SUMMER LEARNING GAP
Reading: a summer essential every child deserves
and multiplication facts are only the visible symptoms.
For many children, the summer break widens existing gaps in learning. For years, educators have worried about the ‘summer slide’ – the idea that children lose academic ground over the long break. But today, the more pressing question isn’t a loss of knowledge. It’s how the loss of routine, connection and opportunities to read affects their wellbeing and, ultimately, their readiness to learn.
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times”
– Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities K
aren Napier MBE, Chief Executive of The Reading Agency, tells us how reading plays a role not only in preventing the summer slide – but in boosting children’s wellbeing, confidence and readiness to return to school. Every September, teachers spend the first weeks of term helping pupils recover what was lost over the summer. Forgotten spellings
For many parents, the holidays are becoming increasingly difficult to navigate. Our latest research found that almost two- thirds (64%) of parents say their children become bored during the summer holidays. More than half (54%) say their children miss the routine of school, while 43% believe they can become lonely during the school holidays. Financial pressures only add to those challenges. More than two-thirds of parents (68%) say the rising cost of holiday activities puts pressure on family finances, while
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over half (55%) say their child misses out on activities because they are simply too expensive.
Supporting children’s wellbeing and sustaining their learning have often been treated as separate. I would argue that they are one and the same; two sides of the same coin.
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us”
– J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
The encouraging news is that parents already recognise there is a solution. And it’s not new; the difference really is going back to basics and picking up a book.
Reading underpins every area of education. Books introduce children to a whole new world of difference, with ideas that they may never encounter in everyday life. It’s a practice that emboldens empathy, both for the heroes and villains of their fantasies, and thus into their day-to-day experiences. The data is not just means-tested, it’s absolute. Longitudinal data from large-scale national cohort studies shows that children who read for pleasure show better levels of
July/August 2026
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