Latest data about young people's reading habits is a horror story
New research shows the number of children reading for pleasure is plummeting - with potentially grave implications for their happiness and wellbeing.
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Children's enjoyment of reading 'at crisis point'
By Amanda Wilkins
I have loved books for as long as I can remember.
I vividly recall being desperate to get onto the free reading scheme in primary school. I wanted to be able to read the fun and interesting books that my older sister did, with their colourful covers and exciting titles.
I would pass the hallowed library every day and stare longingly at the shelves. It took me until Year 4 to get there. Although I was very good at reading, I was not very good at reading out loud to the teacher as I was painfully shy. As a result, I was kept on the often boring and uninteresting book schemes for far longer than necessary, and my obsession with the free reading books grew.
When the day finally came, I was overwhelmed with the choice, but finally settled on ‘The Worst Witch’ by Jill Murphy. I adored it and from that day on I was hooked on books.
I became a voracious reader; I adored the opportunity to escape everyday life and lose myself in a fantasy world. I always had my head stuck in a book. I read under the bed covers at night when I was meant to be asleep, I walked home from school reading (yes, I walked into a few lampposts). I also (dreadful confession coming up) stole books.
Technically it was more of an unauthorised borrow. The reading limit in the school library was two and as a devout devourer of the written word, there was no way a mere two books would keep me going over the weekend, so I’d casually slip a couple of extras in my bag. I always put them back. I justified it as a noble theft, much like Robin Hood giving food to the poor. I would starve to death if I didn’t have enough books to read.
When I was old enough, I bought books. I would get the bus into the Swindon's town centre and spend my time and pocket money in WHSmith and Waterstones.
When I became a mother, I prioritised books. I read to my children constantly, I did the voices, I did the actions, I made reading fun. I did everything you are meant to do as a parent to foster the joy of reading in your child.
Child Number One and I would walk to Borders at the Orbital every week, (I miss Borders! A bookworm’s paradise). We would sit in the children’s section; I would read aloud to him, and we would buy a book. We built up rather an extensive collection. Books for birthdays, books for Christmas, books for Easter, books for absolutely no reason other than the joy of a new book. We went through three copies of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar’, it was so well loved.
You can therefore imagine my total and utter dismay that none of my children like to read. Out of the four there is not a reader among them. I am no mathematician but am sure that the odds dictate that at least one of them should enjoy the written word!
Despite my absolute best efforts, they all hate reading with a passion.
When I read the latest research from the National Literacy Trust, that showed that children’s enjoyment of reading in the South West is at crisis point, with only 35.7 percent of children and young people saying they enjoy reading in their free time, I was sad but not surprised. There has been a rapid decline of 12.9 percent since 2023.
The research shows that twice as many children and young people who enjoy reading in their free time have above average reading skills than children who don’t enjoy it (34.2 percent versus 15.7 percent).
For Swindon, these findings come at an important time, when children's and young people’s reading skills are cause for concern, particularly for those from disadvantaged communities.
Last year, one in four (23 percent) of 11-year-olds in the town left primary school without the reading skills they needed to learn and thrive, rising to two in five (41 percent) of those eligible for free school meals.
The research also revealed that when children and young people enjoy reading in their free time, they find it easier to relax, feel happy, learn new things, understand the views of others, learn about other cultures and be confident. Worryingly this means that across the South West, the two thirds of children and young people who don’t enjoy reading could be missing out on these benefits.
The data also shows a worrying gender gap in reading for enjoyment; with fewer than three in 10 (28.2 percent) of boys now saying they enjoy reading in their free time, compared with four in 10 (40.5 percent) of girls. The overall gender gap in children and young people’s reading enjoyment has nearly tripled in the last year (from 4.8 to 12.3 percentage points).
These findings come from a national survey of more than 76,000 children and young people aged 5 to 18 across the UK, which recorded the lowest national reading enjoyment levels since the National Literacy Trust first started surveying children about their reading 19 years ago, with a significant annual decline in every region of the country.
Just what is causing this decline and is there anything we can do to reverse it?
To investigate further I went straight to two little bibliophobe’s that I know very well, my own children.
I asked Child Number 4, who is aged 10, why she doesn’t like reading.
She said: “Reading is meant to be where you trap yourself in a world of something nice. I just find that I can get that in a better result through a game on a device.
“I just think that nowadays, it’s just very fast paced, and reading is quite slow and it’s quite boring.”
Number 3, aged 13, said: “Reading is boring and I’ve better things to do. Nothing would encourage me to read more. Unless I got money for it.” (Number 4 may not be a reader, but he sure as heck is a savvy businessman, always looking to make a profit!)
