Research School Network: Motivating Teenagers to Read Our Evidence Lead in Education, Helen Bowman, guides us through the eternal efforts to get students to read at secondary level
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Motivating Teenagers to Read
Our Evidence Lead in Education, Helen Bowman, guides us through the eternal efforts to get students to read at secondary level
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by Billesley Research School
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Many things have changed in the twenty years that I have been teaching English at secondary level, but one thing that hasn’t is the plea from parents who ask, ‘how do I get my teenager to read?’. The story is always the same; the parent knows how important it is for their child to read and is desperate to support. ‘I don’t understand,’ they say. ‘My child loved reading so much in primary. What changed?’
These parents are absolutely right to encourage their child to access the transformative powers of reading; researchers at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies found that reading for pleasure between the ages of 10 and 16 was more important for children’s cognitive development than their parents’ level of education (Sullivan and Brown, 2015). It’s all the more frustrating, then, to see children’s reading so often fall away as they enter adolescence. Add the addictive short-form media of YouTube Shorts and TikTok and it’s easy to see why books struggle to compete. The National Literacy Trust has tracked children’s reading for pleasure since 2005 and their 2025 report Children and young people’s reading was sobering. Only 1 in 3 children aged 8 – 18 said that they enjoyed reading in their free time, and only 1 in 5 said that they read something daily in their free time, both the lowest levels recorded to date.
Earlier this year, Scottish researchers investigated this crisis directly and published their findings in a report to which I find myself returning repeatedly, ‘Motivating Book Reading During Adolescence’ (Webber et al., 2025). Around the same time, I also returned to Katherine Rundell’s excellent 2019 essay, Why You Should Read Children’s Books, Even Though You Are So Old and Wise. They make superb companions: Rundell’s essay is a galvanising reminder of the wonder of children’s books which certainly brought me, and I’m sure many others, into the profession, and our moral responsibility to ensure that we offer these wonders to our students. Meanwhile, Webber et al have brought the voices of teenagers themselves back into the conversation, interviewing teens aged 13 – 15 to find the clear common factors which would motivate those young people to choose reading:
1. Young people want access to quality books, aligned with their interests.
2. They need the knowledge and skills to choose the right books.
3. They must have autonomy over their choices.
4. They will respond to reading promotions which resonate with them and their ways of communicating.
5. They value opportunities for social reading which are meaningful and enriching.
6. They need quality space and time to foster these reading practices.
Of course, there is a further vital component to consider when attempting to apply these findings to our schools. Students will only choose to read, and return to reading over and over again, if they have access to appropriate books which align both with their interests and with their literacy skills. We know that fluent reading supports comprehension, particularly as students access increasingly complex texts in secondary settings. Although the EEF Guidance Report ‘Improving Literacy in Key Stage 2’ is aimed at the primary phase, it is well worth revisiting the fluency rubric therein and considering its use as a tool in secondary settings, to ensure that pupils are able to read with that skilful combination of accuracy, automaticity and prosody which makes a fluent, confident reader.
Improving Literacy in Key Stage 2 (EEF, 2021)
As English teachers have always known, so much of this comes back to the importance of the school library, and even more crucially, the librarians. According to the Great School Libraries campaign, the proportion of secondary schools with a designated on-site library in 2023 had dropped to 86%, from 96% in 2019. Where library spaces survive, staffed hours are also dropping as leaders have to make difficult choices about where to direct limited resources. Prominent campaigns from Great School Libraries, BookTrust and the National Literacy Trust have seen great authors lobbying hard for increased funding, but until this is enacted we must think creatively. Schools might, for example, consider supporting students to register for the local public library, enabling them to access a wealth of ebooks, newspapers, magazines and audiobooks via electronic apps.
There are no perfect solutions, but guided by the growing body of research we can begin to ask ourselves the right questions. What assessments and interventions do we have in place to ensure that our students can read fluently? How do we equip students with the knowledge and skills to choose the right books, and how do we give them autonomy over these choices? How do we carve out quality space and time for students to read, and share that reading with others? Getting this right could give our students the key to an adulthood with greater empathy, improved relationships and lifelong wellbeing (BOP Consulting, 2015). As Katherine Rundell observes, ‘if hope is a thing with feathers, then libraries are wings.’
Rundell, K. (2019) Why you should read children’s books, even though you are so old and wise. London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Sullivan, A; Brown, M; (2015) Reading for pleasure and progress in vocabulary and mathematics. British Educational Research Journal, 41 (6) pp. 971 – 991. https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10021113/
Webber, C, Wilkinson, K, Duncan, L & McGeown, S 2025, ‘Motivating book reading during adolescence: Qualitative insights from adolescents’, Educational Research, vol. 67, no. 1, pp. 79 – 97. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131881.2024.2445618
Helen Bowman
The Arthur Terry Learning Partnership – Trust Lead, English & Literacy
I am passionately committed to the development of literacy skills from the early years to young adulthood as one of the greatest social justice issues of our time; it was this sense of deep moral purpose which first motivated me to train to teach and nearly twenty years in education have only strengthened this resolve. Excellent state schooling for all remains the greatest lever of social equity available to us.
My professional background, and my first love, is the teaching of secondary English. I have now developed a breadth of expertise and knowledge of English and literacy curriculum and practice from early phonics to A Level across both mainstream and alternative provision.
I was privileged to begin my career in London at the height of the London Challenge and witnessing the powerful impact of collaborative networks between schools has left a lasting impression on me. I have generally chosen throughout my career to work in schools serving areas of disadvantage and I now work at Trust level to support teachers and leaders to form connections via professional networks. In addition to my specialism in English and literacy, I have particular interests in curriculum design and the judicious use of technology in the classroom.
