Year 8 state school pupils in England to face mandatory reading tests: Points of View

The panel - Lucy Trimnell, Tarjinder Gill and Carl Smith discuss the big breaking story from this week around a new statutory test for Year 8 students in schools in England. Pupils at state schools in England will face new reading tests in an attempt to tackle under-achievement by white working-class children. The government’s forthcoming white paper on schools is to include a new test of reading ability for pupils in year 8, when they are aged 12 or 13, in an effort to encourage secondary schools to improve their teaching. The last Labour government scrapped national tests for year 9 pupils in 2008. If the new reading test is adopted it would mean England’s state school pupils taking a compulsory national test in seven out of their 14 school years.