Memorandum submitted by the Department
for Education and Skills
SUMMARY
1. The evidence in the following pages sets
out the measures that the DfES has put in place to support schools
in the effective teaching of reading, centred largely, though
not exclusively, on the work of the National Strategies. The essential
elements of our approach are to ensure that:
— there is a clear focus on and commitment
to raising standards in reading and literacy at every level in
the system, both through bespoke lessons and across the curriculum;
— teachers and leaders in all schools
have easy access to the best, evidenced based, methodologies for
teaching reading and are trained to use them effectively;
— there is a clear and early emphasis
on phonics instruction, reinforced by complementary reading strategies
such as context, grammatical knowledge and word recognition;
— teaching is tailored effectively
to the needs of individual children, with bespoke interventions
for those performing both below and significantly above age-related
expectations;
— there are appropriate structured
programmes in place for children below school age, which develop
their communication and literacy skills within the context of
play-based learning;
— we engage parents and the wider community
fully in supporting children to learn to read and to enjoy reading;
and
— we build capacity within schools
and Local Authorities to improve continuously, and intervene decisively
in the instance of failure.
BACKGROUND AND
CONTEXT
2. In 1996 Ofsted published its report The
Teaching of Reading in 45 Inner London Primary Schools which
crystallised concerns about standards in literacy. The report
highlighted the lack of focus on reading, the poor quality of
teaching and the small number of schools using a balanced approach
to reading which included the systematic teaching of phonics.
In 1997 only 67% of 11 year olds achieved the expected level for
their age in reading, and 63% in English, in National Curriculum
Tests.
3. The National Literacy Strategy was introduced
to all schools in England in September 1998 to respond directly
to these concerns. From the outset the remit of the National Literacy
Strategy has been very clear. Its purpose was, and is, to raise
standards of literacy throughout the primary age range, to support
teachers to deliver the primary programmes of study for reading
and writing as set out in the National Curriculum, and to make
a significant contribution to the development of speaking and
listening.
4. Drawing on international research and
best practice, the National Literacy Strategy set out a Framework
for Teaching which schools delivered through the Literacy Hour.
This was reinforced by subject specific training for teachers,
intervention in schools that were failing their pupils, and the
setting of clear targets at school, local and national levels.
The National Year of Reading, and the continuing Reading Campaign
which accompanied the National Literacy Strategy, had a significant
impact on raising the profile of reading not just with schools
but also with families and the wider community.
5. This clear focus on raising standards
in literacy and English extends beyond the primary years to both
Foundation Stage and Key Stage 3 (KS3). The Foundation Stage,
first introduced in 2000, provides a structured framework for
a play-based approach to learning for three to five year olds,
which includes an emphasis on early literacy, language and communication.
The Key Stage 3 National Strategy, which has been introduced progressively
since 2001, is committed to raising standards in English, and
literacy across the curriculum for all 11 to 14-year-olds. Between
1998 and 2001, prior to the introduction of the Key Stage 3 National
Strategy, English results at age 14 were static and lacked year-on-year
progression.
6. In 2003 the National Literacy Strategy
was combined with the National Numeracy Strategy to become the
Primary National Strategy. This allowed us to create a more coherent
delivery structure and organisational model, and to interact with
schools more effectively on whole-school teaching and learning
issues. Throughout this evolution the core aims and principles
of the strategy have remained consistent, and the teaching methods
and materials which lie at the heart of the strategy continue
to be refreshed and informed by the latest research and inspection
evidence.
NATIONAL TRENDS
IN READING
PERFORMANCE
Attainment Tests
7. Since the introduction of the National
Literacy Strategy in 1998 standards in reading at both Key Stage
1 and 2 have increased significantly. Between 1998 and 2004 the
percentage of pupils achieving the expected level for their age
in National Curriculum tests in reading went up from 80% to 85%
at Key Stage 1 (approximately 30,000 more children), and from
67% to 83% at Key Stage 2 (approximately 96,000 more children).
The percentage of 14 year olds achieving the expected level for
their age in English at KS3 increased from 65% to 71% over the
same period. Reading results at Key Stage 3 have only been separately
available for the last two years, so it is not possible to construct
a comparative time series. This year 65% of the cohort achieved
the expected level for their age in reading. This improvement
is also reflected in international comparisons (see para 61).
