Children’s writing enjoyment at lowest level since 2010, survey finds

Children and young people’s enjoyment of writing in their free time has dropped to its lowest level in 15 years, according to new research from the National Literacy Trust.

The findings, which are based on responses from 114,970 pupils aged five to 18 in schools across the UK, show that only 26.6% of respondents aged eight to 18 said they enjoyed writing outside of school – a fall of 20.2% since 2010. 

Writing enjoyment declined across all age groups, with the sharpest drop among primary-aged children. In this group, enjoyment levels fell by 6% over the past year.

Children and young people eligible for free school meals (FSMs) continued to report higher writing enjoyment than their peers – 31.1% compared with 25%.

Meanwhile, just 10.4% of all respondents said they wrote something daily in their own time – a marginal decline from 2024, following a sharp fall between 2023 and 2024. Daily writing levels remained lowest among those aged 11 and older.

Enjoyment and frequency were closely linked: 25.2% of those who enjoyed writing wrote daily, compared with just 5% of those who did not.

Among those who wrote at least once a month, 48.7% did so to be creative, while 45.8% wrote to express their imagination or ideas, and 40.8% to share their thoughts and feelings. A further 37% said writing helped them to relax, and 31.4% said it made them feel happy.

The report suggests that even among those disengaged from writing, certain motivators – including autonomy, personal experience and inspiring prompts – could reignite interest. Teenagers were found to be less responsive to both creative and social motivations.

Sarah Hannafin, head of policy at the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), said: “A love of writing can not only have benefits for children’s wellbeing and creativity, as this research shows, it can also help them in their learning. In its current form, unfortunately the curriculum does little to encourage this. The government’s curriculum and assessment review has heard how children are having to spend too much time learning to meet assessment criteria when it comes to writing.

“This echoes what we have heard from school leaders, who have told us how the Key Stage 2 writing framework focuses too narrowly on the technical aspects of writing at the expense of flair and imagination. There are of course strong links between reading and writing, but research has also shown that children are reading less, and again, the overcrowded primary curriculum is not helping, with time for children to read for pleasure having been increasingly squeezed out.”

She added: “The curriculum review is an opportunity to put these things right and support children with the literacy skills needed to navigate life and make connections between learning in the classroom and life outside it.”