‘Children fail to read in school because they aren’t being taught correctly.’ Diane McGuinness

I stumbled upon Diane McGuinness almost by accident, while poring over the reference list in another book on reading. I immediately ordered a copy of ‘Why Children Can’t Read’, devoured it within a few days, and have had it by my bedside ever since (its depth and rigour demand repeated reading and noting!). The book explores the complexity of writing systems (and English in particular), why many children struggle to learn to read English, and what the research tells us about how to teach reading effectively. What struck me most was McGuinness’s unwavering conviction that all children (with very few exceptions) can learn to read if taught effectively. This is not just a hunch or a hope – it’s a conviction that’s backed by an incredibly rigorous and discerning examination of the research on reading, and reinforced by a career dedicated to helping children learn how to read. Her book fundamentally changed the way I understood reading. I really wish someone had told me about it years ago!

At the heart of McGuinness’s argument is a deceptively simple idea:

Children need to be taught to read correctly.

The question I’ve grappled with as a reading lead is: what constitutes correctly? Like most secondary school teachers, I wasn’t trained in how to teach children to read. I was ill-equipped to diagnose reading difficulties among my students, nor discern which teaching methods or programmes would guarantee success. Stepping into reading leadership necessitated a steep learning curve. I realised I needed to be able to answer these questions:

1. Why is learning to read hard?

2. Why is English particularly complex?

3. Why do some children learn to read more easily than others?

4. Are there some children who will always find reading more challenging?

5. What is the most effective way to teach children to decode?

6. What is the most effective way to ensure children become fluent?

7. In developing comprehension, what is the role of:

   • knowledge and excellent subject curricula?

   • vocabulary?

   • close reading?

   • reading practice?

   • writing?

   • comprehension strategies?

8. Where does spelling fit in?

9. What are the essential components of an effective remedial reading programme?

10. What does it take to catch secondary school children up?

Without this knowledge, passionate, well-intentioned reading leads risk encountering some of these pitfalls:

• selecting ineffective reading interventions

• hoping quick-fixes will deliver lasting results

• misdiagnosing the cause of the child’s reading difficulty

• underestimating the intensity and duration required

• lacking the expertise to implement an intervention effectively

• abandoning effective interventions

• accepting persistent myths

• believing that some children simply cannot learn to read

Expertise is foundational to effective reading leadership. It sits alongside belief, sky-high expectations, trust, and attention to detail. But the challenge for any reading lead (often managing a demanding SLT role) is finding the time to develop this expertise. I’ve spent hundreds of hours learning about reading and I am still grappling with its complexity! So to support secondary reading leads, I’ve decided to write a mini-series, answering the questions above, and learning from the awe-inspiring body of research and writing that exists within this field.

I’m hoping to distil everything I’m learning into something useful and accessible for busy reading leaders and, in doing so, continue to deepen my own understanding.

Ultimately, knowledge matters because the decisions we make as reading leads determine whether or not our students become readers. If we believe that every child can learn to read, then we must equip ourselves with the knowledge to make this a reality.

‘The teacher of the young reader is the custodian of their destiny.’ Dianne McGuinness

We must internalise this truth. The quality of our reading teaching will determine whether doors open or remain closed. We hold students’ destinies in our hands. As a result, we need to be unwaveringly determined that our reading programmes work for all. McGuinness rightly argues that a core principle of an effective remedial programme is that it works for everyone at all ages. No one fails.

This is such a crucial insight that I feel the need to repeat it:

No one fails.

Without this core belief, we may accept that certain students remain behind. And we are increasingly aware of the damage this can cause.

I’ve suggested here that the success of a reading programme lives or dies on the quality of its leadership. And I’ve so far explored belief, expectations, trust, and attention to detail as essential attributes of any reading leader. Today, I turn to determination.

It can be difficult to retain determination in the face of so many obstacles — costs, staffing, tensions and trade-offs, time and capacity, to name a few. But remain steadfastly determined, we must.

There is much we can preempt by developing a shared understanding of the most significant obstacles we face, and the highest leverage practical preemptions. I’ll explore the top five obstacles I’ve encountered below, along with some suggested preemptions:

Obstacle 1: Achieving shared belief. It takes a lot of time and effort to achieve shared belief in the importance of reading. At surface level, most of us get it. Reading matters! Of course it does. But do we truly understand, as competent readers ourselves, the experience of a child in school who cannot access any of their lessons, or the experience of the adult who’s unable to read a bedtime story to their child? We must recognise that, as Sally Shaywitz states in Overcoming Dyslexia, ‘reading is the most important thing in the world because it affects everything’. And we need to feel incensed indignation on behalf of the child who can’t yet read. This feeling will move us to action. But how do we get to a place where we all feel this, when there are so many other things we need to discuss in schools? Here are three possible preemptions:

1. Establish reading as a strategic priority, ensuring that it is regularly revisited within SLT and whole-staff CPD

2. Record video or audio of students in the school who are eligible for reading programmes reading aloud. These shine a light on the urgency of the problem, and develop empathy for individuals for whom reading has become a colossal barrier.

3. Share impact stories – stories and quotes from students, teachers and parents – little and often through existing structures, e.g. staff meetings and staff bulletins to bolster belief. The words I’ve quoted here and here speak for themselves about the transformative impact of an effective reading programme.

Obstacle 2: Resolving tensions. Deciding on how and where reading catch-up fits within the existing curriculum requires resolving tensions and considering difficult trade-offs, explored in greater depth here. The two most common tensions in my experience are breadth vs foundations and catch-up vs exams. How do we balance subject breadth and GCSE prep with intensive reading support? Obstacles (1) and (2) are intrinsically linked. If we don’t share a deep understanding of reading as the means of accessing anything at all in our schools, then we will struggle to grapple with the seemingly competing demands of a broad curriculum, GCSE preparation, and reading support. The tension is somewhat misleading. Reading is not an alternative to the curriculum; it is the means through which students access the curriculum. Understanding reading as the vehicle through which everything in schools is accessed changes how we see the trade-off. To me, the question is not whether or not we can afford to prioritise reading alongside everything else. The question is what will happen to the students who are not yet reading fluently if we choose not to. Here are two possible preemptions:

1. Intervene early and intensively, as soon as students arrive in Year 7. Most of our students who place on the Corrective Reading programme need to complete two stages of the programme, amounting to hundreds of lessons, in order to reach a Year 8 equivalent reading level. The scale of intervention required makes early intervention critical. If we don’t address reading gaps intensively when students first arrive, we risk playing catch-up for the rest of their secondary education. Gaps will continue to widen as these students progress through the school, unable to access their lessons.

2. Teach fewer subjects exceptionally well. Students need access to excellent curricula, pitched appropriately, to build the knowledge and vocabulary to comprehend what they read. But we must also prioritise foundational reading knowledge, so will need to make careful choices about the subjects we teach, and ensure that the curricula in those subjects are exceptionally well selected, sequenced and taught.

3. Don’t give up on Y11 and Y10 students. Due to the pressure to improve GCSE outcomes, the temptation when students reach KS4 is to abandon reading intervention in favour of exam preparation. But, given the demands of GCSE courses, and the fact that the average reading age of a GCSE paper is 15 years and 9 months, our students in Y10 and Y11 are actually the most vulnerable to the impacts of being unable to read. We therefore need to consider rapid, urgent reading support, which will involve conversations about (2).

Obstacle 3: Creating capacity. Ensuring a reading strategy is successful requires us to create the capacity to lead it well and sustain it over time, for example: (1) an SLT reading lead with the expertise, positional authority and capacity to lead the strategy; (2) sufficient time for lessons (as explored above); (3) appropriate class sizes as recommended in our chosen programme; (4) time for teachers to prepare, teach and respond; (5) protected time for professional development, including teacher coaching. Two possible preemptions:

1. Say no to other things. If reading is to be a priority, with dedicated SLT leadership, and protected CPD time, we will need to limit and eliminate other things, such as interventions with a limited evidence base, external training providers, or meetings that could be replaced with short 1:1 conversations or concise email comms.

2. Build expertise over time by maintaining continuity in reading leadership and teaching staff.

Obstacle 4: Ensuring teaching is excellent. An effective reading intervention relies on excellent teaching. It is the biggest lever we have. We therefore need to be very deliberate about who we choose as our reading teachers. We need to avoid allocating reading to whoever has space on their timetable, and instead look for strong belief, commitment to learning (perhaps attending additional CPD sessions and engaging in 1:1 coaching), and openness to feedback. As expertise develops, we need to avoid unnecessary changes in teaching staff. Frequent changes result in lost expertise and slower student progress. Three possible preemptions:

1. Start small with a pilot. This will enable you to work closely with a small group of teachers and build expertise and excellence. This creates an exemplar that others can see in action, which can help generate enthusiasm and confidence as you look to scale up, and can create additional leadership capacity as these teachers become coaches of those newer to the programme.

2. Build in structured time for CPD, up-front and throughout the academic year. CPD can never be a one-off. Complex programmes require significant expertise, which is built over time. Teachers need dedicated time to engage in CPD and coaching in order to hone their practice.

3. Don’t feel you need to use English teachers! Reading teaching is often considered the preserve of the English department, but the most important prerequisites for successful reading teaching don’t involve English subject expertise; belief, commitment and openness are much higher priorities.

