The Reading Fluency Assessment
Listen to a child read an unpractised passage for 2 to 3 minutes. It measures accuracy, words correct per minute and prosody, then places them on a stage.
In the app. School plans from £99 a year.
See pricingAssess fluency in minutes.
Resource every lesson.
See the progress.
Bring joy to reading.
The complete fluency tool. A quick, accurate assessment shows you where each child is. Then everything you need to take them further: the planning, resources and pedagogy. Carry them all the way to fluent comprehension and real enjoyment.
No card. No setup. Cancel anytime.
Stories they race through
Perform a poem on Friday
Poems on screen
Mark in minutes
Laugh out loud
Model it every day
Can’t wait to read on
Flash Phrases
Read it, act it out
“A full fluency assessment in 2 to 3 minutes per child. Less time assessing.
More time teaching.” Gareth McGovern, Assistant Headteacher
Trusted by schools like yours
We’ve found Reading Fluency incredibly useful at Brambleside. It has helped us move beyond a broad sense of reading need and identify, with much greater precision, which pupils need support with fluency, pace and automaticity. The assessments are quick to use, easy to interpret and have given staff clear information to shape targeted intervention. Most importantly, it has helped us spot children who may be able to decode but are not yet reading with the fluency needed to fully access comprehension.
Natalie Goosey
Deputy Headteacher, Brambleside Primary School
Simon recognised a real problem for schools: the absence of simple, accurate reading fluency assessments. By creating this tool, he has provided a solution that enables schools to identify pupils’ needs precisely and act on them. It’s something every school should have.
Jamie Hallums
Educational Consultant, School Improvement Partner and former Headteacher
Everything in the system, and where it lives.
Dawn Chorus poetry
One poem, one week: Hear It, Grow It, Show It. The text stays put for a whole week and the words get freer. Depth over distance.
In the app. School plans from £99 a year.
See the week
The Story Trail
Classroom books and episode booklets. New text, more text, a wider world every session. Distance over depth.
Printed books in our shop.
Browse the Story Trail
Fluent Foundations
An intervention: 10 minutes a day, five days a week, for a group of five children whose reading is not yet fluent.
Coming soon.
The Reading Fluency Handbook
The whole method in one book, from assessment to a half term at a glance.
Out now: £14.99 in paperback, and on Kindle.
Buy on AmazonSchools: order from our bookshopRead a free chapter
Training
Six ready-to-run staff meetings for your reading lead to deliver, with what to say on every slide.
In the app. School plans from £99 a year.
See the training
Praise for The Reading Fluency Handbook
“I’d love for every teacher in the UK (and US and elsewhere) to have a copy.”
“You cover all the aspects of fluency and provide easy to understand and implement approaches to making fluency an integral part of classroom reading instruction and also instruction for children who struggle in reading.”
“Having had the privilege of pre-reading this handbook before it was released, I can fully endorse it and the strategies/assessments recommended.”
Welcome to the fluency flywheel.
A child who can decode but still reads in little chunks doesn’t need more reading comprehension. They need to stop pouring all their effort into getting the words off the page, so there’s something left over to understand them. That’s what fluency does, and the flywheel is how you build it. The whole method is in The Reading Fluency Handbook.
- Find each child’s place on the ladder by listening to them read for 2 to 3 minutes, and place them on a stage.
- Build the thing they’re missing with our poetry (Dawn Chorus) and stories (the Story Trail), our engines for repetition and volume, turning together.
- Support the children who need it with intervention (Fluent Foundations).
- Prove it worked and feed the answer straight into the next Find.
The honest offer.
For 30 days you get the whole flywheel. Open, no gates. Run it with your own children, in your own classrooms, and see what it does.
School plans
From £99 a year
£99, £149 or £199 a year, by the size of your school.
Individual teachers
£4.99 a month
Or £45 a year.
Pay by card, or by invoice with your purchase order.
Find
The fluency assessment, to find the gap the phonics check missed.
