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The wrong kind reading test at the wrong time, the true sign of cultural decline, and cognitive dissonance over AI's costs and benefits

The wrong kind reading test at the wrong time, the true sign of cultural decline, and cognitive dissonance over AI's costs and benefits

3 Oct 2025, 5:00

Testing times

It is welcome news that the government has been moved to set up a national testing programme for reading at secondary school – but Year 8 is far too late. (Year 8s to sit mandatory reading test under white paper plans, 25 September)

If the test is intended to be diagnostic, then it should be held at the beginning of Year 7. If, on the other hand, it is an accountability measure for schools to ensure that they have addressed reading problems effectively, then late in Year 9 is more appropriate. It should include decoding and fluency measures to be truly useful.

We have been campaigning for years for greater attention to the plight of struggling readers in secondary schools. About one in ten of them needs intensive intervention in order to catch up.

The sooner the DfE and secondary schools move from merely testing reading to teaching it well, the sooner we will see the end of a problem that costs our economy tens of billions of pounds every year, massively increases social costs, and inflicts a lifetime of misery on those who have endured 11 years of schooling and leave with reduced life chances. 

James and Dianne Murphy,
Co-Founders, Thinking Reading

Get with the programme

Labour’s proposed reading test could’ve made us world-leading. Instead, it risks simply telling us what we already know.

The solution to the high number of children struggling to access the curriculum because of poor reading skills is not another one-off test two years after key stage 2 SATs. The technology exists for a much bolder approach to early identification and intervention.

Screening using AI-enhanced eye-tracking software can reveal, not just whether a child can read, but how they process text, where fluency breaks down and if they have conditions such as dyslexia. 

We should treat reading difficulties as a public health issue. Just as the NHS provides universal screening for vision or hearing, a national AI-infused screening programme for reading, including dyslexia, should be an entitlement.

Such a model would unite parents and teachers in delivering the right support for those who struggle to read at the start of their secondary education.

Another old-fashioned test will not deliver the step change we need. We must embrace emerging technology to turbo-charge educational outcomes and social justice. 

Dr James Shea,
Principal lecturer in teacher education, University of Bedfordshire

Compliance culture

What a load of rubbish! Uniform is not a keystone of cultural improvement. It’s another stupid little rule on top of a load of other stupid little rules that treat every compliance forced from a child as victory. (Labour must not let parental expectations lower standards, 27 September)

Trainers and piercings do not prevent a child from learning; what prevents a child from learning is being punished because their shoes aren’t exactly right, and schools and teachers wasting scarce resources on policing appearance.

If we’re looking for the causes of cultural decline, let’s talk about a school system that values quantitative results over qualitative, and is tunnel-visioned enough to call parents vexatious for wanting more from their children’s education than ticks in boxes.

Miranda Buchanan,
Home-educating parent of a five-year-old, Cheltenham

Shock and awe

If those in power truly believe parents shouldn’t be expected to pay for devices, then perhaps it’s time to stop sending the sector contradictory messages. (Schools demanding parents fund laptops leave Ofsted chief ‘really shocked’, 26 September) 

The government is promoting AI as a solution to many of the challenges in education, not least workload. Homework and marking are consistently the most labour-intensive parts of the job, so pupils’ work will need to be digitised for AI to have a real impact. 

The choice is clear: step up and fund the digital future of education – or tone down the rhetoric.

Daniel Williams,
Physics teacher and associate assistant headteacher, Birmingham 

To respond to anything you’ve read in Schools Week this week, comment anywhere on our website or email letterstotheeditor@schoolsweek.co.uk

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