Today’s report from the Education Endowment Foundation, highlighting once again the impact of the pandemic on our youngest children in school, makes for sober reading.
It says that the number of pupils in Year 2 with very low attainment in reading has more than tripled, compared with pre-pandemic levels.
Of course, this comes as no surprise to those of us who are working in primary schools across the country.
It’s not as though we have been resting on our laurels. These results are in spite of the huge amount of work that has gone on, through dedicated and committed teachers going above and beyond every single day.
For us, as the largest primary-only academy trust in the country, with 20,000 children in our care, reading is the beating heart of what we do. We live and breathe the belief that the skill of reading is the key to unlocking learning and opens up the rest of the curriculum.
A love of reading opens doorways to the wider world beyond pupils’ own immediate experiences - which is important for every child, but especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Fostering this love takes deliberate and focused practice.
Teachers focused on the reading gap
At REAch2 Academy Trust, this means employing trust-wide initiatives, such as making sure that highly effective phonics is taught every day, in every single one of our schools.
There are also wonderful examples of initiatives in individual schools - such as our new reading café at Bushbury Lane Academy in Wolverhampton, which provides a warm and welcoming environment for children and parents to develop their love of reading. There is nothing more wonderful than seeing mums, dads and carers being caught up in the moment with their child lost in the worlds created by Julia Donaldson, Mo Willems or Anthony Browne.
And so, the reality is that while today’s findings from EEF are a stark reminder of how much work there is still to do, we have to recognise that many children would be struggling even more without the colossal effort that is underway in our schools today.
And while this research should rightly make us all stop and think, we must not be lured into a doom loop of reflecting on failure before failure has actually happened.
EEF’s research reflects a point in time when schools were very much still being battered by the impact of the pandemic. These children, in Year 2 and Year 3, are currently in our schools right now. We need to do everything we can to support them, with real urgency and a relentless focus, so that they become not only competent but confident and joyful readers by the time they leave us in Year 6.
Cathie Paine is the chief executive of REAch2 Academy Trust
