New Reading Tests Planned to Boost Achievement in England’s Secondary Schools
As reported in The Guardian, England’s secondary school pupils could soon face new reading assessments at age 12 and 13, under government plans aimed at tackling low literacy rates among white working-class children.
Government sources say that while primary schools place strong emphasis on reading, secondary schools often fail to maintain that focus — leaving some pupils, particularly white British children from low-income families, struggling to catch up. Poor reading skills in these years are linked to weaker GCSE performance and limited future prospects.
The new Year 8 reading test will be included in the government’s forthcoming Schools White Paper. Officials hope it will encourage schools to track progress and offer earlier support for pupils who fall behind.
If approved, the tests would launch in 2028–29 and apply to all state secondary schools in England. Results would be published nationally, but not by individual school, and poor performance would not automatically prompt intervention from the Department for Education or an Ofsted inspection.
The plan marks a significant shift since national tests for Year 9 pupils were scrapped in 2008 by the last Labour government. If the new proposal goes ahead, pupils in England would sit a compulsory national test in seven of their 14 school years – a level of assessment not seen in over a decade.
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