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The proposed Year 8 reading test would be the “least effective” approach to identifying and supporting pupils who need extra help with reading, a survey has found.

Most teachers also fear it will narrow the curriculum and pile on extra workload, according to findings from the NEU teaching union.

The union has now called on the government to scrap the proposal for a mandatory reading test, with its general secretary Daniel Kebede saying it shows that “no lessons have been learned from harm done” by Sats and “exam factory” culture.

Concerns over reading support

The proposed test was announced in 2025 by then education secretary Bridget Phillipson, leading to criticism over its potential to eat into curriculum time.

According to the survey, most teachers do not believe it is an effective approach either to identifying and supporting pupils who need more support with reading.

The NEU asked nearly 1,500 members which approaches they believe are effective in identifying pupils who need help with reading: just 31 per cent of respondents cited a statutory reading test, the least common response.

The most common response was classroom observations and discussions with pupils (79 per cent), followed by conversations with colleagues (66 per cent) and wider formative assessment processes (54 per cent).

The statutory test fared even worse when teachers were asked to name effective approaches to supporting such pupils, being cited by only 23 per cent of teachers - again, the least common response.

Classroom observations and discussions with pupils were deemed an effective way of supporting pupils with reading (75 per cent).

Some 67 per cent identified conversations with colleagues and support staff as an effective approach, and 62 per cent said parental engagement.

The NEU said it is “clear” that teachers already identify pupils in need of extra support and that a Year 8 reading test is “therefore unlikely to provide significant new insight and may simply confirm challenges that schools already understand”.

The survey also finds just 14 per cent of teachers predicting that a reading test would have a positive impact on pupils’ reading for pleasure.

And 78 per cent warn that statutory tests would increase workload and administrative burdens.

Year 8 reading test ‘not needed nor wanted’

Mr Kebede said: “The Year 8 reading test is not needed nor wanted. It will increase accountability pressures and incentivise the narrowing of the curriculum even further.

“No lessons have been learned from the harm done by Sats and the wider ‘exam factory’ culture. This is not the way to unlock a passion for reading and learning.”

The plans for a Year 8 reading test have been controversial from the start, with their announcement last year prompting questions over what they were even designed to do.

The Department for Education announced that 2026 would be the , with Ms Phillipson calling on parents to make reading with their children a “daily habit”.

But earlier this year, the Commons Education Select Committee heard expert testimony that reading for pleasure needed a “higher profile” at school.

Mr Kebede said today that the planned tests are likely to make reading “a chore rather than a point of enjoyment or enrichment”.

He added that the committee had been “right to identify that the education system remains unbalanced and driven by assessment at the expense of engagement, identity and enjoyment”.