If students are starting secondary school with a reading age of 6 years, can we please start focusing on the solutions?

Updated on 12/11/2025

I read with interest the article by Sian Griffiths in the Sunday Times, entitled ‘Pupils starting secondary with a reading age of six’. It’s an incredibly well-written piece, but I’m so tired of the doom and gloom.

Every time I open a newspaper, I’m given a repeated rhetoric of how horrendous the situation is, but never offered a solution. Yes, a percentage of students are entering secondary school, aged 11, with a reading age as low as 6, but what’s the solution?

If this is our reality, how do we get out of it?

Solution 1: Focus on Mechanics Before "Pleasure"

"Reading for Pleasure" is utopia. But, if you’re struggling with the mechanics of reading, you’ll never develop a love of reading. A love of reading comes from automaticity and fluency. For students who still read in a robotic, stilted manner, it’s a chore, not a pleasure. If a student isn’t finding pleasure from reading, time needs to be spent on the mechanics first.

Solution 2: Speed is the Key

For secondary-aged students, the key is speed. We need to get them reading and comprehending in as short a period as possible because the curriculum doesn’t wait. The students in question know they’re behind and don’t want to be falling behind any longer.

The whole point of an intervention should be that they ‘get off the programme.’ Lexonic Advance is a programme delivered once per week for 6 weeks, with average reading age gains of 27 months, which means students develop reading automaticity and comprehension at speed.

Solution 3: Teenagers Do Not Want to be Patronised

Secondary-aged students, rightly so, want to feel like teenagers. If they’re presented with material they associate with primary school, they feel patronised. This leads to frustration and refusal behaviours. Reading interventions for them must be delivered in an age-appropriate manner, with challenging academic vocabulary from the off.

Solution 4: Challenge Without Threat

Challenge and pace shouldn’t be underestimated. Build in structured competition and you’re onto a winner. Secondary-aged students need to feel challenged, so pace of activity and delivery is crucial in closing these essential gaps.

Solution 5: Teachers Need to Feel Confident

Teachers and facilitators need to feel comfortable teaching reading. Many secondary teachers are never taught how to explicitly do this. When teachers go through Lexonic training, it’s as much of a revelation for them as it is for the students. Teachers need to feel skilled and confident to allow students to develop skill and confidence.

Solution 6: A Whole-School Approach

Most schools have a whole-school behaviour policy—a non-negotiable set of rules. Let’s apply this same approach to the teaching of vocabulary and reading. If everyone is taught the same methodology, it doesn’t matter where the student goes; they are confident the expectations will be the same.

We can stop the constant demoralising rhetoric of the reading ‘crisis’ if we’re solution-focused.

Be the Solution

The problem has been identified, debated, and reported on. We are focused on the solution.

Lexonic provides the rapid, age-appropriate, and staff-empowering solutions that secondary schools need to close the reading gap for good. Our interventions are designed to be the answer to the "doom and gloom" headlines.

Schedule a demo and let's talk about the solution.