The schools minister Robin Walker has said that children with dyslexia do not require different approaches to their peers to be able to learn to read.
He made the comments writing for Tes today setting out the government’s ambition for the country’s schools to become “world leaders in literacy” through a new education White Paper coming later this year.
The intervention comes amid renewed debate about the use of phonics in schools and calls from the former health secretary Matt Hancock for more neurodiversity training in initial teacher training to help support pupils with dyslexia.
Mr Walker has praised the work of his predecessor Nick Gibb, who he replaced in last year’s government reshuffle, for putting synthetic phonics into the national curriculum and championing its use in schools.
But the current schools minister has also said that learning to decode words was “just one element of becoming a fluent reader”.
He said: “High-quality phonics teaching - alongside quality spoken language and exposure to books and stories to develop vocabulary - enables teachers and their pupils to focus on reading for pleasure, fluency and comprehension as they progress.”
Commenting on pupils with dyslexia, he said they need more time to learn how to read well, but added “that does not mean they require different approaches”.
Mr Walker added: “Focussed support, plentiful opportunities for practice and appropriately paced teaching from the start of Reception are the ingredients for success for these children.”
He said that this was also true of adults and highlighted a documentary with presenter Jay Blades on the impact taking phonics lessons at 51 years of age has had on him.
His comments come after a major debate about the use of phonics in schools earlier this year.
This was triggered by a letter to the education secretary Nadhim Zahawi signed by more than 250 people, including academics, primary school staff and headteachers, that called for the government to scrap its Phonics Screening Check as a national test.
The letter coincided with a research paper by academics at the Institute of Education (IOE) at UCL, which claimed that there wasn’t any evidence to support the Department for Education’s focus on using phonics first and foremost to teach reading.
In response to this criticism Julia Carroll, a researcher in literacy development and special educational needs and professor of child development and education at Coventry University, said that systematic phonics approaches are particularly useful to help at-risk readers.
Writing for Tes she said this was an approach that “does not harm anyone’s reading outcomes and helps those most at risk”.
However, she added: “That is not to say that struggling readers should continue to be taught phonics indefinitely.
“No teaching approach works for every child all of the time. Phonics works for most children most of the time, but often other approaches are needed.”
In his article today Mr Walker said he was “hugely grateful for the meticulous work of my predecessor in seeking the best-evidenced interventions to drive up literacy by making systematic phonics teaching part of the national curriculum”.
He said that since 2010, the government has embedded phonics as a component of teacher training, introduced the Phonics Screening Check and made reading a core part of Ofsted primary inspections.
“All schools should now use systematic phonics to teach reading and thousands of teachers are ensuring more children are learning to read because of their daily teaching of systematic phonics in the first two years of primary school across England,” he added.
Mr Walker said the DfE would set out a long-term vision “to continue to improve school standards” in the Schools White Paper later this year.