Build
The poetry collections and the hear it, grow it, show it routine.
Prove
The quick re-check that shows you the movement, child by child.
The books are sold separately in our shop, printed to order in the UK, with free UK delivery on orders of £14.99 or more.
A story you’ll recognise
Why I built this
I want to tell you about a child. Not a dramatic one. An ordinary one, which is the whole point.
Alfie is seven. He met the phonics check threshold two years ago, and Alfie can read, in the sense we usually mean it. Put a book in front of him and he’ll give it his best shot. He has secure decoding knowledge, a decent sight vocabulary. Nobody would call him a struggling reader.
But listen to him for a moment and you hear it. The effort he is exerting. He reads in little chunks, gets a run going, then trips on a word. Works hard to decode it, then gets going again. He’s working so hard at getting the words off the page that the reading never lifts. He doesn’t have the time or the cognitive space for expression.
Read moreRead less
Ask him about it afterwards and he might give you a character, maybe where they were. But what they did, why they did it, what might happen next? Gone. He was too busy reading to understand what he read.
This is Alfie.
And there are thousands of children like him.
That’s why I built ReadingFluency.
A word from me, before you decide anything.
I’m a serving headteacher, but English is my home ground. Before headship I was a literacy lead, and across four schools I’ve been the one who chose how to bring phonics in and make it work. I still believe in it. But I always felt the join between phonics and understanding was thinner than anyone admitted. Decoding gets a child to the words. It doesn’t carry them to the meaning. That longer journey is the part we leave too much to chance.
Here’s what I’ve come to believe. A child understands more when a text has been read aloud to them, when they’ve read it aloud themselves, and when they’ve learned to group words into phrases rather than trudging through one at a time. That’s what fluency teaches. More written comprehensions won’t build it. Reading, out loud, with expression and meaning, will.
One of my proudest moments this year was a class of five- and six-year-olds who spent a week on a single poem. By the end they performed it together, no help from me, and they held the pause before the last line so well that it properly landed. That’s the moment I’m chasing for every child. Not just accurate reading. Reading that means something to the child doing it.
So use the assessment on its own if that’s all you need. Plenty of schools do, running it every so often to keep an eye across a class. You’re under no obligation to go further. But if you feel the wheel start to turn, you’ll know what to do next.
Simon Sharp, Headteacher
Find
One assessment, three layers.
One unpractised passage at the child's stage, a minute or two to hear them read it, and two numbers recorded together: rate and accuracy. ReadingFluency.co.uk gives you the standardised passages for every stage and does the scoring, so the check stays quick and the picture is whole-school. The full classroom method, with the marking routine, is in our guide to how to assess reading fluency.
The quick check takes two minutes. The deeper layers are there when you want them. This demo works like the real thing, so tap through.
87 WCPM
Two minutes with a book. Not twenty with a spreadsheet.
The child reads an unpractised, year-group passage aloud for one minute. The tool counts the words, subtracts the stumbles and gives you words correct per minute, the measure of fluency that predicts comprehension better than almost anything else. Two to three minutes per child, start to finish, not the fifteen to twenty minutes a paper assessment takes, and a whole class fits inside a single lesson. No stopwatch, no tally chart, no working out.
Have a goTap a word Alfie stumbles on. Tap again to change the mark. Tap the space between two words to catch a word he added.
Errors 0Omissions 0Self-corrections 0Additions 0Words correct 36 of 36
That’s the whole job: tap as the child reads. The timing, the error count and the score calculation happen on their own, and every assessment is saved to the pupil’s history.
The quick check is all you need to screen a class. When you want deeper information about a child, and you’re happy for it to take a little longer, add these two layers.
Comprehension, while it’s fresh
“Why does the creature need Maya’s help?”
A couple of quick questions straight after the read, logged beside the score. Because the point of fluency was never speed. It’s understanding.
