Over the past two decades there been a seismic shift in recognising the importance of reading for children’s life chances.

It is key to unlocking the rest of the curriculum for children and we know those who struggle to read will struggle in all subjects, not just English. Even more significantly, research shows that children from disadvantaged backgrounds who read habitually for pleasure can overcome their circumstances and even outperform more affluent pupils.

Literacy: the new reading framework

Ensuring that children become strong readers at the very earliest stages helps to avoid the vicious circle of reading difficulty and demotivation, which makes later education more challenging.

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Reading has been at the core of our education reforms since 2010. Making sure every child can read fluently, and with increasing sophistication, by the time they leave primary school has driven a host of our more controversial reforms.

We challenged the way reading was taught and battled to put in place the evidence-based systematic phonics method over the “look and say” approach that had been continuously letting children down. Through phonics teaching, children learn to decode words, sounding out new words by blending the letter sounds.  

Thankfully, we have now moved on from the “reading wars” that used to dominate discussion about what techniques worked best, with the vast majority of schools now using systematic phonics to teach reading

Phonics and reading outcomes

We introduced two fundamental changes to turn this around.

First, we strengthened the national curriculum, explicitly requiring schools to teach reading using systematic phonics, and ensuring that schools that excel in teaching reading are helping other schools improve.

Then in 2012, we introduced the Phonics Screening Check to ensure that every six-year-old was on track in learning to read.

The evidence for phonics is indisputable - in 2019, 82 per cent of pupils in Year 1 met the expected standard in the Phonics Screening Check, compared with just 58 per cent when the check was introduced in 2012. For disadvantaged pupils, this figure rose from 45 per cent to 71 per cent.

And in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) in 2016, England achieved its highest ever score in reading, moving from joint 10th to joint 8th, with the lowest achievers improving the most.

It is a testament to this country’s success that we are now inspiring a phonics approach across the world, including Australia, Fiji, Nigeria and a number of Arabic-speaking countries.

But there is more to do to ensure pupils of all backgrounds meet the reading standards they need to fulfil their potential.

To continue this progress, we are now sharing best practice, encouraging schools to prioritise reading and make it their mission to ensure that every child becomes a fluent reader.

Reading guidance

Coinciding with the launch of the Summer Reading Challenge, we have published a new Reading Framework, which highlights the most effective way schools have taught children to read and how they cultivate a genuine love and habit of reading.

At Jerry Clay Academy in Wakefield, teachers provide a broad range of high-quality texts in all areas of the curriculum. It is coupled with independent reading and with children reading-aloud. This work has meant that 100 per cent of pupils pass the Phonics Screening Check at the end of Year 1.

In Lincoln, at Witham St Hughs Academy, all staff place an emphasis on teaching phonics daily. A culture of reading, with daily story time, has led to all children being able to fully decode by Year 1.

All schools can emulate these schools, where children learn to read confidently, fluently and independently before they leave primary school.

To support them, in 2018 we also launched our £43 million English Hubs programme, comprising 34 primary schools that are outstanding at teaching reading. To date, the programme has helped more than 5,000 other primary schools in England deliver excellent phonics teaching.

What children learn at home matters, too, so the framework will also support schools to work with parents to help their children practise their reading at home.

The changes we are announcing today are the next stage of our determination to ensure that every child can and does read. This focus on reading is the single most important reform in boosting the life chances of every child from whatever background the come from.