He continued as my heart broke into a thousand pieces: “Kids don’t want to read now because we all have better things to do. Things that give you more dopamine and excitement, things that are more entertaining.”
Their answers didn’t come as a huge surprise to me. My children are all neurodiverse and spend their free time on tablets and pcs, gaming.
What I did find surprising was when my sister told me that my 15-year-old nephew, Isaac, no longer reads. From a very young age he was an avid reader. Since he started secondary school, however, he no longer reads for pleasure.
I asked him about this.
Isaac said: “I used to enjoy reading to relax at the end of the day. I’d get ready for bed and then I could just sit down and read a book.
“I don’t read now as a lot of the time I’m too tired or I’d rather go on my phone. I know it’s good to read but I generally tend to lean towards my phone when I’m bored. You can just open TikTok and with a book you have to get properly ready for it.
“None of my friends read, the only people that read are the higher-achieving students.
“A lot of the time when you’re scrolling on Instagram or Tik Tok it's very quick videos and when you’re watching that, your attention span gets a lot shorter and reading a book is something you have to pay quite a lot of attention to. When you’re scrolling all the time, you’re used to that so when you pick up a book and try and read it, it’s a lot more difficult.
“I got a book recently because we were reading it at school, I really liked the book, it’s just that I can’t get into it.”
Can a boring old black-and-white book really compete against the all singing, all-dancing, technicoloured cyber world that our children now seem to spend the majority of their time in? Can we genuinely expect children to use the brain power required to conjure up a new world in their imagination from a book, when a computer can do it for them in an instant?
The National Literacy Trust say that the reasons behind the current crisis in children’s reading enjoyment are complex:
“They include what children do at home and in school, how they spend their free time and other factors, such as the ongoing cost-of-living crisis.
“We know that there are so many other demands competing for children’s time and attention, including homework, sports and socialising. Indeed, the only uplift we’ve seen in children’s reading enjoyment in recent years was in lockdown, when children were spending more time than normal at home.
“A packed curriculum, high academic expectations and the perception of a challenging future may all contribute to children having less time for reading for enjoyment and less mental space to do it. This may also be exacerbated for children with limited access to high-quality reading materials.”
I think this must be the case for my nephew. He is a high-achieving student with a jam-packed extracurricular calendar that includes Rugby three times a week and a veritable mountain of homework daily. It can hardly be a coincidence that he read more in primary school when he had more free time on his hands.
The National Literacy Trust has been working in communities in Swindon for almost seven years, supporting local families and inspiring children and young people to unlock the lifelong benefits that come from reading for pleasure. It works across nurseries, schools, libraries and community spaces to deliver events, gift books and author visits with the likes of Steve Antony and Tom Percival, both from the region.
Most recently, local schools including Seven Fields Primary School, Mountford Manor Primary School, Ruskin Junior School and Goddard Park Community Primary School have been involved in World of Stories and the Young Readers Programme where hundreds of children are experiencing the benefits of having books in school libraries and at home (for some, the first they’ve ever owned).
This work is made possible by bringing together partners, schools and businesses to tackle local literacy issues. It has never been more important, and the charity now calls on the Government to make reading for pleasure a regional and national priority.
Anish Harrison, Manager of the National Literacy Trust in Swindon, said: “It is vital that all children and young people have the opportunity to develop the literacy skills they need to get the most out of life. Every community faces different challenges, and we have made a long-term commitment to working closely with schools, families and local organisations in Swindon to reach children who need support the most.
“We know that when children enjoy reading, they read more often, benefiting their reading skills, wellbeing, confidence and educational outcomes. The National Literacy Trust hopes to empower 1.5 million more children and young people across the country to read for pleasure and change the story of reading enjoyment for future generations.”
The National Literacy Trust is committing, over the next three years, to directly supporting and empowering those 1.5 million more children and young people in the communities where it works, including throughout Swindon, to read for pleasure and develop greater confidence in their reading skills.
The National Literacy Trust has also launched the #GrowAGenerationOfReaders social media campaign – backed by authors, charities, publishers and others – flipping the concept of content warnings on its head to instead extol the benefits of reading, as identified by children and young people through its research.
Will this be enough though or is it too little too late? Have we lost our young people to the digital world forever? Are books to become a relic of the past now children have the option to obtain their information in a much quicker, bitesize way? Unfortunately I have a sinking suspicion that this may very well be the case.
Change to waste and recycling collections from Christmas as council bids to avoid repetition of problems
Swindon Borough Council has announced changes to waste and recycling collection days which it says are aimed at maintaining an efficient and reliable service.
Last year’s collections, in which a Christmas backlog combined with problems implementing a new collections system, sparked widespread public anger.
From Christmas Day, all households will see their collection days move by two working days, due to a change in the way the council operates its services.
