Are you struggling to pass GCSE English Language?
Have you gained a Level 2 or 3 in your GCSE English Language qualification? If so, you may have just sat the November resit and you now await your results in January. Recent statistics showed that those students who retook this examination in the Summer of 2025 performed at a much worse rate than those who were sitting this examination for the first time. In fact only 23.1% gained the Level 4 that they needed. This is an alarmingly low number which suggests those who fail to gain the Level 4 or above in the first place will face an uphill struggle to improve. The GCSE Language Examination requires students to have a reading age of 15 Years and 8 months. Those who enter an examination with a lower reading age are clearly going to struggle to access the texts. However, research shows that a quarter of Year 11 students have a significantly lower reading age than this. We therefore need to work more at equipping our young people to read with fluency, understanding and inference. I believe that sharing a book with your child from an early age and promoting an environment of curiosity around unfamaliar words can support young people at home. We need to model the importance of reading but we also need to understand that reading is not just about being able to pronounce a word. The Science of Reading looks at all the elements of becoming a competent reader. The Education Endowment Foundation looks at the “Reading House.” This shows that the first stage of reading is to gain a knowledge of phonics and graphemes in order to read words in isolation. We then have to develop this skill by reading for meaning which includes reading a word in context and being able to use inference skills to add comprehension to your reading. Next we need to think about the structure and format of a text in order to become familiar with purpose and audience. A further knowledge of syntax, grammar and punctuation allows us to increase our understanding and we should continue to build our vocabulary. All of these elements work together to create a competent reader. When a child learns to read, teachers and parents may share stories and listen to their child read. However, as a child becomes older this level of support becomes less frequent. It then becomes tricky to fill any gaps if a child has fallen behind. Books are designed for young children learning and an older child might learn to mask their reading difficulties which then leads to a further withdrawal from learning in general.
We need to provide an alternative solution for young people going forward. The government are currently reviewing the curriculum and are said to be thinking about the appropriateness and accessibility of our curriculum. 2026 is due to be “The Year of Reading.” For those of us old enough, we have been here before. There were initiatives to get boys reading where David Beckham and other footballers were seen reading and congratulating boys who read back in 2003. This is just one example of previous campaigns. I believe that a child needs to grow up with access to books and be surrounded by adults who read for pleasure. There needs to be a cultural shift. As a child, I always received books as gifts for Christmas and birthdays and I enjoyed visiting the local library and book shop.
From a school point of view, we need to stop filling libraries with computers and sidelining books as it gives the wrong message. We need both and not a combination as this usually means books are shoved in the far corner! Teaching a child to read does not stop in Primary School. We have to make time for prioritising reading skills in Secondary as many are sadly being left to struggle as the gaps that remain for some are never filled. It is true that not everybody can be academic but this is not the only way to thrive. Many children are creative and it is proven by many famous business people that you can succeed. Alan Sugar, Jamie Oliver and Richard Branson are examples of school qualifications not being the end of the story. I don’t think that children should be forced to fail examinations over and over again. Functional Skills can be a meaningful alternative which at Level 2 is widely recognised by many employers and universities. Why then, are schools not offering this as an alternative to endlessly resitting Maths and English? We need to share the different options as when I mention this to students who come to me for support with resit English, they have never heard of it. There are options for young people but many are not aware of what they are. Being academically focused can lead to missed opportunities for many young people who lose confidence in themselves and define themselves as failures. I am hoping that the new curriculum is much wider and allows our young people to thrive.
