--- title: "Reading" url: "https://ladybridgecpschool.schudio.com/about-us/Curriculum-subjects/reading" school: "Ladybridge Community Primary School" --- # Reading **Reading** *“Reading is a crucial element to a child’s success and overall wellbeing – one that we can’t underestimate. Research shows that reading for just 10 minutes per day can have a massive impact on a child’s education, helping them to achieve good exam results and equip them with skills to thrive in the adult world.”* *Researchers in the United States who had looked at the impact of parents reading with their children quoted the following figures in a news release about their findings: Here’s how many words kids would have heard by the time they were 5 years old: Never read to, 4,662 words; 1–2 times per week, 63,570 words; 3–5 times per week, 169,520 words; daily, 296,660 words; and five books a day, 1,483,300 words.* **How often does reading take place?** | | **EYFS/Key Stage One** | **Key Stage Two** | |---|---|---| | **One to One Reading** | at least once per **week** | at least once per **fortnight** | | **Guided Reading** | **Year 1 - at least** once per week | **4 x weekly** | | **Year 2 – 4 x weekly** | | **Reading for Pleasure** | **at least** ten minutes per day | **How are colour-banded reading books organised?** Books are colour-coded. As children move through the colour bands, books become progressively more challenging. **Key Stage One:** Grey à Pink à Red à Yellow à Blue à Green à Orange à Turquoise à Purple à Gold à White à Lime à Aqua à Cerise Pink à Plum à Emerald Green à Burnt Orange à Navy Blue **Key Stage Two:** Grey à Pink à Red à Yellow à Light Blue à Green à Orange à Turquoise à Purple à Aqua à Cerise Pink à Plum à Emerald Green à Burnt Orange à Navy Blue à Crimson à Sea Green à Lilac à Bronze à Blue à Black The reason for the differing sequences in key stage one and key stage two is as follows: Gold (KS1) and Aqua (KS2); White (KS1) and Cerise Pink (KS2); Lime (KS1) and Plum (KS2) contain books with the same level of challenge, but with differing age-appropriate contexts. **Guided Reading** **What is our approach to the teaching of reading?** **Whole Class Reading:** In this approach to the teaching of reading, there is one learning objective for the whole class based around the same text. **How is guided reading progressive?** *The N.C states: The knowledge and skills that pupils need in order to comprehend are very similar at different ages. This is why the programmes of study for comprehension in years 3 and 4 and years 5 and 6 are similar: the complexity of the writing increases the level of challenge.* To ensure that texts are progressive, as the children move through school, we have created reading spines. *‘The Reading Spine is a core of books that create a living library inside a child’s mind. It is a store of classics and essential reads that help children engage at a deeper level and enter the world of the story, fostering a love of reading throughout school.’* We have an extensive list of texts from year 2-6, which include books from around the world, transporting us as readers, to countries all over the globe, and celebrating many different cultures. These books will form the basis of our ‘Reading Spine’. Teachers should use these to choose their texts for guided reading each week. Please see below an example of the Year 5 reading spine: | **Fiction Novels** **War** | **Picture books** | **Non-fiction** | **Poetry and songs** | **Videos and films** | |---|---|---|---|---| | Letters From The Lighthouse by Emma Carroll. Once by Morris Gleitzman. Goodnight Mister Tom by Michelle Magorian. Carrie’s War by Nina Bawden. When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr. White Feather Catherine and David MacPhail (Books available in Year 4) Shadow Michael Morpurgo Boy Overboard Morris Gleitzman I Lived on Butterfly Hill Marjorie Agosin | Rose Blanche by Ian McEwan. The Lion and the Unicorn by Shirley Hughes. Archie’s Diary by Marcia Williams. Where The Poppies Now Grow by Hilary Robinson. | Tail End Charlie by Mick Manning. Jet The Rescue Dog by David Long and Peter Bailey. Usborne: The Second World War by Paul Dowswell. How Does A Lighthouse Work by Roman Balvaez. | Charge Of The Light Brigade by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. In Flanders Field by John McCrae. We’ll Meet Again by Vera Lynn. Wonder When My Baby’s Coming Home by Jimmy Dorsey. When The Lights Go On Again All Over The World by Vaughn Monroe. | The Piano. German In The Woods. The Rocketeer. The Lighthouse. | © 2026 Ladybridge Community Primary School School & Trust Websites by ![Schudio](https://ladybridgeprimaryschool.co.uk/img/logo/light.png) Albanian Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bengali Bulgarian Catalan Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Finnish French Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Kannada Korean Latvian Lithuanian Malay Malayalam Marathi Nepali Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swahili Swedish Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Welsh Yiddish