Thinking back to reading as a child myself, I can’t remember the ‘scheme’ I was following exactly or any of the stories I read, but what I can remember is the excitement of choosing a new book and even more so, the feeling of utter elation when moving up to ‘the next colour’. I clearly remember what a good day it was when that coloured sticker changed (particularly if it was metallic!) and I’m sure that children still feel the same way now. It’s obvious – it’s a milestone reached, a reward for trying hard, a sense of achievement and an exciting challenge to be reading harder books.

So how do children feel when they come to the end of the scheme or reach Lime band? Most children will relish exploring the bookshelves freely and independently but others may feel ‘all at sea’. Suddenly the familiar framework and characters of a well-known systematic scheme is no longer supporting them. Using the school library effectively and making good independent reading choices is a skill that children learn over time and is a very important part of becoming a reader. We have to allow them to be ‘free readers’, to seek variety, pleasure and ultimately their own tastes in reading.

What pressure does this put on teachers to know all the books on their shelves and to know that they are appropriate for their readers? Or the librarian- if lucky enough to have such a thing – where should they place the book within the library? What can we do to minimise the situation where children pick up a book that is either too easy or too difficult for them? Text level is one thing and can be quite quickly assessed, but what about emotional maturity and ‘content’ of stories?

My team and I reject books daily that at first look spot on but upon reading them discover content that either should not be in school or nudges the book up age-wise. It can be said that choosing ‘real’ books freely from the school library is a bit of a minefield – content aside, if children choose books that are too difficult for them it does nothing to help their enjoyment and engagement with reading, if anything, it can be intimidating and have a detrimental effect on their progression.

Popular schemes now provide books for children right through to Year 6. They are far superior to schemes of old – recognising the need to mix things up for children and cover as many text types and genres as possible, even using famous authors like Michael Morpurgo to write the stories. The biggest publishers in ‘Scheme’ books have extended beyond the original Book Band levels. Depending on your school scheme you may recognise colours such as Copper, Topaz, Brown and Grey alongside others. So the best of both worlds is the obvious solution. Free reading backed up with structured scheme reading. Children can still progress through levels meaning that teachers have an instant record of a child’s reading ability and their progression, and children too, have a sense of how well they are doing.

For a few years now my team and I have been in the lucky position of reading and selecting books for schools. We decided that we wanted to support children on their reading journey by giving options to read ‘real’ books alongside their ‘scheme’ books. This meant accepting a ‘best-fit’ system of levelling – matching readability to the ‘banded’ scheme books from Pink to Lime. I am completely sold on ‘reading for pleasure’ as the most important element of reading and I have to say that I veer towards using ‘real’ books in the main once Lime level has been reached. So it seemed natural to consider providing recommended collections of books for children who have reached the end of the outlined Book Band levels (Institute of Education).

We are actively making book collections for KS2 all the time and within each selection we make sure there are books for the reading range likely to be in that year group. Essentially we are ‘levelling’ as well as reviewing books, just not giving the customer this information. So using our considered ‘book levels’ together with further assessments, we have worked out a four-step levelled pathway of progression for readers beyond Lime level using only ‘real’ books. Comparisons made with published levelled scheme books has given us what we think is a great resource for keeping your ‘free’ readers challenged – but not over-challenged, motivated  and enjoying the reading journey as they should – with pleasure!

Look out for Badger’s ‘Banded’ KS2 reading boxes of Grey, Brown, Dark Blue and Dark Red boxes (colours as used by Pearson Bug Club and OUP and the majority of the schools who came to us looking to extend their ‘Banded’ Badger Reading Box library into KS2).

Written by Kerry Jarvis, Senior Books Collection Manager.