By Penny Slater, Partnership Lead and Kathy Roe, Reading Fluency Project Lead
Recently, I had the pleasure of joining my brilliant colleague Kathy Roe on the Priority Literacy podcast, hosted by the wonderful Carl Pattison. If you haven’t listened yet, I’d absolutely recommend giving it a go. Carl has a lovely way of making you feel at ease, and we were delighted to talk about all things reading fluency.
It’s not unusual for Kathy and me to “talk fluency”, but this conversation felt particularly special. It was a chance for us to pause and reflect on what we’ve learned through the Reading Fluency Project and why we feel so passionately that reading fluency should be high on every school’s agenda.
Let’s be clear: fluency isn’t just about speed. It’s about helping children read with confidence, rhythm and expression (prosody). It’s about supporting them to read in a way that sounds like language, and crucially, in a way that allows them to understand what they’re reading. After all, what’s the point in reading if it doesn’t lead to meaning?
So many children – particularly those who have been struggling for a while – end up stuck in a cycle of slow, robotic reading. They might be able to decode the words, but they’re not living the story. They’re not picturing what’s happening or feeling what the characters feel. And for us, that’s the heart of reading. Fluency is the bridge to comprehension. It’s what makes reading more than just word calling.
In the podcast we talked about some of the practical strategies we use in the project such as echo reading, performance reading and text-marking. These are evidence-informed, manageable approaches that make a real difference, and more importantly, they help children rediscover joy in reading. That moment when a child reads a scary line with expert prosody, and they shiver; or they read a funny line with perfect timing and wit, and they laugh out loud – it is truly magical.
We also touched on the emotional side of reading. Children who have struggled often see themselves as non-readers. Giving them the tools to read fluently, and to understand what they’re reading, can be transformational. It’s about building confidence, self-belief and, hopefully, a lifelong love of books.
Kathy and I left the recording feeling really energised. There’s still so much work to do, but conversations like this remind us of why we do what we do. Huge thanks to Carl for having us, and to all the schools working so hard to put reading fluency front and centre.
Let’s keep shouting about it, because every child deserves to find joy and fulfilment in reading.
Join us for an afternoon of inspiration, learning and collaboration as we bring together some of the most prestigious names in the field of reading fluency instruction at our Reading Fluency Showcase on Wednesday 12th November 2025.