Obstacle 5: Removing barriers. Excellent teaching of an effective reading programme will only work if students are in the classroom. Students in reading classes often have attendance difficulties. This makes sense given how challenging they’ve probably found their educational experience. But low attendance massively hits progress in their reading lessons, making it incredibly difficult to break the cycle. This also applies to students who miss reading lessons due to their behaviour in other subject lessons. We need to maximise students’ attendance in their reading lessons if we’re to make a difference. Three possible preemptions:

1. Have an attendance strategy specifically for students in reading classes, engaging the class teacher, and ensuring that daily actions (as small as a warm and friendly greeting at the door, saying “great to see you back!”) are taken to maximise attendance.

2. Agree that, if students are removed from a subject lesson before their reading lesson and are in an internal inclusion space, they are released to attend their reading lesson. This doesn’t mean we reduce the consequence – simply that the consequence takes place around the reading lesson instead of in place of it. It also doesn’t mean we ignore disruptive behaviours in the reading lesson – we address these just as we would in any other lesson using the school’s behaviour policy in order to ensure all students in the class are able to learn free from disruption.

3. Hold parent events, including an event before the intervention begins, where you generate interest and excitement about the programme (perhaps hearing from enthusiastic teachers and student graduates), and half-termly celebration events. Helping parents understand the need, the programme’s benefits, how they can best support at home, will help ensure conversations outside of school are broadly supportive.

Getting a reading intervention working well is no mean feat! It takes fierce determination. But if we don’t act with urgency, we risk condemning our students to a lifetime of missed opportunities. We are the custodians of their futures. So if not us, then who? And if not now, then when?

“Teaching reading is the most important part of my week.”

These words, shared with me by one of our reading catch-up teachers, have stayed with me. The reason they’re so powerful is because they reflect a deep conviction: that teaching reading is critical, and that it’s making a meaningful difference. They also reveal the profound impact an excellent reading catch-up programme can have on a teacher’s sense of purpose. Teachers who previously saw themselves primarily as subject teachers begin seeing themselves as reading teachers, equipped with the expertise to transform the life chances of some of the most vulnerable children in our schools.

Excellent reading provision relies on this conviction. Without it, nothing else works. But establishing a really strong community of reading teachers in a secondary school is challenging. A number of obstacles present themselves:

1. Perceptions: in secondary schools, we don’t always see ourselves as teachers of reading.

2. Expertise: we’ve not been trained in how to teach reading, especially to those who arrive in our schools with significant reading gaps.

3. Understanding: we significantly underestimate the barriers faced by students with reading gaps.

4. Belief: we may not think that reading should be a top priority, nor believe, in our hearts, that all children can learn to read.

5. Motivation: we may not feel fired up by the prospect of teaching reading catch-up.

6. Openness: we may find it hard to step out of our comfort zone, challenge our assumptions, and teach using methods we are unused to.

7. Time: we may struggle to find the time for expertise-building and meticulous follow-up.

We’ve encountered all of these obstacles. Before teaching Corrective Reading, some of our teachers felt extremely hesitant. It’s understandable to feel so when approaching something new. And the programme is demanding! (Rightfully so, given what’s at stake for our students.) It sets the bar at 100% mastery, and seeks to achieve this through high expectations, rigour, every-second-counts pace, hundreds of student responses per lesson, immediate responsiveness and high fidelity to the teacher handbook and programme principles.

Our teachers committed wholeheartedly to the programme and all it entails, embracing a rigorous CPD programme, fortnightly 1:1 coaching, lesson visits and feedback, careful lesson preparation, and a microscopic focus on individual students’ knowledge gaps. Day by day, they discovered a real love of teaching reading, developed specialist expertise, and have seen first-hand the difference they can make.

They believe in the effectiveness of the programme:

“It is fantastic to see the improvement. You can see it through their confidence in class, but also through the checkouts. What a difference we are making to their lives.”

“Two years ago, these students would not have been reading out loud this confidently.”

“I’m so proud of how far the classes have come. The confidence when they are reading aloud is excellent.”

“The improvement in the students’ reading ages after just one term shows what an impact this program is having.”

“I can really see the difference the lessons are making. The students have grown so much in confidence.”

They are developing expertise in how to teach reading well, and are becoming even better teachers as a result:

“Corrective Reading has improved me as a teacher massively.”

“Our teachers who teach Corrective Reading have dramatically improved their other teaching because of it.”

“There is so much we can learn from the teaching of Corrective Reading.”

“I am learning so much. It is completely worth it!”

“Having a coach has been a brilliant experience; the feedback has helped me see things that I would never have noticed in my teaching.”

They are bursting with pride to teach reading:

“It is such an honour to teach Corrective Reading; I feel like I am genuinely making a huge difference to my students’ lives every day!”

“I just love teaching it!”

“I love teaching reading. It’s my favourite part of the day.”

“I’m over the moon that I am teaching reading again next year.”

When people talk about reading progress, they often refer to reading ages. This matters hugely, of course! We need our children to be reading in line with their chronological age. But impact can also be seen through student and teacher beliefs. Teachers who once wondered whether or not they could teach reading now see it as the most important part of their week. They’ve become better teachers and have developed a renewed sense of purpose. Perhaps most importantly, they’ve changed the lives of children who may never have otherwise become confident readers.

Teaching reading really is the best and most important job in the world!

The end of the academic year is an important moment for a reading lead. After retesting all students, we evaluate, recalibrate ahead of the new academic year and, crucially, celebrate students’ success. Reading-age data is a valuable marker of progress, but just as meaningful are students’ beliefs about themselves.

Students who’ve struggled with reading for years almost never see themselves as readers. They don’t enjoy reading. They often don’t enjoy school, unsurprisingly, given how much classroom learning relies on an ability to read well. Unless we intervene, these self perceptions – “I’m not a reader”; “I don’t enjoy reading”; “I can’t read”; “I’m rubbish at reading”; “School is not for me” – become deeply embedded, influencing their self-confidence, behaviour, attention, future life chances, choices, participation in society, relationships and parenting.

It is our job, therefore, to change this. And the most effective way to do so is to teach them how to read, believe that they can, and guarantee that they experience success. When we do so, we begin to rewrite the story they tell themselves. Instead of saying “I’m rubbish at reading”, they start saying things like:

“I am so much more confident with my reading.”

“Please can you ask me to read when visitors come into our reading lessons because I can read aloud really well now and I want people to see.”

“I’m so proud of myself.”

“I feel much more confident.”

“I feel better about reading out loud in front of everyone.”

“My reading lesson has made me more confident in reading louder”.

“I was shy about reading out loud, but now it makes me happy!“

“I feel so confident reading out loud in class now. I read a lot quicker too!”

“I used to not like reading, but now it’s not as hard.”

“You have taught me to read and I am much better now.”

“I can’t believe how much better my reading is than this time last year. I can read such big words now, and this really helps me in other subjects, like Science!”

“I wish I could do Corrective Reading all week, every week!”

“I love Corrective Reading and wish I could do it every lesson.”

“I wish we did more Corrective Reading, I love it because I’m good at it.”

“I like these lessons. They are fun and I’m getting better.”

These comments, shared by our students, demonstrate that it’s possible to change self-belief. For many of these children, the biggest success isn’t actually the shift in reading age (though of course this is absolutely essential for their access to lessons). It’s the fact that they now believe they can read. They volunteer to read aloud! They’re proud to read for visitors! They enjoy their reading lessons! They find reading fun!

When we teach children to read, we don’t just change their reading knowledge. We change the way they see themselves and what they believe they are capable of becoming. This is why teaching our children to read is our most important job.

Effective reading leadership requires laser-sharp attention to detail. Diagnostic testing helps us identify barriers and place students, but it is the day-to-day review of students’ in-programme learning that determines progress. Small gaps in students’ knowledge that emerge while they are on a reading programme must be noticed and addressed swiftly because, as Carnine, Silbert and Kameenui argue in ‘Direct Instruction Reading’, ‘each day a student’s confusion goes undetected, the student is, in essence, receiving practice doing something the wrong way’.

Let’s look at this example coaching conversation between a coach and school reading lead, digging into the in-programme data for Corrective Reading:

“James and Susie have not reached mastery in their independent work for two lessons. What should we check first?”

“Let’s check their fluency scores.. If they’re not mastering those, low fluency could be limiting their comprehension.”

“Great. What do you see?”

“Hmmm. They’re mastering their fluency scores.”

“Yes. So what else could be the cause?”

“There are several possibilities. I think I need to get into the classroom and see the students’ behaviour in the lessons. Are expectations of their behaviour high enough? Are they getting lots of precise, positive reinforcement for focused behaviours? Are they responding on signal, or are they coat-tailing or disengaging? Is teaching time being maximised, or is time being lost in transitions? Are students tracking with fingers during group reading?”

Taking a microscopic approach to students’ gaps, as illustrated above, helps read leads identify precise causes of students’ difficulties and act swiftly before they embed and deepen.

Before discovering Corrective Reading and Direct Instruction, I hadn’t looked at students’ in-programme progress with such attention to detail. I’d largely delegated this to reading teachers, and waited for the half-termly progress tests before diving deeply into individual students’ progress. This was based on two incorrect assumptions I’d made:

1. half-termly tests would help me diagnose and resolve issues

2. it may not be possible to plug every gap in reading knowledge, but this is OK if the broader trajectory indicates progress

The Direct Instruction principle that 100% of students can learn all of the content challenges these assumptions. Every gap must be noticed, and misunderstandings must be addressed immediately. If not, the principle that only 10-15% of knowledge introduced each lesson is new is quickly undermined. Because students have not mastered the knowledge from previous lessons, what should be familiar feels new. Soon, students are effectively encountering 15-20, 20-25 or 25-30% of ‘new’ knowledge, until the programme no longer makes sense because too much of the knowledge it depends on is missing.

