Pupils at state schools in England will face new reading tests in an attempt to tackle under-achievement by white working-class children.
The government’s forthcoming white paper on schools is to include a new test of reading ability for pupils in year 8, when they are aged 12 or 13, in an effort to encourage secondary schools to improve their teaching.
The last Labour government scrapped national tests for year 9 pupils in 2008. If the new reading test is adopted it would mean England’s state school pupils taking a compulsory national test in seven out of their 14 school years.
A government source said that while primary schools in England concentrate on reading, secondary schools are less enthusiastic and often fail to improve pupils who are struggling. White British children eligible for free school meals often exhibit poor levels of reading skill throughout secondary school, harming their chances of good GCSE results.
The Department for Education (DfE) declined to comment on the proposal, first reported in Schools Week, but a spokesperson said: “This government is determined to drive up standards for young people. Reading holds the key to the rest of the curriculum, with pupils who struggle to read so often struggling across the board – particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
“Our forthcoming white paper will set out an ambitious vision to make sure every young person, wherever they grow up, has the opportunity to succeed.”
If approved, the new tests would start in 2028-29, with results published at a national level but not by individual schools. The report said a school’s test performance would not trigger intervention by the DfE’s improvement teams or an early Ofsted inspection.
The proposal drew a measured response from headteachers, with Pepe Di’Iasio, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, arguing that schools already assess pupils in the affected age groups.
Di’Iasio said: “It is important that this does not end up becoming another accountability measure, either through the publication of results or as part of Ofsted inspections.
“Even if there are assurances from this government, school leaders may well be uneasy about what future governments might do with these tests once they’re established. They’ve been bitten too many times.”
Daniel Kebede, the general secretary of the National Education Union, said that teachers “categorically do not need another national test” to identify students needing support.
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Kebede said: “It is beyond belief that this government’s response to students disengaging in secondary isn’t to consider the impacts on curriculum caused by the tests that already exist in primary but rather is to suggest an additional test in year 8.
“Any caveats suggesting the results will only be published nationally are effectively meaningless.
“There’s nothing to stop future governments publishing them school-by-school, allowing Ofsted to use them or encouraging leaders to focus on them, all of which would lead to the same consequences we see wherever national test data exists – punitive labelling of schools, narrowing curriculum and increased stress and workload for staff and students.”
Ministers are said to be worried about pupils “disengaging” during their first years at secondary school, with those who finish primary school with low reading ability unable to catch up by the time GCSEs are taken five years later.
