As I’ve said before reading is the most important thing we teach in our schools. We don’t just want children to leave primary able to read we also want them to leave primary wanting to read.

That doesn’t just happen...

...Getting children to read and wanting to read is complex. The reading diet in is key...

1) Teachers should read every day to their class. It. Should be prioritised, not thrown away at the end of the day but timetabled so that it is valued and it happens...

...Pick a book you love. Children really pick up on it if you don’t. It doesn’t have to spuriously link to projects and learning. Equally don’t ruin it by stopping and breaking it down all the time. Get in the flow and enjoy...

...2) Whole class reading. Discussing and breaking down a text, modelling, close text analysis, fluency, prediction, comprehension and more...

..3) Guided/ Group Reading. Tightly focused teaching moving children forward. Discussion allowing pupils to explore and reason understanding. Book chat...

...4) 1:1 reading. Direct individual teaching that will look different for each child, part of it is about talking about the book.

5) Independent reading time. (Self explanatory) The challenge is getting them to actually read, a lot of that is to do with class culture...

6) Blether time. Has your class got a culture of reading, do children have time to talk about what they’re reading, how do they share they’re joy? How do you share yours?

This of course all sits on a bedrock of great reading and phonics teaching in the Early years and KS1...

...if this sounds like a lot of time devoted to reading, that’s because it is. One thing we’ve learnt is actually that almost every lesson is a reading lesson and reading should be key component in most lessons regardless of subject.