8. The graphs below illustrate how results
have risen in both reading and English at all three key stages
between 1997 and 2004:
Quality of Teaching
9. Ofsted reports provide further evidence
on the quality of the teaching of reading. In 2002 Ofsted reported
on the impact of the first four years of the National Literacy
Strategy. It found that:
"The National Literacy Strategy has had
a significant impact on the standards attained in English and
the quality of teaching over the last four years".
10. It also found that since the start of
the strategy the proportion of lessons where the teaching of shared
reading was good or better increased from just over 50% to nearly
70%. Over the same period the quality of the teaching of guided
reading improved from a position where Ofsted described it as
"often poor" to a situation in which it was taught well
in 60% of lessons, with weaknesses remaining in just 10%.
TEACHING READING
THROUGH THE
NATIONAL STRATEGIES—METHODOLOGY
AND EVIDENCE
BASE
11. The rationale of the National Strategies
is to promote literacy—not just reading and certainly not
just decoding—at every stage of reading development from
Foundation Stage to Key Stage 3. Through the provision of nationally
kite marked materials, face to face training and direct support
to both teachers and teaching assistants, the National Strategies
help schools to develop the positive learning environments in
which the effective teaching of literacy can take place. At every
level from the pupil to the teacher, the school and the Local
Authority, the National Strategies aim to ensure that tailored
challenge and support is available to enable those falling behind
to catch up as well as to stretch the most able.
12. The National Literacy Strategy Framework
for Teaching provides a structure for teaching reading focused
on word, sentence and text level objectives. These are mirrored
in the application of the literacy hour in schools as a system
of connected methodologies for teaching the reading and writing
of texts. This approach to reading, advocated throughout the Foundation
Stage and primary years, provides a solid platform for the later
emphasis on research, literature and study skills taught at Key
Stage 3.
The Searchlights Model
13. The National Strategies advocate a model
of teaching reading which has come to be known by the "Searchlights"
metaphor. The Searchlights model places a very clear emphasis
on the teaching of phonics, which is reinforced by pupils' knowledge
of context, grammar and graphic or word recognition:
14. The model characterises reading as the
ability to coordinate and orchestrate a variety of strategies
for:
— Fast automatic phonic decoding.
— The recognition of word and word
parts.
— Predictions from knowledge of syntax
to make sense of strings of words.
— Predictions from context to aid comprehension.
15. The two related aspects of the reading
process, decoding and comprehension, are therefore represented
in the model and complement each other.
16. A strong emphasis is placed on the teaching
of phonics, but the National Strategies do not advocate the teaching
and application of phonics in isolation from other reading strategies.
Pupils are encouraged to use a variety of strategies to reinforce
their phonological understanding, to look for analogies between
the known and unfamiliar, to predict and make sense of what they
are reading and writing, and to develop the practice of self-monitoring
and self-correction.
17. The "Searchlights" metaphor
attempts to describe a methodology for teaching reading which
optimises the range of "cues" or inputs for the pupil,
enabling them to cross refer between them. The more "searchlights"
that are switched on, the less critical it is if one of them fails.
18. This approach to teaching reading enjoys
a broad base of support among education professionals, including
Ofsted and the professional associations. It is not, however,
without its detractors. A minority advocates a "phonics only"
approach to teaching reading. Their argument proceeds from the
assumption that reading is a hierarchical process that moves seamlessly
from the learning of atomic parts into integrated and complex
skills.
19. The exclusive teaching of phonics precludes
the teaching of hypothesising, problem solving, predicting or
inferring, which form an integral part of the Searchlights model.
The National Strategies, by contrast, characterise reading as
a more sophisticated skill in which a range of strategies linked
to decoding and comprehension interact and mutually support each
other in the process of getting to the meaning of a text.
The Teaching of Phonics
20. Within this overall context, the National
Strategies have always been clear about the importance of effective
teaching and learning of phonics. This includes continuing to
teach phonics in KS3 in the context of spelling and with pupils
who are still behind with their reading. The principles which
underpin the national strategies approach to phonics are:
— Children should be taught as quickly
as possible to identify, segment and blend phonemes in speech
and writing.
