Reading Scheme Colour Bands
As you will see from the chart above there are general guidelines about which book bands should be covered at
each age group. Parents need to remember that children learn in different ways and make progress at different
rates. It is possible that there may be seven year olds on the red book band and five year olds on the turquoise
book band. Book bands are usually shown on the back or spine of the book. If parents don’t already know
his/her child’s current book band colour, please ask the class teacher.
Rather than worrying about the colour system, our message is that matching the right colour to the child at that
moment in time will help him/her to become a competent and confident reader and keep his/her progress in
reading moving forwards. Research has proved that children need to be reading at an accuracy rate of between
90 – 95% in order to make maximum progress. (This is roughly equivalent to them making one error in every 10
– 20 words)
As a rough guide, children are expected to reach the highest level (lime) at seven or eight years old, usually at
some point in year 2/3. Children who read above lime level are reading fairly fluently and should be encouraged
to read a wide range of reading material of their choice. Although we refer to children at this stage as ‘free
readers’, they should still be given some guidance and support in choosing appropriate things to read.