The KGA Reading Pledge 

We aspire for every pupil to be able to read at chronological age or above.

We aim to achieve this by ensuring that all staff have the skills to teach reading within their subject and every opportunity is taken to expose pupils to rich and diverse texts, both within subjects and across the schools’ wider curriculums.

Young people who are confident, fluent readers are able to access, interpret and navigate the world in ways struggling readers cannot.  KGA is committed to ensuring that every pupil who attends one of our schools has access to a broad, inclusive curriculum.  Within our schools and our curriculums, reading is prioritised.  Reading data is used to make sure that pupils receive timely and specific interventions to enable them to fully access the curriculum.

The Reading Rope 

What Is the Reading Rope?

The Reading Rope, created by psychologist Dr. Hollis Scarborough in 2001, is a powerful metaphor for understanding how children learn to read fluently and with understanding. The model shows skilled reading as a rope made up of two main strands:

• Word Recognition

• Language Comprehension

Each of these strands is made up of smaller threads - skills and knowledge - that must be taught and practised over time. As these strands develop, they weave together, creating fluent, accurate, and meaningful reading.

Scarborough's model highlights that becoming a skilled reader is not about just learning to sound out words (phonics), but about bringing together a wide range of abilities. Skilled readers can read quickly, automatically, and with understanding, because they have built up both decoding skills and language knowledge over many years of practice and teaching.

Why Was It Developed?

Dr. Scarborough created the Reading Rope to move educators beyond a narrow focus on phonics. While phonics is essential, it’s only part of the picture. Reading success also depends heavily on understanding language, vocabulary, grammar, and background knowledge.

By visually showing the interdependence of word recognition and language comprehension, the Reading Rope encourages teachers to take a more balanced and integrated approach to reading instruction.

What Does This Mean for Teachers?

All strands need to be explicitly taught.  Don’t assume children "pick up" vocabulary or comprehension strategies - these require targeted instruction, just like phonics does.

Early readers need strong decoding instruction.  Word recognition becomes automatic with practice, freeing up mental energy for understanding what is being read.

Language comprehension takes time to develop. Build students’ vocabulary, background knowledge, and sentence-level understanding through a rich curriculum, high-quality texts, and meaningful discussion.

Reading is not one skill—it’s many skills working together.  Teaching reading effectively means supporting students across both strands of the rope.