— This should be taught directly, not
left to inference or invention.
— Phonic knowledge and skills should
be taught and practised to a level where decoding and spelling
become habitual and operate at the level of "tacit knowledge"
— Phonics should be taught as a separate
set of skills and knowledge within the broader structure of the
literacy hour. It should not be taught through texts or text reading,
but should be applied to the reading and writing of texts in the
following ways:
— Through the application of phonic
strategies to texts in shared and guided reading;
— By using texts for reading which
exemplify particular phonemic structures; and
— Through phonic word building in the
context of shared writing.
21. Progression in Phonics is the
principal resource provided for teachers by the National Strategies
to support the teaching of phonics. It was published following
extensive consultation and a thorough review of research evidence
and successful practices. It was distributed to all schools and
accompanied by a day's funded training for 20,000 teachers in
Reception and Year 1.
22. The Progression in Phonics programme,
which was updated this year, consists of a book of teaching materials,
a training pack for literacy consultants to use with teachers
and a training CD-ROM for teachers to use independently. The book
outlines the basic principles of the phonemic system and then
describes a detailed programme for teaching phonics in seven steps.
This programme builds on the guidance for teaching phonics set
out in the original National Literacy Strategy Framework for Teaching,
but accelerates the recommended pace at which phonics are taught.
Synthetic versus analytic phonics
23. The distinction between synthetic and
analytic phonics is a frequently publicised aspect to the debate
about the different methods for teaching phonics. Simply defined
synthetic phonics refers to a method of direct instruction
in which children learn to combine letters to read words. Analytic
phonics, by contrast, is an indirect teaching method in
which children are expected to infer information about letters
and how they combine to form words.
24. The approach advocated through the National
Strategies is a synthetic phonics approach, as it relies on direct
teaching and the recognition and blending of letter to form words.
It does not rule out the possibility that children will supplement
their knowledge and understanding of a text through inference,
and hence could be described as drawing on some elements of an
analytical approach. However, it is clear that synthetic phonics
is the principal method of instruction.
The evidence base
25. From their inception the National Strategies
have been firmly rooted in the evidence base, drawing on international
research findings over a 30 year period. The Strategies have also
learnt from the results of inspections and known best practice.
M J Adams' comprehensive investigation into the effectiveness
of reading instruction programmes, Beginning to Read, published
in 1990, strongly influenced the Strategies later design. Her
research found that:
"Neither understanding nor meaning can
proceed hierarchically, from the bottom up. Phonological awareness,
letter recognition facility, familiarity with spelling patterns,
spelling-sound relations and individual words must be developed
in concert with real reading and real writing, and with deliberate
reflection on the forms, functions and meanings of texts."
26. This is representative of a broad body
of research which, while seeing a critical role for the teaching
of phonics, contradicts the suggestion that phonics should be
taught and learnt in isolation. In 1997 US Congress commissioned
the establishment of a National Reading Panel to assess the status
of research based knowledge, including the effectiveness of various
approaches to teaching children to read. The Panel's report, Teaching
Children to Read, published in 2000 found that phonemic awareness
and instruction, guided oral reading, vocabulary instruction and
text comprehension instruction all have a positive effect on the
learning of reading and comprehension skills. The report states:
"Teachers must understand that systematic
phonics instruction is only one component—albeit a necessary
component—of a total reading program; systematic phonics
instruction should be integrated with other reading instruction
in phonemic awareness, fluency and comprehension strategies to
create a complete reading program . . . while phonics skills are
necessary in order to learn to read, they are not sufficient in
their own right."
27. Every year Ofsted has reviewed the implementation
and practices of the National Literacy Strategy, and now the Primary
National Strategy. The programme has therefore had an unmatched
regular flow of evidence to inform its continuing development.
The DfES has also been proactive in seeking out fresh evidence
to inform the way we support the teaching of reading. Last year,
in response to a 2002 Ofsted report which identified some weaknesses
in the teaching of phonics, the department convened a Phonics
seminar which drew on a range of expertise, including the Reading
Reform Foundation, and was independently chaired by Professor
Greg Brooks.
