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This report focuses on children aged 8 to 11 and their enjoyment of reading, reading behaviour, and attitudes toward reading. It synthesises information from surveys that have been conducted since 2005, but most heavily exploits data from the fourth annual literacy survey conducted in November/December 2013 in which 10,946 8 to 11-year-olds participated. In addition, this report explores the link between reading, gender, and socio-economic background (assessed by free school meal uptake) for this age group and how certain subgroups of pupils are potentially doubly disadvantaged. Some general findings in this report include: (1) Nearly two-thirds (65.8%) of 8 to 11-year-olds enjoy reading either very much (34.4%) or quite a lot (31.4%); (2) Nearly three-quarters (72.8%) of 8 to 11-year-olds have a favourite book or story; (3) 84.6% of children aged 8 to 11 say that they have a book of their own at home; (4) Two-fifths (40.7%) read daily outside class, while over a third (34.7%) read a few times a week; (5) Nearly a quarter (22.8%) of 8 to 11-year-olds read for up to 10 minutes at a time, while another quarter (25.3%) read for up to 20 minutes; (6) When asked what types of materials they read outside class, most 8 to 11-year-olds say that they read text messages (56.4%), followed by magazines (51.6%) and fiction (50.5%); (7) A lot of 8 to 11-year-olds are avid readers of books; (8) Nearly 9 in 10 (87.0%) 8 to 11-year-olds have been given a book as a present, while 9 in 10 (92.7%) have also been to a library; and (9) Most 8 to 11-year-olds have positive attitudes toward reading. [The research for this report has informed the publication "How reading can help children escape poverty" produced by the Read On. Get On. coalition.]

This paper presents additional information from the 2009 survey of young people's reading and writing. The authors conducted an online survey of 17,089 pupils aged 8 to 16 from 112 schools, conducted in November-December 2009, which consisted of 32 questions exploring young people's background, reading and writing behaviour, perceived ability and attitudes. The survey included questions exploring school library use, which are examined in the separate National Literacy Trust research report "Linking School Libraries and Literacy (Clark, 2010)". In addition, the survey contained a few questions that explored public library use, which is the focus of the present paper. (Contains 8 tables, 2 figures and 11 endnotes.)

This paper presents additional information from the 2009 survey of young people's reading and writing; for more information see the full report "Young People's Reading and Writing Today", to be published July 2010. This paper explores the types of resources young people have at home that support literacy and how this differs according to demographic background, and how home resources relate to reading enjoyment, attitudes and behaviour as well as reading attainment. It also explores who in their family encourages young people to read, who in their family is seen reading and how frequently young people talk with their family about what they are reading. It also outlines how these differ according to demographic background, and how each of these relate to reading enjoyment, attitudes and behaviour as well as reading attainment. Family-specific questions is appended. (Contains 18 tables and 4 figures.)

Writing is an important issue in the UK today. While children's and young people's writing standards steadily improved until 2006, levels have not increased in recent years. Writing is much more than just an educational issue--it is an essential skill that allows people to participate fully in today's society and to contribute to the economy. Since relatively little is known about young people's views about writing in the UK, the key objectives of this survey were: to explore how much young people enjoy writing, what type of writing they engage in, how good at writing they think they are and what they think about writing. This research provides everyone with an up-to-date insight into young people's attitudes towards writing. Most young people write regularly and young people write technology-based materials, such as text and instant messages, most frequently. While owning a mobile phone does not appear to alter young people's writing behaviour, having a profile on a social networking site or having a blog is connected to enjoyment of writing and confidence in writing. Young people today use computers regularly and believe that computers are beneficial to their writing. Appended are: (1) Writing attitudes questionnaire; (2) Technology and young people's background characteristics; (3) Reasons for writing ability by demographic background; and (4) Writing frequency of 18 types of format for whole sample. (Contains 13 tables and 8 figures.) [This paper was created in collaboration with Booktrust.]