Noticing precise gaps is particularly important when teaching reading. Like a Jenga tower, each piece of reading knowledge builds on what comes before. Having missing pieces as knowledge builds will result in an unstable tower that will eventually collapse. For example, a student who has not mastered a particular sound correspondence may guess unfamiliar words instead of decoding them. Each incorrect guess reinforces an ineffective reading strategy. Over weeks and months, guessing becomes a habit, making it increasingly difficult to read accurately and confidently. It’s this that results in so many students arriving in our secondary schools still unable to read well.

There’s a risk that, as reading leads, we fall into three traps:

1. we wait for half-termly reading tests to identify students who are not making progress

2. we believe some knowledge gaps may not be essential to fill

3. when we notice gaps, we attribute the reason for the misunderstanding to the child: “They’re not focusing enough”; “They have dyslexia”; “This intervention is not working for them.”

But this is where it comes back to belief and expectations. If we believe that not being able to read is, in Dianne McGuinness’s words ‘the most distressing experience imaginable’ because it locks them out of school, then we have no time to lose. We cannot afford to wait for the half-termly progress test. We need to identify and remedy the gaps now. And if we believe that every child can learn to read, then it’s no longer satisfactory to attribute the failure to the child. Instead, we seek to identify what we can do as teachers and read leads to ensure our teaching is maximising chances of success. And we keep problem-solving until we get there. Every week, we ask ourselves questions that enable us to teach our chosen programme with maximum fidelity, such as:

1. Are expectations of focused attention in the classroom sky-high?

2. Are students continually hearing precise praise?

3. Are teacher signals clear and consistent?

4. Are all students responding to signals in unison?

5. Is coat-tailing or not responding dealt with swiftly by the teacher?

6. Are transitions tight, with every-second-counts teaching?

7. Has the lesson been well prepared for?

8. Is the programme being taught with passion and joy?

9. Is the teacher looking up at the students and noticing the verbal responses of every child in the room?

10. Are students tracking with fingers?

11. Are students reading loud and proud?

12. Are students showing each other respect?

13. Are individual and group errors remedied following the error correction procedure correctly?

14. Are errors revisited at least three times to ensure they are properly addressed?

15. Are fluency checkouts conducted correctly?

16. Are students tracking during checkouts and reviewing their partner’s reading accurately?

17. Are errors during fluency checkouts remedied?

18. Are expectations of focus during independent work high enough?

19. Are students encouraged to work fully independently and to problem-solve difficult questions, with resilience?

20. Is data being shared accurately and in a timely way?

21. Is there a plan to improve attendance?

22. Are lesson gaps plugged for non-attenders?

23. Which students are not achieving mastery in their fluency checkouts, independent work and mastery tests?

24. Are mastery tests being remedied correctly?

25. What patterns are we noticing in the students’ data?

These are just some examples of the questions we may ask about our chosen programme. The key takeaway for us as reading leads is that it requires incredible rigour and a relentless focus on the detail. As Alex Quigley explores in ‘Closing the Reading Gap’, we should expect complexity. If not, students will slip through the cracks. We know the damage that illiteracy causes long term, and the joy that students stand to miss if they are unable to read, so we must see every crack as a missed opportunity to help a child whose future life chances depend on us. For many children, we are their only chance.

One of the challenges in reading leadership is building shared belief in the importance of reading, and in the value and impact of our reading catch-up programmes.

We need everyone involved to have very strong conviction, and to share our sky-high expectations, so that, when we encounter obstacles, our resolve is not weakened.

Building this conviction requires continuous effort and cannot be underestimated.

Who do we need to build trust with?

1. Headteachers, who are the key decision makers, and shape belief and culture in our schools.

2. Teachers of reading, who are often stepping out of their comfort zone and are taking on a demanding role with great responsibility.

3. Wider staff, who may find their lessons impacted, or find themselves in conversations with students and parents who query reading support.

4. Students, whose difficult experiences with reading may have resulted in significant disengagement.

5. Parents, who may have found reading or school difficult themselves, and who may, even with the very best of intentions, inadvertently undermine the belief we are trying to instil in our students.

6. Governors and trustees, who need clarity and confidence in the strategy, so they can sustain investment, hold leaders to account and protect the priority of reading over time.

Strong shared belief is the root from which student success in reading can grow. Without it, progress will wilt: other priorities may take precedence; students may be removed from programmes too early; and programmes may be dropped entirely.

So how do we build trust and confidence?

1. Build our own knowledge as reading leaders so that we have credibility, can lead and teach with confidence, and are able to make effective decisions about programme selection and implementation.

2. Communicate with clarity, conviction and passion about what we’re doing and why, ensuring we are involving and not bypassing those involved, and that we are building a deep shared understanding.

3. Bring lots of value through providing excellent support for our reading teachers.

4. Follow up reliably and dependably with meticulous attention to detail so that we’re maximising the effectiveness of our programmes.

5. Collate examples of impact regularly – data and student/staff comments – and share often with all involved. Champion and celebrate student progress and staff commitment.

6. Bring masses of encouragement to our students through positive narration in lessons, postcards, certificates, celebration assemblies, recognition events, parent letters, parent calls, and half-termly family celebrations.

The stronger the trust, the more effective the implementation. The more effective the implementation, the more rapid the student progress. The more rapid the student progress, the stronger the trust. It’s a virtuous cycle, and one that we can influence daily through our actions as reading leaders.

‘The teacher of the young reader is the custodian of their destiny.’ Dianne McGuinness

Our beliefs about reading shape our expectations as I explored here. We need sky-high expectations of ourselves, of our teams, and of our students, in order for an implementation of a reading programme to be effective. Without this, progress stalls or, even worse, reading gaps widen and children fall further behind. If we are to be true custodians of our students’ destinies, we must take our duty seriously.

So, what do sky-high expectations look like in reading leadership?

Fidelity to a great programme. Once we’ve selected a strong, evidence-informed programme, we commit to maximum fidelity. Without fidelity, we cannot expect the promised gains. Fidelity is not optional adaptation. It is not:

• Increasing group sizes beyond programme limits

• Reducing teaching hours below the minimum standard

• Discarding placement testing and grouping guidance

• Self-selecting parts of the data tracking

• Opting out of training or coaching

• Skipping parts of lessons

• Changing the programme wording

High fidelity is uncompromising. It demands deep knowledge of the programme before and during implementation so that leaders can identify what is non negotiable, communicate this with authority, and make decisions that accelerate rather than undermine success

No excuses. We cannot afford to compromise our expectations. We cannot accept excuses from ourselves or others. Every child can learn to read. So if they’re not progressing, we keep focused on what’s most in our control, avoid deflection, and ask ourselves:

• are we maximising fidelity? If not, what do we need to change?

• are we maximising, and protecting, instructional time? If not, what’s compromising this?

• are we practising enough? If not, how can we carve out more time?

• is teaching excellent? If not, where are the gaps, and how do we bridge them rapidly?

• are we giving feedback rapidly and effectively enough to drive immediate improvement?

• are our expectations of all students in the class high enough? Are we inadvertently undermining our efforts by allowing some students to opt-out?

• are errors being corrected immediately? are misunderstandings addressed effectively enough to prevent recurrence?

• are we maintaining pace, intensity, energy and excitement in every lesson? If not, what is slowing us down?

• are students motivated in lessons? If not, why not? What needs to change?

• are students attending daily? If not, what we can we do to get them into their reading lessons?

We hold the line, we ask tough questions, we raise the standard and we do not relent.

Excellent programme-specific CPD. We often underestimate the importance of CPD and knowledge building. We assume experienced teachers, or staff familiar with other reading programmes, can quickly pick up a new one without expert input. But teaching reading is extremely complex and requires considerable expertise, including knowledge that is unique to the programme itself. For maximum effectiveness, CPD must be ahead of teaching and ongoing. It should include: revisiting key messages, regular demos and practice, personalised feedback and coaching, and disciplined follow up. The bar for CPD quality must be exceptionally high. And attendance and full engagement cannot be optional: every adult involved must participate fully in every session. If we neglect this, we risk inconsistent teaching, low-fidelity implementation and, ultimately, poorer outcomes for our students.

Excellent teaching. We need our most committed teachers teaching our most vulnerable students. A teacher of reading does not need years of experience. They do not need to be an English specialist. What’s essential is:

• an unshakeable belief that reading is a non-negotiable right for every child

• belief that all children can read

• the humility to recognise that, if a child is not progressing, something in the instruction needs to change

• eagerness to learn

• commitment to teaching the reading programme with 100% fidelity

• keenness to seek, and act upon, feedback

• high standards of behaviour and student participation in lessons

• consistency in routines

• energy and presence

• responsiveness to student performance

• determination to do whatever it takes

• attention to detail

• stamina

Building a reading team that possesses these qualities is the dream! Doing so will significantly accelerate student progress. Too often, we’re inclined to attribute a lack of progress to the programme design, rather than asking ourselves tough questions about how we’ve built our team. Teaching decisions cannot simply be based on who is available. Having the right people in front of the students is vital. After this, we must train them, coach them, support them and ensure excellent teaching is driving rapid progress in every lesson. If not, we will not succeed.

Relentless, urgent follow up. Schools are such busy and demanding places. It can seem extremely difficult to find the time to follow up well, when there are so many competing demands. But we cannot afford to make assumptions, or sit tight and wait for improvement to happen. Relentless follow-up is required. Relentless follow-up is not:

• “There’s not much more we can do.”

