Glasgow schools hire primary teachers to boost secondary students’ literacy
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Glasgow’s education officials hired primary school teachers to work in 14 of the city’s 30 secondary schools, addressing a rise in first-year students arriving without basic reading skills.
These teachers lead small, intensive classes focused on foundational literacy using methods like systematic synthetic phonics, matching letters and sounds, to help students improve quickly.
Katrina Crickett, a teacher at St Andrew’s High School, reported that some students begin secondary school with a reading age of five or six, lacking the confidence to engage with the curriculum. John McGhee, Glasgow’s education director, described improving literacy as a “moral imperative”, noting that his team aims for all Glasgow primary school leavers to have a reading age of at least nine-and-a-half.
He began this approach at a previous school after observing an increasing number of students entering high school unable to read. While recent data shows that a record number of students in Scotland are reaching expected literacy levels, one in four primary-aged children still struggle with basic skills. Glasgow achieved 68% of P1, P4, and P7 students meeting expected literacy levels in 2024/25, tying for the lowest rate in Scotland.
Recent international Pisa rankings show Scotland’s reading performance has declined since 2000, falling from a score of 526 to 488 in 2025, though the latest results were not statistically different from 2022. Despite these declines, Scotland still scored above the OECD average in reading, maths, and science.
