Funding Dyslexia-Friendly Books in Secondary School

Secondary school leaders have a rare opportunity to secure dedicated funding for reading. Under the National Year of Reading 2026, the Department for Education (DfE) is providing direct funding to help secondary schools purchase books and reading materials.

If you want to support your struggling and dyslexic readers, do not spend this budget on standard library stock. Instead, you can strategically allocate this funding toward high-interest, low-readability (high-low) books and age-appropriate decodables. This targeted approach ensures your most vulnerable readers get books they can actually read, boosting both their confidence and their literacy skills.

The National Year of Reading 2026: What is the new secondary school book funding?

The Department for Education has introduced dedicated funding specifically for secondary schools to buy books and reading materials. This initiative is part of the National Year of Reading 2026.

According to the official DfE guidance, Funding for books and reading materials for secondary schools, this funding is designed to help schools build a stronger reading culture.

For school leaders, this is not just an opportunity to top up general English department resources. It is a chance to address the persistent literacy gap for students who enter Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 reading well below their chronological age.

Why standard library books don't work for your dyslexic students

When standard library budgets arrive, the temptation is to buy popular young adult fiction or curriculum classics. For a struggling reader, these books are often an immediate barrier.

Standard secondary novels contain complex sentence structures and dense vocabulary. For a student with dyslexia, decoding these words takes so much cognitive energy that comprehension is lost.

This barrier often leads to disengagement, behavior issues, or quiet withdrawal. Simply encouraging a "love of reading" by surrounding them with books they cannot decode does not work. You can read more about this challenge in our article, Is the 'Love of Reading' Enough for a Child Who Struggles with Phonics?.

To make a difference, your school library needs books designed specifically for struggling older readers. This is where your funding should be directed.

Strategic purchasing: Decodable readers and high-low books that respect older learners

To get the best return on your funding, focus your purchasing on two specific categories of books:

1. Age-appropriate decodable books

Decodable books are phonically controlled. They only use words containing grapheme-phoneme correspondences that the student has already been taught.

While decodables are common in primary schools, secondary schools rarely have them. Look for publishers who design decodable series specifically for teenagers, featuring mature illustrations and age-appropriate storylines. These books allow older struggling readers to practice systematic synthetic phonics without feeling patronized.

2. High-interest, low-readability (High-Low) books

High-low books are written with sophisticated, engaging themes suitable for teenagers, but use simplified sentence structures and high-frequency vocabulary.

These books look like standard teen novels. The font sizes are dyslexia-friendly, the paper is often off-white to reduce visual stress, and the chapters are short. Your students can carry them around the school with pride, as they look identical to the books their peers are reading.

How to access and allocate your school's share of the DfE reading materials fund

School leaders should act early to ensure this funding is ring-fenced for intervention and inclusion. Here is how to approach the allocation:

1. Review the official guidance: Read the DfE document, Funding for books and reading materials for secondary schools, to understand your allocation and spending timelines.
2. Audit your current stock: Ask your SENCO and school librarian to audit your current library. How many books are accessible to a student with a reading age of seven or eight?
3. Coordinate with your SEND budget: Consider how this funding can complement your existing SEND provisions. For broader advice on managing school-wide inclusion budgets, see our guide on Using the Inclusive Mainstream Fund: A Guide for School Leaders.
4. Involve your English and SEND departments: Ensure your SENCO and Head of English collaborate on the book list. This ensures the purchased books align with your school's phonics intervention programs.

Supporting struggling readers beyond physical books

Physical books are only one part of a complete literacy strategy. Dyslexic students also benefit from digital tools that offer multisensory reading support.

When your students are working independently or practicing at home, technology can bridge the gap. For example, our app, Lexy, offers structured, multisensory literacy practice that helps older students build reading fluency and phonics skills in a discreet, age-appropriate way. It is free for up to five students, making it easy to trial alongside your new physical book stock.

By combining the new DfE funding with targeted digital tools, you can build a secondary school environment where every struggling reader has the resources they need to succeed.