• “We’ll start that next week.”

• “I haven’t had that conversation yet, but it’s on my list.”

• “Let’s review it in a month.”

• “It’s early days. I am sure we’ll get there.”

Relentless follow-up is:

• “What do we need to do differently to ensure this succeeds?”

• “We’ll start that tomorrow.”

• “I’ll have that conversation today.”

• “Let’s review it now.”

• “How will we be sure it’s working?”

We must be catalysts for immediate action, and we must keep checking until we can see, with certainty, that what we’ve set out to change is happening consistently and well.

We needn’t be ashamed of, or apologetic about, such high expectations. We are our students’ only chance to learn to read. They are relying on us. And we have no time to lose.

‘There is now more than 40 years of substantial research to support the proposition that if students are taught fundamental reading skills directly, explicitly, strategically and thoughtfully, they will learn to read.’ Douglas Carnine and Jerry Silbert, Direct Instruction Reading

I’ve previously proposed here that strong leadership is essential if we want to transform reading outcomes. I’ve since reflected on belief, asking myself the question: why are our beliefs so important? And what must we believe?

Our beliefs matter a lot.

They act like a lens, through which we make sense of the world. They shape what we notice and how we interpret what we see.

They define our expectations: what we accept, what we challenge, and what we strive for.

They guide our decisions. What we believe determines the actions we take, and how far we will keep pushing when things become difficult.

They can shape a culture. Shared beliefs across a team can lead to powerful unity and cohesion, dramatically increasing the chance of shared impact.

We don’t all (nor should we) believe the same. But there are some beliefs in reading leadership that are very important we share, if we are to truly make a difference. Cracks in belief result in cracks in our resolve. And any weakening of resolve, when facing this colossal challenge, will result in some children slipping through our fingers.

What do I think we need to believe about reading to understand why the issue of reading failure is so urgent?

Reading Can Be Taught

1. that almost every child, with the right instruction and support, can learn to read

2. that, if a child has not yet learned to read, there has been an issue with the instruction, which we can seek to resolve

3. that reading truly is ‘the first among equals: the most singular in importance because all other subjects rely on it’ (Doug Lemov), recognising that, when words are the medium through which students access all subject teaching, an inability to read fluently and well locks students out of learning in every lesson at school

The Hidden Cost of Not Being Able to Read

4. that being unable to read, which means ‘being asked to do something you can’t do for six hours a day, for hundreds of days a year, year after year, knowing that your peers are fully aware of your shortcomings’ truly must be ‘the most distressing experience imaginable’ (Dianne McGuinness)

5. that reading difficulties are the root cause of many other challenges students face in school

6. that many attention and behaviour difficulties are masking reading difficulties

7. that an inability to read results in low self-esteem and damaging self-perceptions, such as “I’m stupid”, “reading is not for me”, “school is not for me” and “I’m a failure”, which permeate every aspect of school and home life

8. that, no matter how much subject intervention and support you provide to GCSE students, not being able to read at reading age 15 results in inevitable failure due to the students’ inevitable inability to read, comprehend and answer the questions in the papers

9. that it is exceptionally difficult for a fluent reader to empathise with the experience of someone who cannot read

The Lifelong Consequences of Illiteracy

10. that self-perceptions built in childhood are longlasting (for a lifetime) if not corrected, and that correcting these self-perceptions relies on tackling the root cause: reading gaps

11. that there is a correlation between illiteracy and poor life outcomes: The National Literacy Trust estimates that 6 million adults in the UK are functionally illiterate, that is, they can’t read the front page of a newspaper, read the instructions on a medicine bottle, or apply for a job. These individuals have lower earnings, poorer health, poorer housing, lower life expectancy and are much more likely to be in prison (James and Dianne Murphy)

12. that there is a correlation between illiteracy and criminal activity: 70% of the prison population have reading difficulties; 25% of the prison population have reading skills at or below the level of a 7 year old

13. that illiteracy (or even low reading confidence) in adult life results in humiliation and frustration (James Murphy)

The Joy That Reading Unlocks

14. that reading is about more than just subject access at school: reading brings joy, curiosity and a love of learning; reading unlocks imagination and can be magical!; reading builds empathy, enabling us to see the world through other’s eyes; reading connects us with different cultures and histories, which we may never otherwise get to know; reading enables us to travel, and experience, places and adventures that we may never otherwise get to experience (which is especially important for our most disadvantaged students); reading connects us with others who have shared similar experiences, so that we feel less alone in our times of greatest need. Understanding this deeply means recognising what a heartbreaking loss it is for any child or adult who never gets to experience the gifts that reading has to offer.

When we believe this, the questions shift from ‘why does reading matter? Can we prioritise this, when there are seemingly so many tensions to resolve?’ to ‘how do we make this work? How do we ensure every child makes rapid progress?’. This shift is vital because we have no time to lose.

There’s a lot to reading catch-up – much, much more than I ever anticipated before I stepped into a reading leadership role. I reflected here about some important lessons learned, one of which is being clear on, and establishing, essential prerequisites that are absolutely crucial for making reading catch up work.

Today, I turn to the essential prerequisite of leadership. Everything starts with leadership. Without excellent leadership as a foundation, almost all initiatives will fall apart. And reading is certainly no exception. In fact, I’d argue that it’s an area of leadership in the school that requires some of the most relentless, tenacious leadership of all.

So, what does it really take to be a leader of reading?

Knowledge. You’ve really got to know your stuff, yet remain acutely aware of all you don’t yet know. The expertise-building journey never ends. It’s a constant, seemingly never-ending, yet hugely fulfilling endeavour. Knowledge of reading is vital in order to:

1. understand its complexity and to be extremely cautious about any silver-bullet solutions that claim to solve the challenge within radically short time periods or with minimal intervention

2. be able to discern what makes an effective reading programme

3. build credibility with people you are working closely with

4. understand how to problem-solve and trouble-shoot the inevitable obstacles you will face every day as you seek to change the life trajectories of the children you support

The more I learn, the more I realise I don’t know. Daunting! Yet incredibly exciting.

Belief. You’ve really got to believe that every child can learn to read and that, if children haven’t yet learned, then we haven’t yet taught them effectively. It doesn’t work to think, even for a moment (and not really even wanting to admit this thought to yourself), that some children may not get there. Every child can get there. Without this belief, doubt and excuses start to creep in:

“I’m just not sure this programme works for x.”

“Perhaps it’s too late.”

“They don’t want to do it.”

“It’s great that we’ve got 80% of our students caught up. I don’t think we’ll reach the other 20.”

I find this belief hard sometimes to hold myself to. It’s tempting to think: “The programme works… so perhaps it’s just something about this particular student’s challenges that means they haven’t grasped it.”. It’s much harder (yet vital) to think: “There’s something I have not yet done, which has prevented this student from progressing. What should I try next?”

Unwavering resolve is crucial. Giving up is not an option. Giving up means some children leave our schools unable to read, unable to take part to the fullest in our world.

Sky-high standards. Fidelity to a great programme, and sky-high standards for its implementation are crucial. Without this, progress stalls. And, frankly, we have no time to lose. By the time students reach secondary school unable to read, every day is a day of widening knowledge gaps and waning motivation. We need excellent teaching that guarantees the success of every child in the classroom. We need excellent implementation that ensures gaps are picked up, and addressed, immediately. We needn’t be ashamed of, or apologetic about, such high standards. We are our students’ only chance to learn to read. They are relying on us. It is our duty to teach them.

Excellent trust building. Reading involves lots of people: headteachers, SLT, teachers, students, reading teachers, reading mentors, governors, trustees, CEOs, trust leads and parents, to name a few. Understandably, everyone has their own experience of, and perspectives on, reading, and will surface tensions that they are keen to explore and seek to resolve, as I wrote about here. I’m learning more every day about the importance of understanding others’ perspectives, building strong professional relationships with everyone involved, and seeking to earn trust and belief in the catch-up programmes we use, in order to maintain, and build, confidence, and to guide even bolder decision making that will enable our children to progress as quickly as possible.

Excellent attention to detail. You need an eye on the detail, every day, without exception, and need to keep asking tough questions of yourself: Are we teaching every aspect of the programme with fidelity? Where we’re not, why not, and what are the potential solutions? Are we maximising every moment of lesson time? If not, what do we need to change so that this becomes the case? Are students attending? If not, how are we bridging gaps immediately so that they don’t widen? Are students progressing every lesson? If not, why not? What needs to be resolved in our teaching? Without this level of attention, gaps appear very quickly.

Dogged determination. We never give up! Reading is so complex that there are seemingly limitless head-scratching questions to seek answers to, challenges to encounter, snags to resolve and obstacles to overcome. It requires showing up every day with a determination to keep persisting in the face of such challenge, believing that teaching our children to read is our most important job and knowing that, without doing this effectively, students will be held back for the rest of their lives.

There’s quite a lot there! It’s not easy. And it is a list that I’ve often underestimated (and frankly continue to underestimate) in my own leadership. Writing this has been an important moment of self-reflection and a reminder that, to be an effective leader of reading, I need to hold myself to these qualities every day.

Leading reading catch-up can be daunting. At times, the scale of the challenge can seem insurmountable. I have felt this many times.

One of the hardest parts is decision making. The evidence base is complex and, at times, ambiguous. The more I learn about how children learn to read, and why some struggle so significantly, the more I realise how much there still is to understand. I often find myself knee deep in a quagmire, trying to work out what the research truly tells us and what will genuinely help students who arrive at secondary school already far behind to catch up.

