READING results for Bradford’s primary school children have shown massive improvement in recent years, new figures have revealed.

Provisional results from this past summer show that at Key Stage 2 (11 years old) 70 per cent of Bradford pupils achieved the expected standard in reading. This was up from 66 per cent last year, and 57 per cent the year before.

The 13 per cent improvement in just two years was much higher than the national average rise, which was just nine per cent.

It is a vast improvement for the district, which was identified as an area of the country where children were severely lagging behind in reading skills. But despite the improvements, Bradford still lags behind the national average for expected standard in reading, which was 75 per cent this summer.

At a meeting of Bradford Council’s Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee this week, members were told that the rise was party due to a number of schemes to boost literacy in the district.

Councillor Cath Bacon (Lab, Keighley West) said: “The Key Stage 2 reading results were absolutely smashing.”

Yasmin Umarji, School Improvement Officer, said she was “delighted” with the results for reading, and told councillors of the different schemes that had been put in place.

A coalition of schools in the Bradford East area has held a number of events including “Bedtime Stories” held at City Library and the National Media Museum where children take part in reading themed activities with their parents.

A Literacy Hub in the district set up by the National Literacy Trust has also focused on boosting reading skills. Their campaigns have included encouraging more boys to read by encouraging sports stars to visit schools to extol the joys of reading, and getting more fathers to read to their children.

Responding to concerns that boys were performing worse than girls, Mrs Umarji said: “A lot of work has been done with dads and lads, even getting barbers to put books in their shops to encourage boys to read when they are getting their hair cut. When you go to places like libraries you will see a lot of images of men with books. It is a lot different than 10 years ago. Nationally there is a big gap between girls and boys, so we’re taking a much more boy friendly approach in our work now.”