Reading is one of the most important things we teach young people. It provides access to learning and allows them to belong in their communities, while, at a national level, increased literacy leads to economic success.

Schools, therefore, quite rightly prioritise reading. It stands to reason that the more “reading miles” we have, the more proficient we become. Often with proficiency comes pleasure, but this is not always the case, as outlined in a recent Tes article on why schools should stop pushing reading for pleasure.

We have long bemoaned the demise of reading, seeing students opting for games and phones instead. Of course, this worries me. But simply telling children to read more is unlikely to bring change.

This is why, in our trust’s secondary phase, we have refocused on reading for a range of purposes, ensuring that we give students lots of reading experience but without adding a value judgement like “pleasure”.

So what does this look like?

Reading for all

One of our key initiatives is teacher-led form time reading. Here books are carefully selected for broad interest and challenge, including fiction and non-fiction. The text needs to lend itself to being read aloud, but otherwise the texts will vary in length and form depending on the year group and setting.

Staff take centre stage with this reading, modelling the pace and tone. Thoughtful discussion then prompts students to talk about the book’s ideas, unfamiliar vocabulary and characters. Importantly, students talk about what they do and don’t like. The focus is not on making all of them like the book, but on building their opinions.

Form time reading also means that students have a shared experience with a book at the centre. It is a communal activity that often starts their day.

Reading in the curriculum

Across all of our subjects, students have further opportunities to encounter texts regularly. Crucially, this is not left to chance or assumed to happen implicitly; we plan explicitly for reading as part of curriculum design.

Departments identify the types of texts that are most important in their discipline, and teach students how to read them. In science, this might mean breaking down dense explanatory prose or interpreting diagrams step by step. In history, it includes reading extended narratives and analysing sources, paying attention to provenance and inference.

In other words, reading is treated as a disciplinary, rather than a generic, skill. Teachers model how an expert in their subject would approach a text: how to navigate it, where to focus attention and how to extract meaning.

Vocabulary building

Not understanding all of the vocabulary in a text can severely hamper what we take from it.

To develop students’ proficiency in this area, our teachers identify vocabulary to pre-teach, using etymology, morphology and choral responses. Students are then encouraged to use this vocabulary in their speech as well as their writing.

This work is built into curriculum planning. Departments identify “tier 3” subject-specific vocabulary alongside high-utility academic words that recur across topics. These are sequenced so that key terms are introduced, revisited and applied in different contexts over time, rather than appearing as one-off definitions.

Alongside this, we promote a small number of consistent approaches to vocabulary instruction across the school. These include explicitly teaching word parts to support decoding, using examples and non-examples to secure meaning, and ensuring repeated use through structured talk and writing. Teachers also model how to deal with unfamiliar vocabulary in real time, demonstrating strategies such as using context, breaking down word roots or linking to prior knowledge.

There are clear CPD implications here. Staff are supported to understand the relationship between vocabulary and comprehension, and to develop shared routines that make vocabulary instruction effective and manageable.

Support where it is needed most

Students who struggle more than their peers with reading are unlikely to say they enjoy reading.

So we work to strengthen interventions for these students. Their need is carefully identified through diagnostics, and short, frequent sessions help this group to build proficiency.

We are, however, careful to ensure that these students are still involved in all of the activities outlined above, just with a bit more scaffolding.

We also make sure that each student has their individual successes recognised so that they begin to associate making progress in reading with positive feelings. We want to motivate them to see every small step as something to celebrate.

Books at the heart

To be clear, this does not mean we never talk about picking up books to read just for fun. It doesn’t mean we don’t have libraries and access to books throughout the school day and beyond. Books are everywhere, as are reading groups for avid readers, competitions, awards and author visits. We definitely don’t want to quash enthusiasm for reading.

But more importantly, we want to build capable readers who have encountered a lot of books, plays, poems and non-fiction texts. We want them to be armed with the experience, the vocabulary and all the other reading tools they need. What we don’t want is to give students the message that if you are not enjoying it, then reading is not for you.

Zoe Enser is the school improvement lead for a trust in the North West of England