From grappling with that complexity, a small number of lessons have emerged that are shaping my thinking, and helping me make better decisions:

1. Build masses and masses of knowledge. One of the lessons for me has been just how much knowledge is required to lead reading catch-up well. As I have learned more about how the mind learns to read, why reading is so incredibly complex, and what the evidence tells us about effective teaching – both for new, emerging readers in primary school, and for struggling readers for whom additional support is required – I’ve realised how essential this knowledge is when trying to discern which reading catch-up programmes are effective. And there are a lot out there to choose from! For example, before discovering the insight in ‘Understanding and Teaching Reading Comprehension’ that a motivated reader may encounter around 900,000 more words per year than an average reader, meaning they receive almost ten times the volume of reading practice, I didn’t hold clearly enough in my mind the insight that the quantity of reading practice within a catch-up programme really matters. Not only do the number of hours of reading teaching each week matter, but the quantity of practice each student gets within each lesson matters hugely. Without that insight at the forefront of my mind, I might not choose a programme with the necessary rigour.

2. Be clear on the essential prerequisites and uncompromising when it truly matters. There are many difficult tensions to navigate when it comes to establishing a reading strategy, as I’ve explored here. But, as Paul Bambrick Santoyo states, overdetermination is key. Shortcuts simply compromise the effectiveness of the strategy and slow down the progress of students who desperately need urgent, rapid action. I have learned that, if a reading programme specifies essential prerequisites, then these really do need to be treated as such. If the reading programme requires one hour of reading lessons per day, then this needs to be put in place, even with the inevitable timetabling challenges that come with it. If the programme states that class sizes need to be a maximum of 20 in order for the teacher to be truly responsive to the students in front of them, then this constraint needs to be honoured. If it’s vital that highly motivated and committed teachers, who are open to coaching and feedback, are teaching the programme, then this principle needs to guide who is selected – not who ends up being free as a result of gaps in the timetable after other lessons are taken care of. Being clear on all of this up-front helps avoid later misunderstandings and increases the likelihood that the programme will deliver as intended. Where these prerequisites have been compromised, I’ve seen students’ progress suffer. Fidelity matters… a lot.

3. Prioritise. Try not to take on too much. When faced with hundreds of children in a secondary school behind in their reading age, the scale can feel overwhelming. I’ve found that some of the hardest decisions sit in the tension between doing a smaller number of things exceptionally well and the fear of leaving some students unsupported. Where do we start? Who do we prioritise first: all students who are behind, knowing that we are their only chance, and that they cannot access the curriculum without this support? Year 7 because they have the best chance of catching up fully? Year 11 because they have the least time left? Over time, I’ve learned that the answer lies in sequencing support. When introducing a new, highly intensive reading programme that demands significant training, coaching, and ongoing support, starting with a smaller scale pilot allows the programme to be implemented with the depth and rigour it requires, while creating the chance for leaders the chance to build internal expertise before scaling up. While this gold-standard programme is being piloted and strengthened for some, using a scalable option, such as a computer based programme that many students can access simultaneously, helps ensure that no student is left unsupported.

4. Build lots and lots of trust and confidence…and never stop! As explored here, leaders face difficult choices when deciding where and how reading fits into the curriculum. Every time one obstacle is navigated, another appears. It’s relentless! I’ve learned that it’s vital to build shared confidence in the strategy so that, when tough decisions emerge, there is rock-solid, unshakable belief in the importance of reading. I’ve learned that confidence is built by reviewing impact in lots of different ways: not only through periodic reading age retesting, but through in-programme progress data and through staff, student and parent comments. When a student says, “I wish I could do this all week, every week!”, for example, it becomes very hard to dismiss the impact on student confidence and motivation, even if that impact has not yet been captured through reading age progress measures. Bringing this evidence together, alongside what reading researchers tell us about the short and long-term consequences of being unable to read, has helped me keep narrating why reading matters.

5. Follow up with rigour and tenacity. Be relentless! I’ve learned that implementation does not fall into place once the programme is set up. I’ve fallen into the trap of thinking, “OK, the programme is in place. Super! I’ll let them crack on and look forward to seeing how the students progress.” I’ve since learned that daily support and follow-up is essential if we’re to increase the likelihood of our programmes’ success. We need continual CPD, coaching, in-programme data review and problem-solving conversations. Just setting up and setting teachers and students off is not sufficient. A microscopic level of attention to detail is required, along with relentless determination to keep bulldozing obstacles as they appear (which they almost certainly will). Without this, standards start to slip, gaps emerge and widen, and programmes start to unravel.

I am under no illusion that we have this sorted. The scale of the challenge remains vast. But it has become increasingly clear to me just how much the leadership of reading matters, and how it demands sustained and deliberate effort in building knowledge and trust, making clear and disciplined decisions, prioritising well and following up relentlessly if we are to give ourselves the best chance of providing life-changing support for the students who need us most.

To help reading leads, I am sharing a free resource: an example of a Progress Spotlight.

We often underestimate the size of the reading gaps our students face, and the number of hours it actually takes to bridge them.

In our schools, we use Corrective Reading. Of the 600 students across our schools on the programme, we have approximately 100 students who have placed in its foundational levels – Decoding A and Decoding B1. These students are significantly behind in reading. They have not yet developed a secure understanding of the relationship between the arrangement of letters in a word and the pronunciation of the word, and their reading is often not yet fluent, making it difficult for them to understand what they read, even if they did decode accurately. An extract from a sample lesson for one of these programmes indicates just how much support these students need:

Decoding A is described in the Corrective Reading Decoding Series Guide as being appropriate for students who are ‘extremely deficient in decoding’, such that they may not have adequate strategies for accurate decoding of words like frost and track. Students in Decoding A learn, for example, basic sound-letter correspondences, plus letter combinations for the sounds th, sh, ing, ck, wh, ol, er, or, ch, qu.

Students who place in Decoding B have trouble reading words such as what, that, a, and, the, when the words appear in a sentence context. They learn, for example, to say each sound in a consonant blend and the letter combinations for the sounds th, ee, sh, or, ol, ch, wh, ing, er, oo, ea, oa, ai, ou, ar, oul, ir, igh, al, ou, ing.

It is clear from these brief examples that these students need rapid, urgent, intensive support in order to make the necessary gains to access their secondary school education. Students who complete Decoding A will only be reading at a level equivalent to Year 3, and students in Decoding B1, at an equivalent to Year 4. This makes the scale of the challenge unmistakably clear.

Small pockets of time cannot meet the scale of these students’ reading needs. It is recommended that these students receive 2 hours of reading instruction per day. In this model, they would complete Decoding A and B1 in half a school year (a total of 135 lessons), plus all of Decoding B2 and part of Decoding C, which would take them up to a Year 6, and then 8, equivalent reading level.

One of the principles of Direct Instruction programmes, of which Corrective Reading is an example, is that, in order for students to achieve mastery, hundreds of repetitions are required. The series guide shares an example: for a year 8 student who chronically confuses the words ‘a’, ‘and’ and ‘the’, to read words at 98 percent accuracy when they appear in passages, the student may have to read these words more than 800 times when they appear in sentences, and need constant feedback to ensure misunderstandings are not further embedded. The only way to provide the necessary practice and feedback is to dedicate significant time with a programme that prioritises oral reading practice. Until the hundreds of practice opportunities are provided, the high rate of accuracy will not occur. This is an important insight to keep in mind when selecting a reading programme and ensuring the necessary time is built into the curriculum. That’s just one example, and it needs 800+ repetitions in order to be secure!

Let’s look again at an example of knowledge students are not yet secure in from a Decoding B1 sample lesson, and remind ourselves of what the experience in secondary school must be like for a student with these gaps in their reading knowledge:

If we want to make a significant difference to these students’ reading knowledge and confidence, and their access to every other aspect of the school curriculum, we must prioritise reading support.

‘Reading is the most important thing in the world because it affects everything.’ Sally Shaywitz

When deciding how and where reading catch-up fits within the curriculum, leaders face difficult choices:

1. Breadth vs Foundations: How do we balance protecting subject breadth with creating enough time for pupils to secure the foundations in reading?

2. Catch-up vs Exams: How do we balance the need for intensive reading support with preparation for GCSEs as pupils move into Key Stage 4?

3. Precision vs Capacity: How small should groups be to ensure targeted support and fidelity to reading catch-up programmes without making the timetable or staffing financially unsustainable?

4. Support vs Expectations: How do we help parents understand the need for temporary adjustments, and keep their confidence and support?

5. Perception vs Progress: How do we manage perceptions of pupils being extracted from lessons so that the vital role of reading is understood and valued?

It’s not easy! It can seem like there are too many obstacles to overcome in order to establish a catch-up programme with the rigour required to make a genuine life-changing difference to students’ reading knowledge and confidence.

But it really, really matters.

The more I read about reading, the more essential I realise it is.

