CHILDREN READING FOR PLEASURE

That this House recognises the importance of reading for pleasure as the most powerful agent in improving a child’s educational attainment and life chances; notes that children who read for pleasure daily or nearly every day are a year ahead in reading performance versus those who never do; further notes that 10 to 16 year olds make four times as much progress in vocabulary, maths and spelling if they read for pleasure than if their parents have a degree; and calls on the Education Secretary to change the curriculum to uncouple reading for pleasure from lessons and to enable teachers to include non-tested story time as an intrinsic part of every school day.