Reading comprehension is the ability to read a text and understand its meaning.

The National Curriculum divides reading up into two closely linked skills: word reading and comprehension. Word reading is the name given to recognising the words on the page or screen. In English primary schools, phonics is often used to help children with this part of reading. But this is only half of the story – to make sense of what they’re reading, a child needs to be able to understand the words. This is called comprehension.

Comprehension is a key strand of the National Curriculum and is assessed in the Key Stage 1 SATs and Key Stage 2 SATs.