For those who cannot read, every day is a struggle. Experts in reading emphasise this repeatedly:

‘Ultimately, a child with an unremedied reading problem can never function at his full potential and suffers incredible emotional damage and loss of self-esteem.’ Dianne McGuinness

‘To be unable to read is to be locked out, to be isolated from discourse, to grasp the edges of conversations, to be without the knowledge of one’s companions. It is to be terrified of failure, and haunted by its presence. It is humiliation and frustration, and it builds into anger, or despair. It is loneliness and a formless sense of injustice.’ James Murphy

‘Illiteracy turns everyday life into a struggle, disempowering and alienating people.’ Chris Such

‘Think what it would be like to be in a failure situation day after day. No matter how hard you try, you can’t get out of the situation. The failure has to be faced day after day, year after year. Think what that failure would do to your self-image and of how you might react. Then think of the remedial reader who has failed day after day, year after year.’ Douglas Carnine, Jerry Silbert and Edward J.Kameenui

‘Once a pattern of reading failure sets in, many children become defeated, lose interest in reading, and develop what often evolves into a lifelong loss of their own sense of self-worth.’ Sally Shaywitz

‘The frustrations of reading failure can lead to a cycle of learning failure.’ Maryanne Wolf

‘When it comes to pursuing one’s dreams, the ability to read well carries an importance that’s hard to overstate’ Paul Bambrick Santoyo

Emotionally, the struggles described above resonate deeply. Practically, though, we often find it difficult to reconcile the tensions we face when trying to put the necessary support in place.

Curriculum Breadth vs Securing the Foundations.

Subjects are vital. Comprehension relies on background knowledge, which is built in all lessons. So reducing the concept of reading support to reading catch-up lessons oversimplifies what’s involved in becoming a confident reader. It is true that we are all teachers of reading. But if students are not yet fluent, we know that, no matter how broad the taught curriculum, the learned curriculum will be exceptionally narrow, as they simply will not be able to access what is being taught. As Alex Quigley puts it, ‘if pupils can’t read fluently, knowledgeable and strategically, we can plan the best curriculum but they will not access it.’

We also need to recognise that, as Douglas Carnine explains, ‘a student decoding several years below grade level is in serious trouble’ and ‘an enormous amount of practice is required to develop decoding fluency.’ The odd hour or tutor slot here and there won’t cut it. ‘Learning to read requires lots of practice. Hundreds of repetitions may be necessary.’ It’s therefore essential to create sufficient time within the curriculum for this to take place.

But even if we recognise the need to prioritise reading foundations in Key Stage 3, a further tension emerges as students approach exam years.

Reading Support Vs Exam Preparation

Natalie Wexler offers a crucial warning for our Key Stage 3 decisions: ‘Literacy issues are often the can that gets kicked down the road’. The unintended consequences of not taking urgent action in Key Stage 3 are that we have students still significantly behind by the time they reach Y10 and Y11. What do we do then? Do we take them out of certain lessons, or reduce the number of GCSE options they take, in order to give them a chance to pass at least some of their exams, given the average reading age of a GCSE paper is age 15? Or do we keep them in all lessons in the belief and hope that continual exam support will prepare them, and risk leaving gaps in the very foundations needed to access the paper at all?

Even if we do commit to the principle of intensive support, we face another challenge: delivering it with the precision required when capacity seems tight.

Precision Vs Capacity

Alex Quigley rightly states that ‘we should be wary of assuming simple solutions will attend to what are complex changes to the habits and practices of pupils, parents and teachers.‘When an easy solution is proposed for a complex problem…we should assume it’s too good to be true.’ We may hope that we can take shortcuts, like increasing class sizes beyond the recommended caps within the programme guidance, choosing available teachers rather than those who are most motivated or prepared to take on the challenge, or reducing the number of hours recommended, in order to overcome obstacles such as financial constraints and teaching capacity. Doing so risks diluting the very precision that makes the intervention effective. It leads to slower gains, which ultimately prolongs the time pupils spend without the fluency they need. We need to find ways to protect precision even when capacity feels tight.

The decisions we make also have implications for how families understand and experience these choices.

Support Vs Expectations

Parents want their children to experience a full, rich curriculum, and intensive reading support can understandably feel like a step back. Our task is to communicate clearly that a temporary reduction in breadth is essential. We must be confident in our decisions, trusting the educational expertise we hold, and offer calm, clear reassurance about why foundations must come first and when breadth will be restored. We can also take every opportunity to celebrate progress every step of the way. Doing so reduces concerns and hesitations and leads to parents recognising that this focused support is helping their child to succeed.

Alongside parental expectations, our decisions may also be shaped by broader perceptions within and beyond the school.

Perception Vs Progress

Extracting pupils from lessons can create understandable concern, both within school and among families, who may fear that pupils are missing valuable learning. This could lead us to reducing reading support, fearing that the perception of extraction will outweigh the benefits. But we must remain steadfast in our commitment to ensuring every child learns to read, and resolute in what we know: that securing fluency requires hours of rigorous instruction. We can hold the line with confidence, while conveying the impact of this support on our students’ reading progress in order to ensure that we share an understanding of the importance of this intervention in securing better life chances for our students.

When we step back from these individual tensions, we return to the core truth that needs to guide every decision we make: as Doug Lemov states, ‘Of all the subjects taught in schools, reading is first among equals –the most singular in importance because all other subjects rely on it.’ If students cannot read, they cannot access school.

There is no silver bullet for teaching reading. Success lies in a simple but powerful concept, shared by Paul Bambrick Santoyo: overdetermination. We must be resolutely determined to do whatever it takes to ensure our students learn to read. Because all children – not just some – ‘deserve the assurance that one day they will be great readers’.

‘Motivation doesn’t always lead to achievement, but achievement often leads to motivation… the actual effect of achievement on self-perception is stronger than the other way round.’ Carl Hendrick

Our students love their Corrective Reading lessons. They encounter, and truly enjoy, reading appropriately pitched texts, such as this:

Irma had left a nail on the hard paint. When she came back to the lab, the nail was invisible. Slowly, she began to realise that the paint had made the nail invisible.

She said to herself, “I will test that paint.” She took a coin from her purse and dropped the coin on the paint. Then she watched and waited. After a while, she saw that the coin was starting to turn invisible. It now looked like a glass coin.

As placement testing has determined students’ prior knowledge, they find these texts challenging, yet experience a lot of success. The norm in the class is for all students to read aloud, ‘loud and proud’, and masses of practice through choral response, whole-class reading, and repeated, paired reading, leads to increased accuracy, fluency, comprehension and, importantly, reading confidence. They love it! One even shared a few weeks ago with one of our teachers, “Miss, please can I do this all week, every week?!”

These same students go from their reading lessons into English lessons, where they encounter texts like The Crucible, and read passages like this:

At the time of these events Parris was in his middle forties. In history he cut a villainous path, and there is very little good to be said for him. He believed he was being persecuted wherever he went, despite his best efforts to win people and God to his side. In meetings, he felt insulted if someone rose to shut the door without first asking his permission. He was a widower with no interest in children, or talent with them. He regarded them as young adults, and until this strange crisis he, like the rest of Salem, never conceived that the children were anything but thankful for being permitted to walk straight, eyes slightly lowered, arms at the sides, and mouths shut until bidden to speak.

Suddenly, success is not quite as easily within reach, even with expert support and guidance from their teachers.

I imagine myself as a student from one of those reading classes, now finding myself in an English lesson, tackling the passage from The Crucible, feeling unsure about much of the vocabulary – ‘villainous’, ‘persecuted, ‘permission’, ‘insulted’, ‘widower’, ‘crisis’, ‘conceived’, ‘bidden’ – and encountering complex, metaphor-laden syntax such as ‘In history he cut a villainous path’. Would I feel successful? Motivated? Or would I feel entirely at sea? Would I want to expose my confusion? Or would I retreat, or mask my difficulties through silliness, defiance or disruption?

This is the daily lived experience for so many of our students.

James and Dianne Murphy write that many students who find reading difficult will try to ‘escape the situation or distract others’, or perhaps ‘disrupt or act out, performing for their peers to get a laugh or challenging authority’. That seems easier, perhaps, than admitting they are stuck, and revealing their vulnerabilities to the class. Similarly, Dianne McGuinness observes that ‘many children with reading problems exhibit behaviour problems’.

Perhaps, then, a route to improving behaviour in our schools is to tackle reading. There is no single cause, of course, for the problems we encounter in our schools, especially something as complex as behaviour. It would be a massive oversimplification to suggest that reading sits at the root of all behavioural challenges. But it feels empowering to imagine that, if we taught all of our children to read well, fewer students would find themselves out of their depth. Success would shape how they see themselves, reducing their reliance on coping mechanisms built on an educational journey marked by struggle.

Reading is the foundation upon which every other success in school, and in life, is built. That is why teaching our children to read is our most important job.

To help reading leads share why reading matters so deeply, I’m sharing a free CPD resource:

Why Our Children Can’t Read: Key Takeaways

‘Average children might read 100,000 words a year, while motivated children might read 1,000,000 words…The enormous individual difference between readers will lead to very substantial differences in vocabulary and comprehension in later years.’ Jane Oakhill

When students face challenges in our lessons, we often perceive a learning need. But what if what we’re really seeing is a reading need: a need to build fluency and understanding in the language through which learning happens?

In secondary schools, we read to learn. Every subject relies on understanding the written word. This understand requires us to:

• read accurately

• read fluently

• understand 95% of the vocabulary

• draw upon a strong armoury of background knowledge

Gaps in any of those areas limit access to subjects.

A quick glance at textbooks reveals just how much reading is required to learn from any subject:

Maths

‘Find the difference between 812 and 357. Remember that “difference” means the result of subtracting the two numbers. You need to exchange a ten for 10 ones and a 100 for 10 tens. You can check the answer by adding 455 to 357. As 455+357 =812, it means that 812-357 = 455, so the answer is correct. You can always check addition by subtraction and subtraction by addition as these are inverse operations.’

