The Teenage Reading Network was established in 2023. This network comprises psychology and English academics and a range of non-academics and provides capacity for working across the education community and with young people in all stages of the research process.
The infographic above very nicely summarise the state of play in teenage reading at the moment, and how research, practice and policy are coming together to address the issue.
The findings from our Vocabulary and Reading In Secondary Schools (VaRiSS) and Reading And Vocabulary (RAV) projects highlighted the extent of the variability in reading ability and engagement across secondary school children. This suggested that reading was not just a primary school issue, and effective approaches for secondary schools were needed.
Current policy initiatives that hope to address this variance include the two packages of CPD that Professor Jessie Ricketts has been involved in creating- one in collaboration with the Department for Education (find out more here), and one in collaboration with Fischer Family Trust (FFT; find out more here).
Looking to the future, we have the following initiatives targeting teenage reading:
- The new National Curriculum
- The Year 8 Reading Test as mentioned in the White Paper- “Every Child Achieving and Thriving”
- The new framework for secondary schools that will integrate non-statutory guidance on reading, writing and oracy
Event 2026
The infographic above very nicely summarises our event that took place on May 22nd 2026 in Central London. Attendees from across academia, secondary schools, charities, publishers, government and more gathered to catch up on all the exciting updates that have happened since our first meeting back in 2023.
You can find out more about our 2026 event here.
Event 2023
Teenage Reading Network Report
Summary of Teenage Reading Network
Teenage Reading Network poster
Following on from this, one of the priorities that were identified by this network is the need to include teenagers and find out from them directly why aren’t they reading and how can we get them to read more. Courtney Hooton was awarded a PhD Public Engagement Bursary from the Social Science Impact Accelerator to do just that. Click here to find out more about this project.