This. But I do feel the government should do more where parents don't have the inclination to help their children. I am aware that some schools run after-school reading clubs, perhaps this should become national policy.

That will cost money, if that is funded something else will lose funding.

Trident, there's a good start.

We may be dealing with a couple of generations in a family who don't have the reading habit. That's a tough nut to crack.

I seem to have been lucky. While I was a slow starter, something clicked when I was about six years old. I'd read the entire primary school library by the end of one term, and I've been a voracious reader ever since. It was a standing joke that if I got a book for a Christmas present, I'd have read it by the end of the day!

My parents encouraged me and my sister to read, and I grew up in a house with all kinds of books available (as well as library books). I fear many children these days may be missing out on that parental encouragement for the very reason that their parents (and quite possibly grandparents) never got the reading habit when children themselves.

I was the same. I was banned from the junior school library as well, I had read every book in the school library by then anyway. It was a easy option for presents, get him a book. I had more than ten thousand at one point.

We switched from Nuffield to London half way through my A levels for the same reason. The difference was staggering. Because I'd done a year of the Nuffield course already, I found I had a head start on many when I went to university.