Prosody, in ten seconds
Expression
Phrasing
Pace
Did it sound like reading, or like talking? Rate expression, phrasing and pace on a simple scale, the part of fluency a number can’t hold.
Everything you need in one place
Automatic WPM, words correct per minute and accuracy, calculated live
Errors, omissions, self-corrections and additions, colour-coded
Curated, age-appropriate passages for Years 1 to 6
Professional reports in Excel and PDF for parents and school leaders
Every pupil’s assessment history in one place, by year group and class
Two to three minutes per child, start to finish
Optional comprehension questions and prosody ratings, for deeper data
Nine stages, one ladder.
The assessment tells you the stage where a child’s reading needs building right now, from Birch to Cedar. Every stage after Birch has a words-correct-per-minute band. A child achieves a stage by reaching its band minimum with 95 per cent accuracy in the same read.
Birch95%+ accuracy, any speed
Willow31–45 WCPM
Hazel46–60 WCPM
Yew Entry46–60 WCPM
Yew61–75 WCPM
Chestnut76–90 WCPM
Oak91–110 WCPM
Sycamore111–130 WCPM
Cedar131+ WCPM
Build
Build fluency, with hear it, grow it, show it.
So you’ve found Alfie. The question every teacher asks next is the honest one: what do I actually do on Monday? This is the answer, and it’s the engine of the wheel. Repeated reading, the one thing the evidence keeps pointing to, shaped into a simple weekly routine around a poem worth reading.
It sounds like the dullest thing in the world. It isn’t. Do it with a poem worth performing and the children want the next go. They land the funny line, they hold the pause, they read it like they mean it, because now they do. One longer lesson to launch it, then a few minutes a day. It fits the week you already have.
One poem, one week
Hear it, grow it, show it. Tap a day to see the routine.
Perform
my turnRead the entire poem aloud. Expression, pace, pause, drama. Children listen, eyes up.
Partner talk
your turnWhat’s the poem about? What words don’t we know? Short and sharp.
Reader talk
my turnRead again, children following. Make your choices explicit: “my voice went up here”. No more than three.
Partner talk
your turnHow would you read it? Fast or slow? Where would you pause? Which word is loudest?
Echo read
my turn · your turnRead one line, fully expressed. Children echo it back. The expression, not just the words.
Download the full routine as a printable PDFStick it on the staffroom wall.
Our Poetry Teaching Tool
Repeated reading is the most evidence-backed route to fluency there is, and poetry makes the repetition something children actually want to do. Rhythm, rhyme and a reason to read it again. These are original poems, written for the classroom, not pulled from an anthology, with an interactive whiteboard view, printable resources and vocabulary support built around every one.
Collections for every stage, Birch to Cedar.
Then the stories.
Dawn Chorus makes the words easier through repetition. The Story Trail covers ground: new text, more text, a wider world every session, so knowledge and vocabulary come in with the miles.
- The short pattern runs at Willow, Hazel and Yew Entry: three chapters a week across four sessions.
- The two-week unit runs from Yew upwards.
We’ve gone deepest where it matters most first, the fluency years. The approach grows outward from there, with more on the way.
Support
Support the children who need it.
Some children need more than the whole-class teaching can give them. Fluent Foundations is an intervention: 10 minutes a day, five days a week, for a group of five children whose reading is not yet fluent.
Fluent Foundations packs are coming soon.
Prove
Prove it, and watch the wheel turn.
A few weeks on, you assess Alfie again. Same quick check, a couple of minutes with a book. Only this time you can see it: the words per minute up, the stumbles fewer, and the thing that doesn’t show on a graph, a child reading with a bit of expression where there was none.
Words correct per minute, one child, three quick checks. The average gain across our schools this term: 13 WCPM.
This is the step almost everyone skips, and it’s the one that makes everything else work. Without it you’re hoping the teaching landed. With it you know. Assessment isn’t there to sit in a spreadsheet. It’s there to tell you what to do next. So you go again. A new poem, another week, another quick check. That’s how Alfie stops being a child who can read, and becomes a child who does.
