Our literacy and numeracy collection holds dedicated booksets, big books and games.
Guided reading and other booksets:
- Sets of 6 or 7 books for shared reading (counts as 1 item on your ticket)
- Banded reading sets for KS1 (see below for levels)
- KS1 Phonics Bug booksets
- Fiction and non-fiction booksets for KS2
- Sets of picturebooks by literacy strand
- Numeracy sets of big and small books by theme
Catch-up
Games:
- Board games and card games
- Phonics games
- Spelling, word blends, synonyms, and other language types
- Number operation and counting games
- Basic to upper primary levels
- Literacy and numeracy games for PCs and Macs (no site licence required)
Big Books:
We have a special collection of Big Books arranged by language type, including:
- Patterned language
- Genre
- Traditional
- Other cultures
- Plays
- Poetry
- Report/ Recount
- Discussion/ Persuasion
- Significant authors
- Familiar settings
We support the following reading bands at Key Stage 1:
Standard KS1 Colour Bands cover publishers including Pearson, Badger and Collins
Guide to NC Level | Book Band (standard) | Year Group | Stage within the programme of study | Reading Recovery Level | Approx phonics phase | Read Write Inc. | Oxford Reading Tree |
Stepping Stones | Pink | R | Secure | 1-2 | 2 | ||
Stepping Stones | Red | R | More able | 3-5 | 3 | Green/ Purple | |
1c | Yellow | 1 | Beginning | 6-8 | 3/4 | Pink | Green L2 |
1c/1b | Blue | 1 | Beginning | 9-11 | 4/5 | Orange | Green L2 |
1b/ 1a | Green | 1 | Developing | 12-14 | 5 | Orange | Blue L3 |
1b/ 1a | Orange | 1 | Developing | 15-16 | 5/6 | Yellow | Red L4 |
1a/ 2c | Turquoise | 1 | Secure | 17-18 | 5/6 | Yellow/ Blue | Yellow L5/ Orange L6 |
2c/ 2b | Purple | 1 | More able/ Mastering | 19-20 | 6 | Blue/ Grey | Orange L6 |
2c/ 2b | Purple | 2 | Beginning | 19-20 | 6 | Grey | Level 7/8 |
2b | Gold | 2 | Developing | 21-22 | 6 | n/a | Level 9 |
2a | White | 2 | Secure | 23-24 | n/a | n/a | Level 10 |
3c | Lime | 2 | More able/ Mastering | 25-26 | n/a | n/a | Level 10/11 |
Key stage 2 Guided Reading sets are arranged by Dewey Decimal classification although we stock Ruby to Diamond level books from a variety of reading schemes.
Guide to NC Level | Book Band (Collins Big Cat) | Book Band (Pearson) | Book Band (Badger) | Oxford Reading Tree | Year Group | Stage within the programme of study | Reading Recovery Level (approx.) |
3c | Lime | Lime | Lime | Level 11/ 12 | 3 | Beginning | 25-26 |
3c/ 3b | Copper | Brown | Brown | Level 13 | 3 | Developing | 26 |
3b | Topaz | Brown | Brown | Level 14 | 3 | Secure | 26-27 |
3b/ 3a | Topaz/ Ruby | Grey | Grey | Level 14/15 | 3/4 | More able/ Mastering (3) Beginning (4) | 27 |
3a | Ruby/ Emerald | Grey | Grey | Level 16 | 4 | Developing | 27 |
4c | Emerald | Grey | Grey | Level 17 | 4 | Secure | 28 |
4c/ 4b | Sapphire | Blue | Dark Blue | Level 17/18 | 4/5 | More able/ Mastering (4) Beginning (5) | 28-29 |
4b | Sapphire/ Diamond | Blue | Dark Blue | Level 19 | 5 | Developing | 29 |
4b/ 4a | Diamond | Blue | Dark Blue/ Dark Red | Level 20 | 5 | Secure | 29-30 |
4a | Diamond | Blue/ Red | Dark Red | Level 20 | 5/6 | More able/ Mastering (5) Beginning (6) | 30 |
4a/ 5c | Diamond/Pearl | Red | Dark Red/ Black | 6 | Developing | ||
Within L5 | Pearl | Red | Dark Red/ Black | 6 | Secure | ||
Pearl | Red | Dark Red/ Black | 6 | More able/ Mastering |