Between the Lines

As I sift through my memories from when I first began to think of myself as ‘a reader’, my reflections cluster around the early years of middle school.

Two experiences come to mind.

First, Miss Layne’s English lessons, where she regularly read aloud to us. I vividly remember this being a pleasurable experience. Then, even more notably, the regular time our school set aside for independent reading. Each Wednesday, class times were shortened to allow for a 30-minute reading block during which we could read anything we wanted.

Some of my classmates chose magazines. As the child, nephew and little brother of teachers, magazines were not an option for me. I was sent to school with ‘quality’ literature. I remember briskly making it through an entire set of books from The Great Brain Series, by John D. Fitzgerald, the first series I ever read. Not only did I enjoy them, but my friend John eagerly awaited his turn to read each one as soon as I finished.

In his book Raising Kids Who Read, Daniel Willingham asks us to consider whether students today would consider being a reader as part of their self-concept. Would they say reading is one of the things they regularly do? That reading is a part of who they are? He notes that although children may enjoy reading in the early years of school, their attitudes become more and more negative as they get older, and that by secondary school the average child is at best indifferent to reading.

The YouGov research in this report confirms how widespread that indifference has become – and how clearly teachers see it. Nine in ten know the evidence about daily reading. A third doubt the problem can be fixed. And the gap between what schools know and what happens at home has never been more stark.

This report sets out what teachers across the country are seeing and thinking. Alongside it, we’ve published a set of practical companion pieces on supporting book choice and building 15 minutes of daily reading into the school day.

As a lifelong reader it’s difficult to accept the reality of students’ indifference to reading. But let’s recommit to countering it – not least because thanks to tools like Accelerated Reader, we know it can be done. After the initial thrill of learning to read wanes, we need our new readers to keep reading year after year. Let’s work to help them find books and reading materials that interest them, that intrigue them, that keep them guessing, that make them look forward to finding another great read once they’ve reached that last page.

Dr Gene Kerns, Chief Academic Officer, Renaissance

The first question we asked was simple: what challenges do teachers think children are currently facing with reading?† The answer was near-unanimous. Virtually all teachers identified at least one challenge. The top three tell a clear story:

• Too much time on screens or digital devices – cited by 86% of all teachers
• Insufficient support with reading at home – 82%
• Concentration or attention problems when reading – 74%

Behind these sit a cluster of related difficulties: lack of enjoyment or motivation (64%), limited access to books at home (56%), limited vocabulary (52%) and difficulty understanding what they read (43%). Only around one in four (27%) point to insufficient support or resources within schools themselves.

From the options given, teachers overwhelmingly locate the root of the reading problem in the home environment and in children’s digital habits, not in their own provision. And the pattern sharpens when you look at deprivation.

Teachers in the most deprived schools are roughly twice as likely as those in the least deprived to cite limited access to books at home (73% vs 36%), limited vocabulary (65% vs 43%) and poor phonics or basic reading skills (53% vs 34%)‡. Screen time remains the top concern everywhere, but the gap between affluent and deprived settings is widest on the foundational building blocks of literacy.

There is also a notable primary/secondary split. Secondary teachers are markedly more likely to identify lack of enjoyment or motivation (71% vs 60% in primary), consistent with the well-documented disengagement from reading during adolescence. Primary teachers, meanwhile, are more alert to limited vocabulary (56% vs 46%) and insufficient home support (86% vs 76%) – which perhaps reflects their closer involvement in foundational literacy.

We asked three confidence questions, forming a cascade from the specific to the general. The pattern they reveal is important.

On whether their school has the expertise to support struggling readers, 82% of teachers are confident – a solid majority, with primary teachers more assured (87%) than secondary (74%). On whether their school has the resources to support pupils who are struggling, confidence drops to 68%. And on whether the reading challenges children face can actually be addressed, it falls further to 64%.

Stated differently: a third of all teachers (33%) aren’t confident that the reading challenges children face are solvable. They recognise the problem. They believe they have the knowledge to tackle it. But they are less sure they have the tools – and even less sure the wider difficulties can be overcome.

The primary–secondary divide is again the dominant fault line. Secondary teachers are 13 percentage points less confident about expertise in their school (74% vs 87%) and 8points less confident that challenges can be addressed (59% vs 66%). This aligns with a structural reality: reading support is less embedded in the secondary curriculum, and many secondary teachers have not been trained as reading specialists. The government’s new statutory Year 8 reading test will sharpen the accountability pressure, but for now, secondary schools appear to feel less equipped to respond.

Deprivation widens the gap further. Teachers in the most deprived schools are 15 percentage points less confident about resources than those in the least deprived (65% vs 81%)‡. Independent school teachers are more confident that challenges can be addressed (79%) compared with the state sector average (63%). The schools with the greatest need feel the least equipped to meet it.

Screen time is perceived as the biggest problem (88%) stopping students reading regularly at home, followed by parents not prioritising reading time (85%) and lack of parental support (76%). Seven in ten teachers (70%) also cite children lacking motivation to read at home.

Teachers in the most deprived schools are roughly twice as likely as those in the least deprived to cite perceived lack of access to books at home (66% vs 33%) and lack of a suitable quiet space to read (48% vs 24%)‡. Lack of parental support runs at 86% in high-deprivation schools, compared with 65% in the most affluent – a 21 percentage point gap.

Half of all teachers (49%) believe parents are simply unaware of the benefits of daily reading. And around a third (32%) say it is difficult for teachers to monitor or support what happens with reading at home – a practical acknowledgement that even the most committed school can only do so much.

In the qualitative research several teachers point to parents who cannot read themselves, or who cannot read in English because it is not their first language. Others describe a generational gap: parents who do not read, and whose children therefore have no reading role model at home. As one teacher put it: ‘Parents don’t read, so children don’t have a role model at home.’

The National Year of Reading has explicitly promoted a broad definition of what counts as reading – from picture books to audiobooks, fan fiction to the football pages. But do teachers agree?

Broadly, yes. Eight in ten teachers (81%) agree that alternative formats – audiobooks, graphic novels, comics, reading on screens – should count as valid forms of reading. Three-quarters (76%) feel confident encouraging parents to use them with their children. Primary teachers are more likely to agree they are valid forms of reading (85% vs 75% in secondary) and more confident recommending them to parents (83% vs 66%).

But when asked whether parents consider these formats valid reading, opinion among teachers is split: 42% agree, 38% disagree, and a notable 20% say they simply don’t know.

This matters because the National Literacy Trust’s February 2026 report on teenage reading found that many boys – particularly teenage boys – are already reading through games, subtitles, articles, Wikipedia and online platforms, even when they do not enjoy or identify with printed books. Their reading is broader and more fragmented than traditional definitions capture.

Teachers in the most deprived schools are notably more pragmatic: 84% accept alternative formats as valid, compared with 75% in the least deprived‡.