Inspiring KS3 and KS4 students to read for pleasure
We’re delighted that, as part of the 2026 National Year of Reading, the Government has allocated £5 million to all state secondary schools to buy books for their students. This funding can only be spent on books for students to read for pleasure, providing schools with a wonderful opportunity to broaden and refresh the stocks available in their libraries and classrooms.
The latest National Literacy Trust survey has revealed that only 36% of children enjoy reading for pleasure, and only 20% read something every day. With the majority of children not instinctively reading for pleasure, it follows that for a large number, the only whole texts they encounter are those they study at school.
Exploring beyond white male worlds
However, our research shows that only 5% of GCSE students study a book for a female writer and even fewer study a book by a writer of colour. At Key Stage 3, 77% of schools teach none or only one whole text by a female author over the three years and 82% of the novels taught feature a male protagonist.
The evidence shows that young people are most likely to only encounter imaginary worlds written by and featuring white men in their English classrooms. And if this is – as it is for so many children – the only time and place where they are entering into other worlds, they are therefore being starved of the opportunity to engage with people, places and perspectives that might differ from their own.
Reading for pleasure opens the mind
From time immemorial, stories have formed the way in which we learn and teach each other about the world we live in, and how to live within it. Without access to a wide variety of stories from a breadth of perspectives, children are being denied this vital opportunity to grow beyond the boundaries of their own lived experience and have their prejudices, biases and preconceptions about those different to them challenged. If their English lessons aren’t providing this, then the books on offer elsewhere in school should.
This is why End Sexism in Schools is calling for secondary schools to use their allocated book budget wisely in filling the gaps the curriculum has left behind by providing students with access to novels and non-fiction by and about women and other minoritised groups.
Please join us in this call by sharing this post with your children’s school, any other local schools, and with any teachers you know. We’d also love to hear your suggestions in the comments below.
Let’s ensure that the books our children have access to offer them a perspective that’s as diverse as the world we live in.
Hello, I fully support your campaign! As someone who majored in Australian Literature at the University of Sydney and loved my studies, some suggestions of favourite books by Australian women that should be added to school resources:
* ‘My Brilliant Career’ – Miles Franklin (1901)
* ‘The Children’s Bach’ – Helen Garner (1984)
* ‘Lilian’s Story’ – Kate Grenville (1984)
* ‘The Transit of Venus’ – Shirley Hazzard (1980)
* ‘Bobbin Up’ – Dorothy Hewett (1959)
* ‘Wild Card’ – Dorothy Hewett (1990)
* ‘The Well’ – Elizabeth Jolley (1986)
* ‘Don’t Take Your Love to Town’ – Ruby Langford Ginibi (1988)
* ‘The Getting of Wisdom’ – Henry Handel Richardson (1910)
* ‘Seven Poor Men of Sydney’ – Christina Stead (1934)
* ‘The Harp in the South’ – Ruth Park (1948)
* ‘Playing Beatie Bow’ – Ruth Park (1980)
* ‘Stasiland’ – Anna Funder (2003)
Kind regards,
Dr Vanessa Witton
(Sydney, Australia)
Hi Vanessa,
Thank you so much for this wonderful comment and list of excellent recommendations – I have, to my shame, only read three (all of which I thought were wonderful) and not heard of some of these writers at all. I will get reading! I think Australian writing is criminally underrepresented in schools in the UK – I remember My Brilliant Career being the first novel I ever read by an Australian writer, and that was in my third year at university! There is still much to do.
Thank you for your support of our work!
Rachel
Thanks, Rachel. My hope is that some of these novels will make their way into the UK school curriculum to engage students with the experiences of Australians, and particularly Australian women and girls, at different historical periods. I too believe that reading literature builds empathy and understanding and can help combat sexism in schools.