This UK-wide study by Renaissance shows a 4.4% year-on-year decrease in the number of books being read by children from Year 1 to Year 11.
The downturn in book reading echoes similar findings in declining reading attainment shown in longitudinal research on post-pandemic learning recovery from Renaissance and the Educational Policy Institute (EPI). Additional research from Renaissance and GL Assessment shows teachers believe a third (33%) of their pupils are weak readers and that children are struggling to keep up with the curriculum due to their reading ability. A quarter (26%) of pupils are taken out of class for reading support with, on average, half a day of curriculum time per week given to helping students read.
Reading decline is particularly acute in secondary schools. The report finds that primary school pupils read harder books as they get older, but during secondary school there is a downturn, particularly from Year 9, with many secondary students reading books at a similar difficulty level to those of upper primary pupils.
Pupils read progressively more challenging books until Year 6, which then plateaus until Year 9 before a sharp drop in the difficulty of books being read by older secondary students. Pupils in primary schools also consistently showed a higher quality of comprehension when reading.
However, the research also confirms the link between more reading time in school with higher reading attainment. When considering Engaged Reading Time (ERT) and Cumulative Number of Words Read, we see further evidence of the impact of the time spent reading – the more time is allocated to reading, the greater the number of words read, with the biggest gains occurring when ERT exceeds 30 minutes per day.