Bridging the Gap

Bridging the Gap: Supporting Struggling Readers at KS3 and Beyond is a practical professional guide for teachers, literacy leads, SENCOs, teaching assistants and school leaders supporting older pupils who are not yet able to read age-appropriate texts confidently and independently.

Some pupils still need explicit phonics teaching. Others can decode many words accurately but remain slow, hesitant or heavily dependent on support. Some struggle with vocabulary, comprehension, stamina or confidence. Many experience several of these difficulties at once.

This book explores that important space between developing word-reading skills and becoming an increasingly fluent, thoughtful and independent reader.

Rather than lowering the destination, Bridging the Gap shows how teachers can make ambitious, age-respectful reading more accessible through carefully chosen texts, purposeful scaffolding and responsive teaching.

Inside, you will explore how to:

• identify what is actually getting in the way of successful reading
• distinguish between decoding, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension needs
• choose age-respectful texts without reducing intellectual challenge
• develop fluency through meaningful connected text
• teach vocabulary in context
• support comprehension while keeping the text central
• build confidence, stamina and reading identity
• structure effective reading-support lessons
• review progress and reduce support as independence grows
• design sustainable reading-support pathways across KS3 and beyond

The book also includes reflection points, case studies, worked examples, practical tools, model pathways, implementation prompts and a research map to help schools move from understanding the problem to improving provision.

Bridging the Gap is a natural companion to Abigail Steel's Leading KS3+ Phonics, but it can also be read and used independently.

The aim of reading support is not to make difficult reading permanently easier. It is to give pupils the support they need until they can do more of the reading for themselves.