Oxford Levels
Supporting reading progress in all students
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Strong reading skills are key to students’ overall success at school and beyond. Oxford Levels support all students to progress at every stage of their reading journey.
How do Oxford Levels help you address reading challenges?
Differentiate for every student
We know every student is different, so we make books that are age-appropriate for a variety of readers, including struggling readers and very able readers. We ensure that at each Oxford Level, students feel adequately challenged, while also making progress.
Instil confidence with consistent criteria
Oxford Levelled texts are finely graded against a consistent set of criteria so you can be confident you are accurately matching your students to books that will support their reading progression.
Align to your teaching approach
Schools use a wide variety of reading texts and levelling systems – Oxford Levels can be aligned to other levelling systems and take students all the way from Foundation to Year 6. Matching students to books that will be at, or slightly above, their reading level develops their skills at every step of their reading journey.
Engage all students in reading
Oxford Levels run from Level 1 to 20. Each level offers new language, new themes and a chance to practise what the student has learned already. Thousands of books have been levelled using this system, providing a wide range of texts that will spark interest and engagement, fire imaginations, and broaden world views.
Oxford Levels support reading progress
Help every student to progress their reading in carefully considered stages
At Oxford, we use an expertly developed, well-established system for levelling our books, which has been used to develop many of our popular and well-loved series.
Our books are finely graded so you can accurately match students to the right book. You’ll notice that our books:
- span from the very early stages of reading in Foundation (Oxford Level 1) all the way up to an advanced Year 6 reader’s level (Oxford Level 20)
- are matched to age-related expectations
- signal the level on the cover.
With the help of expert authors, our levelled books hook children of different ages into reading, capture their imaginations and make them think. We also work with leading literacy consultants and dedicated levelling and phonics consultants.
If you’d like to look inside books from every Oxford Level and learn how students' literacy skills develop with each level, download our Understanding Oxford Levels brochure.
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Oxford Levels structure chart
The chart below shows how Oxford Levels relate to other commonly used levelling systems. Due to the subjective nature of levelling, this chart provides a ‘best fit’ judgement.
Approximate age | Stage of the reader | Oxford Level | Best fit Australian reading level |
---|---|---|---|
4–5 | Beginner | 1 | 1 |
5–6 | Beginner | 1+ | 1 |
5–6 | Beginner | 2 | 2 |
5–6 | Emergent | 3 | 3 |
5–6 | Emergent | 3 | 4 |
5–6 | Emergent | 3 | 5 |
6–7 | Early | 4 | 6 |
6–7 | Early | 4 | 7 |
7 | Early | 4 | 8 |
7 | Early | 4 | 9 |
7 | Transitional | 5 | 10 |
7 | Transitional | 5 | 11 |
7 | Transitional | 5 | 12 |
7 | Transitional | 5 | 13 |
7 | Transitional | 5 | 14 |
7–8 | Transitional | 6 | 15 |
7–8 | Transitional | 6 | 16 |
7–8 | Extending | 7 | 17 |
8 | Extending | 8 | 18 |
8 | Extending | 8 | 19 |
8 | Extending | 9 | 20 |
8 | Extending | 9 | 21 |
8–9 | Extending | 10 | 22 |
8–9 | Extending | 10 | 23 |
8–9 | Extending | 10 | 24 |
8–9 | Fluent | 11 | 25 |
8–9 | Fluent | 11 | 26 |
10 | Fluent | 12–13 | 27 |
10 | Fluent | 14 | 28 |
11 | Fluent | 15 | 29 |
11 | Fluent | 16 | 30 |
11 | Fluent | 17 | |
12 | Fluent | 18 | |
12 | Fluent | 19 | |
12 | Fluent | 20 | |
13+ |
Oxford Levels provide the foundation of our reading schemes. Our levels offer a finely-gradated sequence that supports students’ reading journeys and gives parents and teachers confidence, knowing that students are being appropriately challenged while reading.
Oxford Levelled texts have helped millions of students all over the world learn to read and to love reading. Oxford Levels are an expertly developed and well-established system for levelling our texts.
Oxford Levels underpin our series
Oxford Levels have been used to develop both our newest phonics series as well as many of our well-loved ones.
All of Oxford’s decodable series (excluding Read, Write Inc.) follow a structured phonic progression matched to the Letters and Sounds phonic sequence. Oxford Levels follow this sequence too, letting you know exactly when new letters and sounds will be introduced in our decodable books.
You can use the table on the right to get at-a-glance information on the letters and sounds that you’ll see introduced at each Oxford Level.
Oxford Level | Letters and Sounds phase |
---|---|
1 | Phase 1 |
Phase 2, Set 1 | |
1+ | Phase 2, Sets 3–5 |
2 | Phase 3, Sets 6–7+ |
3 | Phase 3 |
4 | Phase 4 |
5 | Phase 5 |
6 | Phase 5 |
7 | Phase 6 |
8 | Phase 6 |
9 | Phase 6 |
10 | Phase 6 |
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Each level offers new language, new themes, and a chance to consolidate comprehension skills.
Refer to our Understanding Oxford Levels brochure for an look at how Oxford Levels support the development of students' comprehension.
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Maximise independent reading time at school and at home by giving every student a virtual reading coach with Oxford Reading Buddy.
Underpinned by the latest research into comprehension teaching and learning, Oxford Reading Buddy helps students to read more and develop deeper comprehension skills. Oxford Reading Buddy eBooks are automatically allocated to students based on their Oxford Level.
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