Geography

‘There are lots of different kinds of rock, with different mixtures of minerals. But they fall into just three groups of rock – sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic. Each group has formed in a different way. Sedimentary rock forms when particles of minerals which were eroded from rock in one place get stuck together again in another place, to form a new rock.’

Science

‘Humans have a skeleton comprised of 206 bones. The human skeleton is an internal skeleton. The skeleton has a variety of functions. Protection: the skull protects the brain and the skeleton protects organs from damage, for example the ribs protect the lungs. Movement: the skeleton provides an anchor point for muscles and allows the movement of limbs and other parts of the body.’

Design Technology

‘Another form of compression is used to store gas or air under pressure. This area of mechanical power is known as pneumatics, where movement is controlled by using a system of valves, actuators, pistons and other dedicated controllers. Pneumatic systems are commonplace for controlling production lines in the manufacturing industry. They are accurate, efficient and relatively low maintenance.’

If we take just the vocabulary alone, the text above assumes understanding of: difference, subtraction, addition, inverse, operations, minerals, sedimentary, igneous, metamorphic, eroded, comprised, internal, variety, functions, protection, organs, damage, anchor, limbs, compression, mechanical, pneumatics, valves, actuators, pistons, dedicated, controllers, systems, production, manufacturing, industry, accurate, efficient, relatively and low maintenance. Comprehension depends not only on understanding the words, but also on making sense of the ideas they represent.

Natalie Wexler describes ‘an extricable two-way relationship between literacy and content knowledge’, explaining that ‘students need to learn how to read in order to acquire knowledge from texts’ and how ‘what individuals can read and understand, once they’ve learned foundational reading skills, depends largely on their knowledge of history, geography, science, literature, the arts, popular culture – pretty much any knowledge they’ve been able to acquire.’

Inevitably, then, reading barriers become learning barriers.

Students who face challenges in reading from an early age are unable to acquire knowledge from texts. Each lesson that relies on reading becomes another missed opportunity to build knowledge. Over time, these opportunities multiply.

A child who cannot access text throughout Key Stage 2 misses out on around 4,000 hours of classroom learning. While their peers’ learning accelerates, theirs stagnates.

This is the Matthew Effect in action: those who read more learn more; those who read less fall further behind.

By the time these students enter secondary school, what appears to be a learning gap is, in truth, a reading gap: the inevitable result of years without full access to text.

This is why teaching our children is our most important job and is everyone’s job. Alex Quigley rightly states here that ‘every teacher should be intent on ensuring every student becomes a knowledgeable and strategic reader’. The mountain is too steep for a few individuals to climb alone. We must also be wary of supposed ‘quick fixes’ or easy solutions to such a complex problem. As Quigley states, ‘when an easy solution is proposed for a complex problem, like coloured paper for struggling readers, we should assume it’s too good to be true.’ It requires a colossal collective and sustained effort in order to close the gaps that have persisted and compounded over years of a child’s education.

But it is worth the effort. Because, when we teach a child to read, we give them access to everything else.

To help reading leads share why reading matters so deeply, I’m sharing a free CPD resource:

The Reading Gap Behind Learning Difficulties: CPD and Discussion Task

Let’s picture a Y10 history class. Within the class of 30, a handful of students, say 8-10, have reading ages of 10, 9 or 8 – 4, 5 or 6 years behind their actual age. The class reads this text together:

In the early medieval period, England gradually adopted Christianity. By 1066, it was a Christian country. Monasteries that were branches of European monastic orders were built. Scholars and clergy moved freely between England and Europe as England became part of Christendom.

The fluent readers within the class with sufficient vocabulary and background knowledge will attend well to the reading, and will grasp its main points. The readers described above, however, may experience something more like this as they read:

In the early England by 1066 it was a country that were of were built and moved freely between England as England became part of

Incomprehensible.

We need to know 90-95% of the words in a text in order to understand it.1 In this small example, removing the 30% of words students cannot understand — either due to being unable to decode, or due to a lack of vocabulary knowledge — makes the text unreadable. Other than sensing that it is about England in the past, the students will take very little away from the reading.

Multiply that ten-minute snapshot by six, and you begin to imagine a full lesson. Multiply it by five, and you start to picture a whole school day. Multiply it by five again, and you glimpse what a full week feels like for a student still learning to read. Lesson after lesson passes with them struggling to access what is being taught. Gaps widen. Other students learn, remember and succeed. These students fall further and further behind, eventually finding themselves in intervention classes in Y11, desperately trying to plug gaps that are already too wide.

Over time, this takes its toll. What might appear in lessons to be distraction or disinterest could be a student understanding almost nothing of what they’re reading in almost every lesson.

Dianne McGuinness writes that attention difficulties often mask reading difficulties.2 In many cases, what looks like a child who can’t concentrate is actually a child whose attention is fully consumed by the effort of decoding. When attention is spent on the mechanics of reading, there is little left for understanding.

Attention is the gatekeeper of learning. To learn, we need to be able to pay attention to, and think about, something. 3 Our attentional capacity is highly limited.4 When attention is stuck at word level, comprehension and learning can’t take root.

If learning can’t take root, gaps in knowledge widen, and reading becomes progressively harder. All writers assume a certain level of shared knowledge, including vocabulary.5 It’s thought that we need a vocabulary of 15,000-20,000 words in order to read with minimal disturbance.6

When students lack this background knowledge, their working memory is quickly overloaded.7 The mental effort spent on decoding, coupled with limited understanding, means that very little of what they read is retained or stored in long-term memory.

Over time, this creates a vicious cycle: weak attention leads to weak memory; weak memory limits knowledge; and limited knowledge makes paying attention even harder next time.

We need to keep this insight at the forefront of our minds when making difficult decisions about how, when, and where to provide reading support in our schools: children cannot attend to the content we are teaching if they cannot read fluently. It starts with reading fluency. Everything else follows.

Teaching our children to read is our most important job.

To help reading leads share why reading matters so deeply, I’m sharing a free CPD resource:

Attention and Reading: CPD and Discussion Task

“They’re low ability.”

“They’re weak.”

“They’re less able.”

There are lots of things we say in our schools each day, unaware of the implicit expectations – or lack thereof – these words convey to our students.

Our expectations matter. A lot.

Our expectations influence student outcomes. We are the voice in their heads. If we describe students as “low ability” and “less able”, they still start to see themselves as such, taking these self-perceptions into the rest of their lives.

Our expectations are guided by our assumptions. A common, often subconscious, assumption is that low reading achievement signals low intelligence. Reading ability becomes a proxy for intelligence. Yet if students cannot read, they cannot access anything we teach them. As they struggle to comprehend our teaching, respond to questions and write and spell accurately, we might conclude that they are ‘less able’, ‘low ability’ or ‘weak’. Over time, we come to expect less of them, and our lowered expectations become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

“They’ll never get there.”

“They can’t.”

“This is pretty good for them.”

Falling behind in learning is inevitable if a student cannot read. We must recognise that at the root of those struggles is a reading gap that requires attention.

We can make a change for these students. And it starts with our expectations.

We need to believe that every child in our schools can learn to read.

We need to believe that, if a child hasn’t yet learned, then they’ve not yet been taught.

We need to recognise that, if progress is not being made, instruction must change. It is our responsibility to ensure that all children progress, leaving no one behind.

We need to understand that gaps in learning have resulted from gaps in reading. Students are not “less able”; they’ve just been less exposed to the excellent teaching of reading that would have enabled them to learn and succeed.

We need to challenge ourselves if we find ourselves ever at risk of accepting that some children just can’t get there.

They can all get there. And we are their only chance.

This shift in mindset is essential if we are to reduce the catastrophic number of children in our secondary schools who are still significantly behind in reading.

Teaching our children to read is our most important job.

To help reading leads share why reading matters so deeply, I’m sharing a free CPD resource:

CPD Reading & Discussion Task

‘Learning to read later in life is uniquely challenging; many people struggle to seek help due to stigma or shame, and lack the structure and time to prioritise learning in lives busy with work and caring responsibilities.’1

Every year, thousands of children across the country leave our schools and move onto college or apprenticeships with a reading age that is far behind their actual age.

Compelled to prioritise our support for those who are still with us, we move onto the next cohort and often, though unintentionally, give no further thought to those who have left us unable to read. “We did our best,” we think.

But what happens to those children? Who teaches them to read after they’ve left us?

Most likely, no one.

Most likely, those children become a part of the 18% of adults in England classed as ‘functionally illiterate’ – in other words, they have literacy levels equivalent to a 5-7 year old and ‘may not be able to write messages to a family or read a road sign.’2

I’ve written about the joy, magic, empathy, comfort, worlds and opportunities reading brings, all of which those with poor literacy miss out on, for a lifetime.

Beyond this, though, illiteracy causes significant damage to life chances:

Disempowerment. People with lower levels of literacy are more likely to feel they have little say in politics and are less likely to get involved in community groups or volunteering.

Vulnerability. They make less use of the NHS, either through fear or difficulty understanding written guidance, and as a result are more likely to experience poor health.

Confinement. Around 70% of people in prison have difficulties with reading, and a quarter have literacy levels no higher than those of a seven-year-old.3

Legacy. Parents’ low literacy has lasting effects on their children: ‘by far the strongest indicator of a child’s success in school is his/her parents’ level of education’. 4

A mantra we often share in our schools is: ‘If they don’t learn it with us, they may never learn it’. This is certainly true of reading. It becomes much, much harder for young people to access reading support once they leave school. Not only is it difficult for them to know where to go for support, the shame attached to low literacy levels prevents many from admitting their difficulties and seeking help.