As a result of the change, the council says it will be able to avoid a 40,000 backlog of collections accruing from households whose current collection day falls on either Christmas Day or Boxing Day. By moving collection days permanently, council crews will not have to catch up on accrued collections caused by the Christmas Bank Holidays at any point in 2025.
It will also help crews focus on the task of collecting the larger volumes of waste and recycling generated over the Christmas period. Last year, crews had to collect a backlog on top of their daily rounds.
The new system was announced by Cllr Chris Watts, Swindon Borough Council’s Cabinet Member for Highways and the Environment in a briefing at the waste and recycling service’s Waterside headquarters.
"We recognise,” he said, “particularly from last year with the problems that we had, along with the systemic issues we were trying to wrestle with in the new system, that there are two issues.
"One, over Christmas, was a backlog of approximately 40,000 households. Christmas Day and Boxing Day are the only two days the service doesn't run, and if you take into consideration that on the 27th another 20,000 households will present their waste and recycling you've got 60 percent of the households in Swindon presenting at the same time when the service restarts on the 27th. It's quite a daunting task to try to catch up, as well as an quite an expensive task in resourcing that catch-up.
"The other issue is the surge that we normally see over Christmas as well, which usually causes us a few issues in terms of the capacity of the vehicles.
"So this year we have decided to try and minimise the disruption by moving the days on which your collection takes place two days along, and therefore negating the 40,000 backlog and allowing us to concentrate on the surge - for which we have extra vehicles in line.”
Following the routine pause of services on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, collections will resume on Friday, 27 December, beginning with those that otherwise would have occurred on Christmas Day. Those residents who are due collections on Boxing Day (26 December) will see their waste collected on Monday, 30 December.
This means that from Wednesday, 25 December, all households will need to put out their waste and recycling out for collection two working days further on from the day they currently do.
For residents whose waste and recycling collections currently take place on different days, these will both move by two working days.
Importantly, this is a permanent change to collection days that will remain in place throughout the whole of 2025.
During December, all affected households with a wheelie bin across the borough will receive a bin hanger which provides information on the upcoming changes. In addition, postcards will be sent to households who receive blue bag or assisted collections.
Residents can already see the dates of their future waste and recycling collections on the Council’s website, by entering their postcode into the online search. This look-up tool will be automatically updated to reflect the upcoming changes. The website also has information to help answer any residents’ queries on the changes.
Residents should put black wheelie bins, food waste caddies, black and/or orange boxes and blue recycling bags out for collections from 6am onwards on their new collection day.
The council will deploy four additional recycling vehicles over the busy Christmas period until the end of January, providing extra capacity to support the fleet of permanent recycling lorries. An extra three new lorries were added to the fleet in August to increase capacity.
Cllr Watts said: “Making this permanent change to waste and recycling collection days will ultimately help our crews to provide an efficient and reliable service to residents.
“It allows a reset, meaning our crews avoid having to catch-up with 40,000 household collections that accrue from Christmas Day and Boxing Day being national bank holidays.
“In December, we’ll be delivering information to every Swindon home on the changes and residents can also check their new waste and recycling collection day on our website.
“We learnt a lot from the challenges last year and will be using four additional recycling vehicles over the busy Christmas period to provide extra capacity. That’s on top of the three brand-new recycling lorries added to the fleet back in August.
“Christmas is always a busy time of year for our hard-working crews, so I’d ask residents to bear with us if any issues do occur.”
The Ink News Briefing
Link Centre's free open day activities - Swindon’s Link Leisure Centre is offering a range of free activities to local people tomorrow - Saturday 23 November. The initiative aims to encourage Swindon people to try some of the new and varied activities available to them at their local leisure centre. The activities are all completely free of charge and many are suitable for the whole family. Full story here
Swindon town centre Christmas lights switch-on postponed following weather warning - The switch-on of Swindon's town centre Christmas lights has been postponed from tomorrow - 23 November - until Saturday 30 November. Full story here
Swindon author's new book features neurodiverse characters - The Adventures of Lady Mouse and Wolfy is a new book by Swindon-based author Kayleigh Smith. Full story here
Closure orders for Swindon shops selling illegal vapes - Swindon Police have secured closure orders for stores in Manchester Road following the execution of a series of successful warrants. Officers from Swindon Central South NPT, with support from other police colleagues, Trading Standards, HMRC and Immigration Enforcement, executed four warrants simultaneously to disrupt the sale of illegal cigarettes and vapes. Full story here
The Swindon Link Magazine Archive
Over on The Ink’s sister publication Swindon Link’s website you will find an impressive archive of the past 45 years of Swindon Link magazines, giving you a huge glimpse into the town’s recent past from the beginnings of West Swindon to now. You can find the archive here.
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