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A student in school uniform reading a book in a library.

Reluctant Readers

Why reading reluctance is a growing problem within UK secondary schools and what teachers can do to help

Seven in ten secondary school teachers (71%) think there has been an increase in ‘reluctant readers’ over the past three years – and eight in ten (82%) teachers say that the popularity of social media among teenagers has had a hugely negative effect on students’ willingness to read outside school.

This has serious implications for children whose reading may seem superficially fine but who are actually ‘invisible but struggling’ readers as they try to access the curriculum and as they start to approach their GCSEs.

Our report, backed by a YouGov survey of UK secondary school teachers, asks whether the problem is getting worse, what are the causes and what steps can schools put in place to address the challenge?

Students in school uniforms reading books at a table.

Explore themes

Getting children to read sounds easy, but so much complexity is involved in implementing a proper reading strategy. It needs someone senior to lead and own it, it needs planning, it needs teacher training, it requires discussion about what will and won’t work.

Lisa Ling Words for All co-creator at Whole Education

The breakthrough came when we started to take a fresh look at all the data and information we had on our students. We challenged ourselves to avoid bias and preconceived ideas about what was happening and why. Nothing was off the table – and the impact was palpable.

Vicky Merrick Independent Consultant and Director of Merrick-Ed Limited

It’s important that teachers have some understanding of the different strands that make up reading, because until they have, they’re not going to be able to make sense of the different types of student reading profile.

Beth Morrish Director of Secondary Literacy at Meridian Trust

It’s about creating more nuanced interventions – a fluency intervention, or a vocab intervention or a comprehension intervention rather than a reading intervention.

Beth Morrish Director of Secondary Literacy at Meridian Trust

We can’t expect every teacher to develop a different intervention for every one of their students. This is about developing best practice that supports a range of students with different abilities.

Beth Morrish Director of Secondary Literacy at Meridian Trust

How the New Group Reading Test can help