Nearly a Third of Children Starting School in the UK Don’t Know How to Use Books Properly

School Readiness — Free for use under the Pixabay Content License

A survey published in January 2026 by the UK early years charity Kindred Squared revealed that 28% of children starting school in September 2025 did not know how to interact with a physical book.

Teachers said that some students tried to swipe or tap the pages as one would do on a phone or tablet. The figure was one revelation in a report on school readiness.

What the Survey Found

The charity conducted the School Readiness Survey for the sixth consecutive year. The research firm Savanta supported the project by conducting the fieldwork in October and November 2025 among 1,076 primary school staff and 1,004 parents of Reception-aged children.

Four focus groups provided qualitative data for the study. According to the report, a child was considered ‘school ready’ if they were developmentally prepared to participate fully in the Reception curriculum, where this was not due to a previously identified special educational need or disability.

According to the staff, the percentage of unready children had risen since 2024, when it was recorded at 33%. Similarly, the book interaction problem was not new, as the 2024 survey recorded 26% of students incorrectly using books.

Reading and language skills had also declined, with 25% of children unable to manage basic language skills, up from 23%. A similar number, 26%, were unable to communicate their needs, although this was down from 29%.

In addition, 32% of children became overly upset when separated from their parents, and school readiness inequalities appeared to be widening, with sharper declines reported in the North East, West Midlands, North West, and London.

The chief executive of Kindred Squared, Felicity Gillespie, said, as reported by the Early Years Alliance, “The state of school readiness has reached a critical moment with 37% of children now arriving at the school gate without the basic life skills needed to engage with the curriculum.”

Pepe Di’Iasio, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said, “The figures show that there is obviously a significant challenge with regard to children who are not school ready when they arrive in reception.”

How It Affected Classrooms

The report shows that the school readiness crisis affected not only the students but also the staff.

They estimated that 2.4 hours of teaching time per day on average were lost due to the catch-up needs of unready children, up from 2.1 hours in 2024. Of that time, 1.4 hours were spent dealing with children who were not toilet trained. In addition, 68% of staff said they spent more time with unready children than with their peers.

The teachers and assistants felt let down, with respondents recording a rise in stress levels (55%), a drop in morale (28%), and a higher likelihood of staff turnover (19%). One teaching assistant shared with the researchers her experience in the early weeks of the academic year.

“You can’t just sit down with them to do any focused activity, because… they constantly need that adult supervision,” she said. A Reception teacher added, “It feels like the world is too much for them coming in. Whereas quite a few years ago, a decade ago, it wasn’t too bad.”

Why Parents and Teachers Disagree

The parents were generally more optimistic about their child’s school readiness than the staff. 88% of parents thought their child was ready for school, and 35% believed they were more prepared than most of their peers.

Only 44% of parents thought children should be able to interact with books correctly, meaning that most did not consider this a skill children should have before starting school.

When the 2024 survey results were published, the headteachers’ representatives told Tes that the findings demonstrated an “alarming disconnect” between parents and schools. One parent said, as reported by the Early Years Alliance, “As a parent you’re always going to think your kid’s ready.”

Reading to children was not the factor that influenced parental optimism, as 95% of parents said they read to their child at least once a week, with 45% doing it daily. Nonetheless, the staff did not share this assessment.

Half of them (51%) said that parents’ lack of reading to their child contributed to the readiness problem, compared to 40% of parents.

Screen use was an even bigger disparity, with staff saying that children’s use of screens for more than the recommended two hours per day was a leading cause of school-readiness problems (52%), while only 36% of parents agreed.

The focus groups demonstrated that many parents did not understand how screen use affected their child’s development. “But my daughter swipes the TV across. I’m like, no, honey, it doesn’t work like that,” said a parent.

Another participant said, “A screen is a screen no matter how small.” Some parents managed to find a happy medium between screens and books, with one mother saying, “Each day I make sure I try to do an hour [of reading]… so between 6:30 to 7:30 we wind down. That’s our story time, our chill time and then bed.”

According to a Reception teacher, reading was vital to a child’s development: “Reading is so key for language and understanding, you can learn so much through stories.”

The financial burden of living costs also played a role in children’s readiness, as 49% of parents and 44% of staff said that parents working longer hours due to the rising cost of living impacted readiness.

In addition, some staff thought that parents were unaware of their expectations. A Reception teacher said, “[Parents] don’t know what’s normal, they don’t know what they should be doing.”

Gillespie summarized the challenges, saying, “This is no longer just a classroom issue; it is a systemic crisis fuelled by parents who lack the right information and understanding early enough to truly support their children’s development, overstretched school resources and the rising cost of living.”

What People Want in the Future

The survey also identified the needs of families, with nearly all parents saying they wanted national guidance on school readiness. 84% of parents said they wanted it before their child turned four.

The preferred time for such guidance was toddlerhood and the nursery age, at 26% each, while only 12% of parents wanted to receive it in the year before school started.

Gillespie said, “With 94% of parents now calling for national guidance, we must commit to earlier intervention and clear, consistent access to information and services for families during the baby and toddler years to ensure every child is truly ready to thrive.”

A Reception teacher added, “It needs to be a lot earlier, like even before two—and then constant reminders to parents, definitely before they start.”

Many parents turned to social media for advice on preparing for school, with 25% saying they used these platforms, and 15% turning to AI technology, feeling unsupported. One father said, “You have to refer to research and look for the things by yourself, there is no support around, to be honest.”

Kindred Squared began working on solutions after publishing the report, as they collaborated with early years specialists to develop a unified understanding of the life skills needed upon entering Reception.

In December 2025, Kindred Squared launched a free guide to toilet training, which Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson and Health Secretary Wes Streeting supported.

Neil Leitch, the chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said that the findings were “deeply concerning” but “sadly, not surprising.”

He added that “we’re very clear that schools must play their part in ensuring that they are child-ready, and can support children with a range of needs.”

Leitch hoped that the Best Start in Life strategy would help provide “a comprehensive joined-up approach to early education, care and support, that ensures that all families can access the support they need, and that has the needs of the child at its centre.”

The findings attracted the attention of the press, with Sky News publishing an article about the survey on January 22, 2026.

It reported that the government wanted more children to be ‘school ready’ when entering Reception. The Booksellers Newsletter also published an article about the survey on 20th April 2026.