Built on the science of reading
This tool helps you measure and track reading fluency, the critical bridge between decoding and comprehension. Developed by practising teachers and reading specialists, it follows evidence-based assessment protocols including timed readings, accuracy tracking and error analysis.
The dyslexia-friendly interface helps every child show their true reading ability, while detailed analytics help you find specific fluency barriers and target teaching where it matters most.
Secure and private
Designed around DfE data protection standards. Your data stays yours.
Curriculum-flexible
Works with any English curriculum
Evidence-based
Built on the science of reading
Built by British teachers. Supporting fluent, confident readers in primary schools.
Already using Little Wandle? Reading Fluency carries on where phonics fluency stops: through every stage to Cedar, with prosody, books, poetry and training.
Reading fluency assessment, answered.
The questions schools ask most, straight answers.
How do you assess reading fluency?
Give a child an unpractised passage at their stage, time one minute, count the rate and the accuracy, judge what you hear, and record both numbers together. A stage is achieved when a child hits its band minimum with 95 per cent accuracy in the same read. ReadingFluency.co.uk does the timing and the scoring for you.
What is a reading fluency check?
A reading fluency check is a one-minute listen. A child reads an unpractised passage at their stage aloud, you count the words read correctly in sixty seconds, and you pair that rate with accuracy and a quick listen for expression. Two to three minutes per child, and it tells you whether a child is reading accurately, automatically and with meaning at their stage.
How long does a reading fluency assessment take?
Each reading fluency assessment takes approximately two minutes per child. The child reads an unpractised passage at their stage aloud for one minute while the teacher marks errors. The tool automatically calculates words correct per minute (WCPM) and tracks accuracy, removing the need for manual calculation. Most teachers assess an entire class within a single lesson.
What does ReadingFluency.co.uk measure?
ReadingFluency.co.uk measures oral reading fluency using words correct per minute (WCPM): the standard measure of reading fluency. It captures reading accuracy and automaticity, and provides space to note prosody (expression and phrasing). WCPM correlates strongly with reading comprehension, making it one of the most efficient screening tools available for UK primary schools.
How much does ReadingFluency.co.uk cost?
Individual teachers can use ReadingFluency.co.uk for £4.99 per month or £45 per year, with a free 30-day trial. School plans start at £99 per year for schools with up to 100 pupils, £149 per year for 101-250 pupils and £199 per year for 250+ pupils. All plans include unlimited assessments, automatic WCPM calculation, progress tracking and data export. Organisation and multi-academy trust pricing is available on request.
Is ReadingFluency.co.uk aligned with the DfE Reading Framework?
Yes. ReadingFluency.co.uk supports the approach set out in the DfE Reading Framework and the 2026 Every Child Achieving and Thriving white paper, which announced a new statutory reading fluency test in Year 8. The National Curriculum for English expects children to develop fluency throughout Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, and Ofsted 2024 English subject report Telling the Story identified fluency as a gap in many schools' reading provision. Our tool helps schools screen, track and address fluency systematically from Year 1 onwards: exactly the approach the DfE, Ofsted and the National Curriculum recommend.
Do I need to calculate words correct per minute manually?
No. ReadingFluency.co.uk calculates WCPM automatically. The teacher simply taps or clicks each error as the child reads. The tool handles the timing, error count and score calculation, then stores results for progress tracking over time. Results export to Excel or PDF for reporting and pupil premium reviews.
What are the Reading Fluency stages?
Nine stages, Birch to Cedar. The assessment places each child on the stage where their reading needs building right now. A stage is achieved at its band minimum with 95 per cent accuracy in the same read, and children read text at the stage they achieved.
Ready to find the children who need you most?
Start finding the children who can decode but cannot yet read with fluency. Your first assessment takes two to three minutes.
Run your first assessment freeNo card required. Quick to set up. Cancel anytime.