Reluctant Readers: Why teachers are concerned about the rise of struggling and reluctant readers and what you 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?

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Foreword Ann Mroz, Former Editor, Tes The YouGov survey findings Why reading reluctance is a growing problem and what teachers can do to help Data clues hiding in plain sight Independent consultant Vicky Merrick explores how the negative behaviour of a group of Year 9 boys was found in their reading scores And the answer is.... Reading, reading and yet more reading Whole Education’s Lisa Ling explains the impact a whole school reading strategy can have on academic performance Trying to evoke the moors when teaching on the equator Teaching reading skills to a diverse student body, many of whom aren’t native English speakers, can be difficult. Tom Horton and Sarah Oakley explain how their school in Brunei rose to the challenge Teaching teachers about reading to learn There are six key issues secondary schools need to address if they want an effective reading strategy that is understood by the whole school, explains Beth Morrish, Director of Literacy at Meridian Trust

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, an 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

Why the best data comes with a dash of SAS What exactly is the New Group Reading Test and how can it help teachers support their students? GL Assessment’s unpacks this popular reading assessment Reading at the Tudor Grange Academy Trust When Tudor Grange Academy Trust expanded its reading tests to every year group from Year 2 to Year 10, it identified hidden disparities between pupils’ reading and comprehension skills, resulting in much earlier targeted interventions.

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Find out more about the New Group Reading Test

Developing strong reading skills is essential for accessing the whole curriculum. With reading being a complex skill to master and measure, find out how NGRT can help.

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