Recommended apps and home learning resources for Lower Key Stage 2

Digital resources can be useful when they are used in a balanced way alongside regular reading, school home learning, discussion and teacher guidance. Short, focused practice is usually more effective than long sessions.

Resource	Best for	How families can use it
Times Tables Rock Stars	Times tables and related division facts	Use little and often to build speed, accuracy and confidence.
Numbots / White Rose 1-Minute Maths	Core number fluency and confidence	Use for short bursts of practice in key number facts.
Topmarks	Quick mental maths games	Use games such as Hit the Button for number bonds, times tables and division facts.
BBC Bitesize	English, maths, science and wider curriculum support	Use to revisit topics, watch short explanations and complete quizzes.
Oxford Owl for Home	Reading advice and eBooks	Use for reading support, vocabulary discussion and choosing texts.
NRICH	Reasoning and mathematical challenge	Choose one problem and discuss different approaches.
Scratch	Coding, creativity and problem-solving	Encourage children to create projects and explain how their code works.
Languagenut	French vocabulary and language practice	Use when set by school or for short vocabulary practice.

This guidance is designed to help children, families and staff choose books that are appropriately challenging. It is not a fixed rule: editions vary, series vary in difficulty, and teachers will continue to use professional judgement. The aim is to help children build fluency, stamina, confidence and enjoyment.

Recommended reading lists such as The Reader Teacher, Books for Topics and carefully chosen school booklists can be helpful starting points. Barrington Stoke and Little Gems books are also recommended because they can be supportive for children who are building reading stamina, including reluctant readers or pupils who benefit from dyslexia-friendly formatting.

How the LKS2 free-reader system works

Stage	Best fit	What to look for	Example books / series
Banded books / Rocket Phonics / Astro books	Children who still need structured reading progression, phonics reinforcement or teacher checking before becoming a free reader.	Book matched to current phonics, decoding, fluency and comprehension needs. Children should continue until they have been read with by a teacher and are ready to move on.	Rocket Phonics books; Astro books; carefully matched banded texts.
Free Reader 1	Children just moving beyond Lime / banded books and still building fluency, confidence and stamina.	Shorter books; larger or clearer print; short chapters; supportive illustrations; mostly everyday vocabulary with manageable challenge.	Little Gems / Barrington Stoke-style short books; Marv books; Too Small Tola; Dog Man; The Sheep-Pig; short Dick King-Smith books; Flat Stanley; Claude; Mr Gum.
Free Reader 2	Developing free readers who are ready for standard LKS2 chapter books with more plot, vocabulary and inference.	Longer chapters; more developed plots; some ambitious vocabulary; less reliance on pictures; more independent reading stamina needed.	The Legend of Kevin; The Boy Who Grew Dragons; The Worst Witch; The Nothing to See Here Hotel; The Firework-Maker’s Daughter; Varjak Paw; Fortunately, the Milk…
Free Reader 3	Confident LKS2 readers who can sustain longer, richer texts and cope with more layered themes, vocabulary and inference.	Greater length; more complex structure; richer vocabulary; stronger inference; more mature themes handled appropriately for LKS2.	The Wild Robot; The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane; The Boy at the Back of the Class; The Iron Man; Charlotte’s Web; The Abominables; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

What families can look for when choosing books

The child can read most of the page with reasonable fluency, but still meets some new words and challenge.
The child can explain the main events, characters and ideas after reading.
The book feels engaging enough that the child wants to continue reading.
The print size, chapter length and layout are manageable for the child’s stamina.
The vocabulary and themes are appropriate for the child’s age, confidence and maturity.
If a book feels too difficult, it can still be enjoyed as a shared book or read-aloud text rather than independent reading.

Suggested LKS2 book list by free-reader level

Free-reader level	Good starting points
Free Reader 1	Little Gems / Barrington Stoke-style books; Marv; Too Small Tola; Dog Man; The Sheep-Pig; short Dick King-Smith books; Flat Stanley; Claude; Mr Gum; The 13-Storey Treehouse.
Free Reader 2	The Legend of Kevin; The Boy Who Grew Dragons; The Worst Witch; The Nothing to See Here Hotel; The Firework-Maker’s Daughter; Varjak Paw; Fortunately, the Milk…; Kid Normal; Planet Omar.
Free Reader 3	The Wild Robot; The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane; The Boy at the Back of the Class; The Iron Man; Charlotte’s Web; The Abominables; The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe; The Explorer.
Poetry and non-fiction across the levels	Hot Like Fire; A Kid in My Class; The Works; The Big Book of the Blue; Earth Shattering Events; The Skies Above My Eyes; Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World; Professor Astro Cat’s Frontiers of Space.

Children are regularly read with in school through guided reading, teacher reading and targeted support. If gaps are identified, phonics knowledge can be retested and children can receive targeted intervention with teachers or support staff. The goal is always to help children become accurate, fluent, thoughtful and enthusiastic readers.

At Barnes, we encourage children to read actively by noticing key details, explaining their thinking and using evidence from the text. Inference is about understanding what is implied rather than what is directly stated. Children learn to look for clues in the words, actions and descriptions, then use these clues alongside what they already know to work out deeper meaning. This helps them move beyond simply finding answers in the text and begin explaining what the author is suggesting.

Inference means working out what the author is suggesting but has not said directly. Children use clues from the text, what they already know, and their understanding of characters, events and vocabulary. The Barnes staff handbook describes inference as children using prior knowledge and monitoring skills to connect different parts of a text together.

Parents could ask:

How do you think the character is feeling? What makes you think that?
Why do you think the character behaved in that way?
What does this tell us about the character?
How has the character changed since the start of the story?
What might the character be thinking here?
Why do you think the author chose that word?
What clues tell you that something is wrong?
What do you think might happen next? Why?
Why might the character have kept that a secret?
What does this setting make you imagine or feel?
What kind of relationship do these two characters have? How do you know?
Why is this moment important?
What is the author trying to show us about this character?
What does this phrase suggest?
Do you think the character made the right choice? Why?
What clues earlier in the story help us understand this part?
What do we know now that we did not know before?
What is the mood of this scene? Which words help create that mood?
Why might the author have ended the chapter like this?
What lesson or message might the author want the reader to think about?

Strategies we teach for inference

Looking for clues: noticing actions, dialogue, description and word choice.
Using evidence: saying, “I think this because the text says…”
Reading around the clue: rereading the sentences before and after a key moment.
Linking ideas: connecting what happened earlier with what is happening now.
Thinking about character behaviour: asking what a character says, does and does not say.
Using prior knowledge carefully: bringing in what we know about the world, but checking it fits the text.
Explaining, not just guessing: moving from “I think…” to “I think… because…”
Changing our thinking: updating predictions when new evidence appears.

Retrieval means finding information that is directly stated in the text. Children need to practise scanning the page, locating key words and answering using evidence from what they have read.