Their best chance is with us, in our schools. We cannot let children leave us aged 16 unable to read when we know the life-limiting consequences of illiteracy.

Teaching our children to read is our most important job.

To help reading leads share why reading matters so deeply, I’m sharing a free resource:

Lifelong Consequences of Illiteracy

‘Being asked to do something you can’t do for six hours a day, for hundreds of days a year, year after year, knowing that your peers are fully aware of your shortcomings, must be the most distressing experience imaginable.’ Dianne McGuinness

“I’m dumb.” These words, uttered by Alex – a student who was unable to read fluently in secondary school – stay with me even now. Imagine carrying this belief into school, like a constant mocking voice that interrupts your every thought.

“Alex, can you explain why multiplying two negative numbers results in a positive?”

“You don’t know. You’re dumb.”

“Alex, it’s your turn to read.”

“You can’t. You’re dumb.”

“Alex, how do tectonic plates cause earthquakes?”

“You don’t even know what that means. You’re dumb.”

Over time, this belief becomes deep-seated. “I’m dumb” becomes “I’ll never succeed. I’ll never amount to anything. It’s too hard. I might as well give up.” It stops being just a thought and becomes part of a young person’s identity – an identity they carry into adulthood. In a sea of subjects that rely on reading and vocabulary for access, Alex was drowning. His only option, in his eyes, was to create barriers that prevented his vulnerability from being exposed.

But beneath this mask of defiance was a little boy, pleading: “Please, somebody. Teach me to read so that I don’t feel dumb anymore. I don’t want to feel dumb anymore.”

For too many students, this silent struggle goes unnoticed. The belief hardens. The cycle continues. But we can break this cycle.

Alex was lucky that his reading struggles were caught before it was too late, and he was taught to read. Soon, he started volunteering to read aloud in class. He proudly shared his opinions on literature. He started to complete his homework. His interactions with peers and staff became less hostile, and increasingly friendly and polite. And, when it came to it, he passed his GCSE English, Maths and Science – subjects that he had been achieving U grades in just one year before. For Alex, the transformation was dramatic and life changing.

Diane McGuinness describes the reality for children like Alex as ‘the most distressing experience imaginable.’

Imagine the frustration of being asked to do something you cannot do for six hours a day, hundreds of days a year, year after year.

Imagine the humiliation of knowing that your peers see your struggle, lesson after lesson. They answer questions with ease, while you sit in silence, hoping that you’re not called upon.

Imagine the damaging effect this would have on your self esteem, if this was your daily lived experience.

Imagine the self-perceptions you would carry for the rest of your life: “I’m dumb”; “I can’t read”; “School wasn’t for me”.

Every time I grapple with the complexity of reading, I remember Alex: I remember his words; I remember his behaviour; I remember his life-altering transformation. And I remember that teaching children to read is our most important job. Because if we don’t teach a child to read, not only do we lock them out of learning and future opportunities, but we leave them with a lifetime of low self-esteem.

To help reading leads share why reading matters so deeply, I’m sharing a free resource:

Why Our Children Can’t Read by Dianne McGuinness, 4 Key Takeaways

‘By five years of age, some children from impoverished language environments have heard 32 million fewer words spoken to them.’ Maryanne Wolf

“What are your first impressions of Arthur Birling?”
“He’s mean.”
“Good try, Mason. Nye?”
“I’d say he’s small-minded, status-driven, stubborn, pompous, self-righteous and prejudiced.”
“Great words, Nye.”

Mason worked exceptionally hard, but his progress was stubbornly low. Many of his peers effortlessly grasped new knowledge, while Mason’s understanding lagged behind, restricted by a working vocabulary akin to that of a much younger student. While Nye was able to describe Birling as ‘self-righteous’ and ‘pompous’, Mason was limited to ‘mean’ and ‘nasty’. My best teaching efforts, inspired by Isabel Beck’s work on robust vocabulary instruction, were struggling to bridge this gargantuan gap.

As Maryanne Wolf and many others point out, students like Mason are already at a disadvantage when they start school, having encountered millions fewer words than their more advantaged peers. Mason’s struggles were not unique; they were the predictable result of this language gap – a gap that compounds over time. Mason’s years of reading struggle placed a ceiling on his ability to access the ‘An Inspector Calls’, while other students like Nye, with 11 years of confident reading experience under their belt, sailed through the study of the text with ease.

Mason’s experience isn’t just unfortunate. It highlights three truths that we must act on.

1. Reading builds from early language development. Dianne McGuinness states that ‘all the evidence shows that the major predictor of becoming a good reader is the development of good language skills during the early years of life’.

2. Reading relies on vocabulary. Isabel Beck et al suggest that ‘to read with minimal disturbance from unknown vocabulary, language users need a vocabulary of 15,000-20,000 words’.

2. Reading builds vocabulary. Isabel Beck et al share that studies of spoken versus written language found that the average adult book contains 52 rare words per 1000 compared with only 17 in conversation.

The lesson here is clear. Reading relies on and builds vocabulary. The Masons in our classrooms are stuck in a cycle of struggle. Early intervention and rapid, urgent action are essential if we are to make a difference.

To help reading leads share why reading matters so deeply, I’m sharing a free resource:

The Vocabulary Loop: short CPD for all staff

‘Every student must glimpse the power that comes from the world that reading can bring to light.' Doug Lemov

“You may begin.”

Every year, as the GCSE exams approach, I imagine this moment, as thousands of students across the country open their English Language paper. I imagine two students sat at adjacent desks. The first is a confident reader, reading age 15+. The second, in spite of the school’s best efforts, has a reading age far below their chronological age.

Both turn the page to reveal the source.

The dawn of the 27th was an affair of slatternly rags soaking in a dishwater sky, with a grey light weakly filtering through. Nevertheless, in Oppley and in Stouch cocks crowed, and other birds welcomed it more melodiously. In Midwich, however, no birds sang. In Oppley and Stouch, too, as in other places, hands were soon reaching out to silence alarm clocks, but in Midwich the clocks rattled on till they ran down.

In other villages sleepy-eyed men left their cottages and encountered their work-mates with sleepy good mornings; in Midwich no one encountered anyone. For Midwich lay entranced...

While the rest of the world began to fill the day with clamour, Midwich slept on.... Its men and women, its horses, cows, and sheep; its pigs, its poultry, its larks, moles, and mice all lay still. There was a pocket of silence in Midwich, broken only by the frouing of the leaves, the chiming of the church clock, and the gurgle of the Opple as it slid over the weir beside the mill...

And while the dawn was still a poor, weak thing an olivegreen van, with the words 'Post Office Telephones' just discernible upon it, set out from Trayne with the object of putting the rest of the world into touch with Midwich again.

In Stouch it paused at the village call box to inquire whether Midwich had yet shown any signs of life. Midwich had not; it was still as deeply incommunicado as it had been since 22.17 hrs. The van restarted and rattled on through the uncertainly gathering daylight.

'Cor!' said the lineman to his driver companion. 'Cor! That there Miss Ogle ain't 'alf goin' to cop 'erself a basinful of 'Er Majesty's displeasure over this little lot.'

The reader with a reading age of 15+ devours the extract and quickly develops a sharp understanding. They understand the connotations of the words ‘Midwich lay entranced’, inferring that the village appears to be being kept asleep by an unnatural or mysterious force. Noting the contrast between Oppley and Stouch’s conventional morning routines and Midwich’s stark stillness, they suspect something sinister, confirmed by the strange fact that ‘no birds sang’ – an unusual occurrence in the early hours of the morning.

The reader with a reading age of 12 or below has a much harder time. Their more limited vocabulary results in them stumbling on lots of the words: slatternly, melodiously, rattled, encountered, entranced, clamour, poultry, frouing, chiming, gurgle, weir, discernible, inquire, incommunicado, restarted, gathering, displeasure, vaguely. They are thrown by unrecognisable place names — ‘Oppley’ and ‘Stouch’ — and lose themselves in the dialect of ‘That there Miss Ogle ain't 'alf goin' to cop 'erself a basinful of 'Er Majesty's displeasure over this little lot'.

The first student breezes through the paper; the second student struggles and flails. Fast forward to August, and those same students open their results envelopes. One beams with delight. The other wipes away a tear with the realisation that they’ll be joining hundreds of other students in resit classes for several years to come.

Lemov writes that ‘an exceptional reader can learn to do anything, no matter where those first few pages reach them, and no matter how long the journey to mastery.’ It is an undeniable fact that reading opens doors, and being unable to read slams them shut.

As school leaders, it’s vital that we understand reading’s role in accessibility and inclusivity.

1. Reading unlocks the curriculum. Lemov rightly describes reading as ‘the most singular in importance because all other subjects rely on it.’ If students cannot read, they cannot access our subjects, no matter how expert the teaching.

2. Reading unlocks exams. With an average reading age of 15+ for all GCSE papers, reading at their chronological age is an absolutely essential prerequisite for students’ exam success. Without it, they are set up to fail.

3. Reading unlocks opportunities. Future educational and employment opportunities rely on good qualifications. Students carry their results with them for the rest of their lives. Great results open doors; lower results lock them out of opportunities.

It is essential that we teach our children to read. If not, large numbers of our GCSE cohorts each year have failed before they even set foot in the exam hall.

To help reading leads share why reading matters so deeply, I’m sharing a free resource:

Why Reading Matters: Reading Opens Doors