The Purpose of Education.
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/ ... -education
The subject of phonics and teaching reading was threaded throughout his speech.
The phonics screening check and its role in helping teachers identify pupils falling behind with their phonic knowledge, who'd benefit from additional help, came up early
Today, thanks to the hard work of thousands of teachers, 100,000 more 6-year-olds are on track to become confident readers as a result of our focus on phonics.
Our ambitious programme of reform is addressing this legacy, and this starts by getting the basics right. Reading underpins a child’s academic performance throughout their school career. In 2014, only 1 in 3 pupils who had just reached the current expected standard in English when in key stage 2, achieved 5 good GCSEs including English and mathematics. By contrast, almost 3 in 4 of those with a high level 4 in English achieved this GCSE standard.
The importance of strong literacy skills remain long after a young person has left school or formal education. Adults with good literacy skills (the equivalent of a good English Language GCSE or better) are much more likely to be in work than those with lower levels of literacy: 83% compared to 55%. Data from the recent OECD Survey of Adult Skills show that unemployed adults are twice as likely to have weak literacy skills as those in full-time employment.
We recognised the strong evidence demonstrating that systematic synthetic phonics is the most effective way to teach children to read. In 2012, we therefore introduced the year 1 phonics screening check to help teachers identify pupils falling behind with their phonic knowledge, who may benefit from additional help. We are supporting schools to establish phonics partnerships to help them further improve the quality of their phonics teaching. Each of the successful groups will be led by a school that achieves excellence in teaching early reading. The partnerships will receive £10,000 to improve the quality of phonics teaching; they will develop models that can be used by other schools, and share knowledge and resources that come out of their work.
Engaging with a text firstly requires an ability to read. This includes decoding skill, but also reading fluency and speed of reading built up through practice over many years. But reading also demands background knowledge - of vocabulary and of context assumed by the author - assumed knowledge. Factual knowledge is essential for reading comprehension.