28. The findings of the seminar were that
a major redirection of the phonics element of the NLS was neither
necessary nor appropriate. The papers from the seminar, including
Professor Greg Brooks' concluding report, can be found on the
Primary National Strategy section of the DfES Standards Site.
We have also separately published all the background research
underpinning the teaching of English at Key Stage 3 in "Roots
and Research", which is a research review compiled by
Colin Harrison of Nottingham University.
29. As a result of the seminar described
above, the supplement to Progression in phonics, Playing with
Sounds, was produced for primary schools in Spring 2004, to
make it a more detailed and fully resourced programme.
PUTTING POLICY
INTO PRACTICE
30. The National Strategies provide an effective
way of putting policy into practice. The real strength of the
National Strategies delivery model lies in the combination of
high quality lesson planning, CPD and intervention materials,
with direct support and challenge provided to schools and local
authorities by credible and experienced practitioners.
31. Through the strategies we employ a cadre
of Regional Directors who work directly with Local Authority school
improvement teams. The Regional Directors bring specific phase
and subject experience to their interaction with Local Authorities,
as well as providing support on whole school improvement issues,
alignment and capacity building.
32. At a local level we have developed a
rich mix of support for schools. National Strategies consultants,
employed by Local Authorities and trained by Regional Directors,
form the backbone of this. They work directly with teachers in
schools to provide training, challenge and support on subject
pedagogy and whole school improvement issues. We have also trained
and developed a number of leading teachers at both primary and
Key Stage 3 who are embedded in schools, but are able to spend
a proportion of their time on outreach activities to support colleagues
in other schools. Furthermore at primary level 10% of the best
teachers have become Primary Strategy Consultant Leaders and through
the leadership programme provide support to headteachers in underperforming
schools.
33. Through this mixed economy of support
the National Strategies have a reach well beyond individual subjects.
Through the expertise offered by consultants, leading teachers
and consultant leaders we are able to support schools across the
range of whole school improvement issues, such as leadership,
assessment for learning or behaviour. It has been just these issues
which Ofsted have repeatedly highlighted as critical to making
further improvement in the teaching of literacy and numeracy.
The National Strategies provide a delivery mechanism, unparalleled
in other areas of education, to address unacceptable variations
in performance and to build capacity for further improvement.
34. Ofsted reports have been consistently
positive about the quality of support that consultants offer schools.
In their 2002 report on the first four years of the National Literacy
Strategy Ofsted commented:
"The NLS consultants have played a significant
role in training teachers and supporting schools. Their impact
over the last four years has been very positive, both in terms
of face-to-face training, as well as their contribution to a range
of materials to support teaching, published nationally as well
as in their own LEAs."
35. The rising trend in national attainment
from the foundation stage up to Key Stage 3 suggests that this
combination of direct support, training and high quality materials
and guidance is paying dividends. However, we realise that achieving
further improvement is critical and that there is no room for
complacency. Raw attainment scores, value added data and Ofsted
reports all point to the fact that there is still too much variation
in the teaching of literacy and standards attained between schools
whose pupils and contexts are broadly similar. Bringing these
schools up to the level of the best is a key priority for the
National Strategies.
36. We have an ambitious programme of work
underway to address this. In primary schools our priorities for
2005-6 are to:
— Support the more effective leadership
of the teaching of reading by Headteachers and subject leaders.
— A further emphasis on guided reading
and importance of tracking progress by individual children.
— Support schools and early years settings
to engage parents in children's reading, building on the recently
produced materials "Parents, partners in children's learning."
— Support more effective teaching of
reading at the point of transition from KS1 to KS2.
37. At KS3, consolidating pupils' basic
literacy skills in the early years of secondary education will
continue to be a major priority. The KS3 National Strategy will
develop new materials on the teaching of reading and will offer
support and CPD opportunities to schools which focus on appropriate
strategies for teaching reading and making best use of the class
novel for pupils of different ages and abilities, as well as responding
to the strengths and weaknesses highlighted by the National Curriculum
tests.
Supporting reading beyond the classroom
38. Beyond the direct work of the National
Strategies with schools and Local Authorities, we are also support
the wider promotion of reading, in particular reading for pleasure,
with children and families.
39. For example, the Department funds the
National Literacy Trust to run the National Reading Campaign.
Key elements of the National Reading Campaign include the Reading
Connects initiative which supports teachers and staff, such as
school librarians, to develop reading-rich environments and raise
the profile of reading for pleasure, and the Reading Champions
scheme which finds and celebrates positive role models for reading,
and demonstrates the impact of motivational and peer support in
domestic, educational and community settings.
40. We have also been active in harnessing
wider community resources to support reading. Through the Playing
for Success initiative we have established out of school hours
study support centres at football clubs and other sports' grounds.
The centres use the environment and medium of football, rugby
and other sports as motivational tools, and focus on raising literacy,
numeracy and ICT standards amongst Key Stage 2 and 3 pupils who
are struggling and often demotivated. National evaluation shows
that the reading comprehension of KS3 pupils who took part in
the scheme improved by eight months.
41. We also engage directly with parents
to enable them to support their child's reading. For example,
we have produced two leaflets for parents on reading in the "Help
Your Child to Learn series" which offer ideas and suggestions
from parents for improving a child's reading. In addition the
Department works with parents whose own low levels of literacy
might inhibit the support they can offer their children. For example,
the Family Literacy Language and Numeracy programme, which will
involve some 100,000 families in 2004-05, seeks to develop literacy,
language and numeracy skills of parents and children. Reading
plays a key role in this. Family Literacy programmes will encourage
parents and children to share books together to read and to talk
about what they have read.
EQUITY AND
INCLUSION
42. The notion that teaching and learning
is most effective when it is tailored to the needs of the individual
child is deeply rooted in the National Strategies. We have focused
on assessment for learning and effective use of data, giving teachers
the tools to personalise learning effectively, and to involve
pupils more in understanding their personal progression. This
helps to foster a clear link between lesson planning and student
learning.
43. We have put in place a range of initiatives
and programmes in every Key Stage to support schools in teaching
reading to pupils with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and those
at risk of falling behind, and pupils with English as an additional
language (EAL).
44. The National Strategies also challenge
the most fluent readers to improve their skills. The Primary National
Strategy allows for the fact that some children will be reading
well before the start of the Foundation Stage and provides for
their skills to be progressively developed.
45. At Primary level we have supported schools
with the development of materials specifically designed to help
teachers to identify better the learning characteristics of gifted
and talented children and to adapt the literacy hour and daily
mathematics lesson to meet their needs. Similarly at Key Stage
3 we have disseminated a series of modular units that schools
can use within a planned professional development programme, which
look at whole school issues around identifying and teaching more
able pupils, as well as subject specific provision.
Catch up programmes and SEN intervention
46. For primary schools we promote a number
of intervention programmes for children reading at below age related
expectations to help them catch up. These include Early Literacy
Support (ELS) for pupils in Year 1, Additional Literacy Support
(ALS) in Year 3, and Further Literacy Support (FLS) for Pupils
in Year 5, all of which provide for structured support from a
teaching assistant in addition to the daily literacy hour. These
intervention programmes are designed to reinforce a suggested
model of intervention at different levels of need, based on three
"waves":
— Wave 1: The effective inclusion
of all children in a high quality primary experience incorporating
the literacy hour and daily mathematics lesson.
— Wave 2: Small group intervention
for children who can be expected to catch up with their peers
as a result of the intervention (ELS, ALS, FLS).
— Wave 3: Specific targeted
approaches for children identified as requiring SEN intervention.
47. Schools use a number of programmes for
intervention at Wave 3. The department directly funds the Institute
of Education for its work with the Reading Recovery National Network,
but there are many other programmes available. The National Strategies
are committed to ensuring that schools are provided with the evidence
on which of the many existing interventions have been evaluated
and can show evidence of impact. Much of this research is summarised
in the National Literacy Strategy publication Targeting support:
choosing and implementing interventions for children with significant
literacy difficulties. At Key Stage 3 we have also produced
a step by step guide to teaching phonics in special schools.
48. At Key Stage 3 we promote the continued
teaching of phonics in spelling for all children in year 7 as
well as focused work for children who have fallen behind. The
range of intervention and support materials provided by the KS3
National Strategy for reading includes teaching units on phonics;
information retrieval and reading between the lines. A set of
teaching units on reading for pupils in year 7 who are working
below national expectations; a training scheme and resources for
reading mentor partnerships and a set of teaching units for year
9 pupils working below national expectations. Through the effective
use of these materials, and dedicated support from consultants
we hope to achieve greater gains in Key Stage 3 reading performance
in future years.
English as an Additional Language
49. Traditionally pupils who have English
as an additional language (EAL) have made slower progress at reading
and English overall. We are committed to reversing this trend.
Effective teaching and learning to meet the needs of minority
ethnic pupils and those whose first language is not English is
based on equality and inclusion and valuing the background and
heritage of every child. In terms of bilingual children effective
strategies have proven the value of recognising a child's first
language as a strength on which to build.
50. Recognising pupils' abilities in their
first language allows for English language, grammar and vocabulary
to develop from pupils' knowledge and understanding of these concepts
in their first language. DfES' recently published research report
Making a Difference: Teaching and Learning Strategies in Successful
Multi Ethnic Schools supports this approach. This report,
along with established good practice, demonstrates that schools
that have been successful in raising the attainment of minority
ethnic pupils also value the first language of bilingual pupils
in extending learning across the curriculum and in making effective
links with parents and the wider community.
51. This year we are running EAL specific
training in over 200 pilot schools in 21 pilot LEAs as part of
the Primary National Strategy. Through this pilot, schools will
put into practice a whole year's worth of intensive EAL development,
linked to EAL specific approaches to the four aspects of literacy:
reading, writing, speaking and listening. For children with EAL
a focus on comprehension as well as decoding, and on developing
oracy in the context of guided reading sessions is critical.
Boys' reading
52. Boys have responded particularly well
to the teaching and learning approaches advocated by the National
Strategies. These include structured, varied and interactive lessons;
clear teaching objectives; demonstration and modelling of reading
strategies by the teacher and guided reading in groups where feedback
at the point of learning is given as pupils undertake reading
tasks for themselves. At Key Stage 3, this has led to narrowing
of the gender gap in English by five percentage points over the
period 2000 to 2004. At Key Stage 2 schools have made big improvements
in boys writing, where the percentage of boys achieving a level
four increased by four percentage points this year. However, we
recognise that we still need to do more to translate these gains
into reading.
INTRODUCTION OF
EARLY LITERACY
STRATEGIES
53. Evidence suggests that investment in
the early years pays real dividends in terms of outcomes for children
generally, including teaching children to read. The Effective
Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) longitudinal research,
which tracked the progress of more than 3,000 children between
the ages of three and seven, shows that good quality pre-school
has a positive effect on children's cognitive attainment on entry
to reception and recent findings show that these effects continue
up to the end of KS1 (age seven years).
54. Some of the key quality and practice
factors that contribute to child outcomes in the range of early
years settings tell us the the quality of pre-school centres is
directly related to better intellectual / cognitive development
in children. These suggest that an earlier start is related to
better intellectual development and improved independence and
concentration. NFER research also states that attending some form
of pre-school is associated with higher early literacy attainment
at ages five and six.
55. This is borne out by other international
research which shows that structured teaching of reading, including
phonics instruction, at a young age has a positive effect. The
US National Reading Panel report, Teaching Children to Read,
referred to above found that:
"Although conventional wisdom has suggested
that kindergarten students might not be ready for phonics instruction,
this assumption was not supported by the data. The effects of
systematic early phonics instruction were significant and substantial
in kindergarten and the 1st grade, indicating that systematic
phonics programs should be implemented at those age and grade
levels."
56. Building on these and other research
findings we have invested in support for children's learning from
a very early age. We know that early language and communication
development are vital pre-cursors to literacy and therefore much
of our early years work, through Sure Start, is around supporting
this and the sharing of books from a young age. We are fully funding
the Bookstart programme which encourages parents to read with
their children from birth. A bag containing two baby books, a
booklet explaining how and why to share books with young children,
a booklist and an invitation to join the local library is given
to parents by their Health Visitor at the eight month health check.
From 2005 we are funding an extension to the Bookstart programme
through which we will aim to reach all children at 18 to 24 months,
and at three years old. Alongside this the Birth to Three Matters
framework encourages practitioners to explore reading in variety
of ways such as sharing stories, songs, rhymes and games, and
learning about words and meaning.
57. The Foundation Stage provides a structure
within which children and practitioners can develop children's
communication and language skills through adult planned and child
initiated learning, so that by the end of the Foundation Stage
they can use their phonic knowledge to write and read a range
of common words. In 2004 the Primary National Strategy was extended
to include expert support for the Foundation Stage, and published
"Progression in Phonics: Playing with Sounds" to
guide practitioners in foundation stage settings in the delivery
of appropriate, fast and early teaching of phonics and phonological
awareness.
58. We are also developing the Communicating
matters project, the aim of which is to produce high quality training
materials for practitioners so that they can develop children's
speech and language as fully as possible during the Foundation
Stage. We aim to disseminate the training materials from September
2005.
INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS
Learning from international best practice
59. As set out in paragraph 25 and following,
the original design and subsequent development of the National
Strategies' approach to teaching reading has been informed by
the best available international evidence. This includes M J Adams'
seminal study Beginning to Read, commissioned by US Congress
in 1990, as well as the US National Reading Panel Report, Teaching
Children to Read, 2000.
60. The full research base is set out in
some detail in Roger Beard's National Literacy Strategy: Review
of Research and Other Related Evidence. There he draws attention
not just to the formal international research which informed the
design of the National Literacy Strategy, but also to a number
of small and large scale intervention projects underway in countries
across the world whose practice was highly influential. These
include the kinds of general practices found in New Zealand's
schools (as cited Ofsted in 1993); intervention programmes to
tackle disadvantage among pupils and schools in Melbourne and
Sydney in Australia (for example the Early Literacy Research project
led by Carmel Crevola and Peter Hill); and a number of projects
implemented across the USA.
Comparative International Performance
61. International comparisons of performance
in reading indicate that England is now among the best in the
world. The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS)
conducted in March 2001 found that England's 10 year olds were
the third most able readers out of the 35 countries included in
the study and performed significantly better than all other English
speaking countries that took part. This shows a marked contrast
to a international study using different methods reported in 1996,
in which England performed at the international average.
Early Years Education
62. Comparing different international approaches
to early years education, and the teaching of literacy in particular,
has stimulated wide ranging debate. As set out above there is
a wide body of research conducted both in the UK and abroad which
points to the educational value of early literacy teaching. Roger
Beard's research summary is again informative on this point. He
makes reference to the Commission of Reading of the USA National
Academy of Education which found that a country receives highest
returns on its investment in education from the early years of
schooling when children are first learning to read and write.
63. The EPPE research, cited at paragraph
53 above, clearly points to the advantages of access to high quality
early education in terms of children's social and cognitive outcomes.
It also shows how this is particularly important for children
from disadvantaged communities. Although it is true that in many
countries school starting age is one or two years later than in
England, and children do as well later on, this is a simplistic
interpretation of what happens. In Finland and other countries
there is strong family and society support for literacy, and books
and reading are part of children's day to day lives well before
they are formally admitted to school. Research evidence (Desforges
etc) tells us how significant such parental support is for children's
achievements which is why engaging parents to support their children's
learning is at the heart of government policy.
64. Underlying the concerns of critics is
often an erroneous assumption that we are bringing young children
into school early and exposing them to inappropriately formal
approaches to learning to read. The Foundation Stage, which includes
the reception year, was introduced to address just such concerns
and ensures that learning is based on well planned play in ways
which meet the particular needs of three, four and five year old
children. We have invested heavily in training to ensure that
practitioners understand these appropriate approaches.
CONCLUSION
65. Since the introduction of the National
Literacy Strategy in 1998 there has been significant improvement
in attainment in reading and English at every key stage. This
is the single most persuasive piece of evidence for the underlying
strength of the National Strategies model. The key is now to build
on this momentum to achieve further improvements in coming years.
Supporting and challenging more schools to achieve at the level
of the best is a clear priority, and will require a focus on precision,
both in teaching and targeting the needs of individual children.
We are confident that the National Strategies provide the right
combination of deep and credible educational expertise with a
strong and far reaching delivery structure to support schools
to improve still further.
30 November 2004
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