reading Sessions

As a guide, daily reading practice of around 10-15 minutes is most effective.

VIPERS questions can be found on the back page of your child's reading record card once their focus in reading has moved from phonics and word accuracy and towards comprehension. If you would like a copy of the VIPERS questions, please download them here.

From time to time, your child's enthusiasm to read regularly at home may waiver – perhaps as they move up a book band and start to find it a little trickier or perhaps they are ready to move onto the next stage. In this instance, here are some techniques to try at home to 'mix up' the routine: