Asked by: Baroness Rebuck (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cause of the downward trend in students in England taking A-level English since 2013; and what steps they are taking to reverse this trend.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)
Young people are free to choose the A level subjects they take. While there have been declines in entries in recent years, English remains one of the most popular A level subjects. Entries for A level English Literature increased by 8% in 2024, and for English Literature and Language combined by 6% compared to 2023.
High and rising school standards are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best life chances.
The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, covering ages 5 to 18, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE, an expert in education policy. The review and its recommendations will be driven by evidence and a commitment to high standards for all our young people, irrespective of background.
The review group ran a call for evidence and held events over the autumn term to gather the views of education professionals and other experts, parents, children and young people, and other stakeholders. The feedback received will help the review group to consider its next steps and recommendations.
Asked by: Baroness Rebuck (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the National Literacy Trust Annual Literacy Survey 2024 results, particularly the finding that only 34.6 per cent of children and young people aged 8 to 18 said they enjoy reading in their spare time; and what steps they are taking to reverse this decline.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Education)
High and rising school standards, with excellent foundations in reading, writing and mathematics, are at the heart of the government’s mission to break down barriers to opportunity and give every child the best start in life.
The department knows that reading for pleasure is hugely important and brings a range of benefits. In addition to strong links with attainment, wide recreational reading expands pupils’ knowledge about the world and language, as well as their understanding of subject-specific academic and technical vocabulary.
Further, pupils who read regularly report heightened levels of social and emotional wellbeing. For many, reading is a form of relaxation, a place to escape everyday challenges and a source of entertainment. Readers can adopt new perspectives, develop empathy and become more socially conscious.
In recognition of this, the department has implemented a range of measures to support reading for pleasure.
The English hubs programme supports the teaching of phonics, early language development and reading for pleasure with a further £23 million committed for the 2024/25 academic year to support this work. Further the government’s reading framework provides guidance on improving reading teaching provision, to ensure that every child is not only able to read proficiently, but also develops a genuine love of reading.
The current national curriculum states that teachers are expected to encourage pupils to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information. The programmes of study for English make clear the importance of reading for pleasure.
The government has established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review (CAR), covering ages 5 to 18, chaired by Professor Becky Francis CBE, an expert in education policy.
The CAR will look closely at the key challenges to attainment for young people, in line with the government’s ambition for a curriculum that delivers excellent foundations in reading, writing and mathematics, and ensures every young person gets the opportunity to develop the creative, digital, and speaking and listening skills particularly prized by employers.
Asked by: Baroness Rebuck (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the findings of their report Understanding progress in the 2020/21 academic year: Interim findings, published on 24 February, relating to estimated overall learning loss in reading in primary schools; and what powers the new Education Recovery Commissioner will have to direct the use of (1) additional, or (2) reallocated, resources, to literacy.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The ‘Understanding progress in the 2020/21 academic year’ report finds that in reading Year 3-9 pupils are on average around 1.6-2 months behind where we would expect them to be in a ‘normal’ year. For primary pupils, estimates are:
Year Group | Estimated Learning Loss in Reading |
Year 3 | 1.8 months |
Year 4 | 1.8 months |
Year 5 | 1.9 months |
Year 6 | 2.0 months |
The Government has invested £1.7 billion to give early years, schools and colleges support to help pupils get back on track, including additional funding for tutoring, early language support and summer schools.
We have also appointed an Education Recovery Commissioner to advise on this work. The objectives of the Education Recovery Commissioner, as outlined in the Terms of Reference, are to advise on the design and implementation of potential interventions that will help pupils catch up learning lost due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The Terms of Reference for the Education Recovery Commissioner is published here:
We are investing in a national network of English Hubs across the country to improve the teaching of literacy, focusing on Reception and Year One.
In 2018 the Department launched a £26.3 million English Hubs Programme dedicated to improving the teaching of reading. We have since invested a further £17 million in this school-to-school improvement programme, which focuses on systematic synthetic phonics, early language, and reading for pleasure. We have appointed 34 primary schools across England as English Hubs. The English Hubs programme is supporting nearly 3000 schools across England to improve their teaching of reading through systematic synthetic phonics, early language development, and reading for pleasure. The English Hubs are focused on improving educational outcomes for the most disadvantaged pupils in Reception and Year 1.
Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, English Hubs have continued to offer support and training to schools across the country by bringing much of their offer online.
Asked by: Baroness Rebuck (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what role the new Education Recovery Commissioner will play in helping to close the attainment gap in reading and maths between pupils in schools with high levels of disadvantage and those in schools in more affluent areas.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The objectives of the Education Recovery Commissioner, as outlined in the Terms of Reference, are to advise on the design and implementation of potential interventions that will help pupils to catch up on lost education due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
The Terms of Reference for the Education Recovery Commissioner are published here:
The department will continue to assess the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on pupils and their catch-up needs to help target support across the system effectively.
Maths
Our national network of 40 school-led Maths Hubs aims to help local schools improve the quality of their mathematics teaching based on best practice. The Maths Hubs programme aims to improve attainment gaps, which may be associated with disadvantage, gender, or other factors, and the programme’s capacity has been substantially expanded in the geographical areas where it is needed most.
Maths Hubs deliver our £100 million Teaching for Mastery programme, which is focused on depth of understanding, and is characterised by whole-class teaching where pupils work on the same content together ensuring no one gets left behind. It encourages all pupils with the belief that by working hard at mathematics they can succeed and rejects the idea that some pupils “can’t do maths”.
Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, Maths Hubs have continued to offer support and training to schools across the country by bringing much of their offer online. The department has also funded the development of free expert resources to support maths teaching, including a range of materials now available from the National Centre for Excellence in the Teaching of Maths, as well publishing new guidance to support curriculum planning and prioritisation in primary schools.
Reading
In 2018, the department launched a £26.3 million English Hubs programme dedicated to improving the teaching of reading, particularly for disadvantaged children. We have since invested a further £17 million in this school-to-school improvement programme, which focuses on systematic synthetic phonics, early language, and reading for pleasure. We have appointed 34 primary schools across England as English Hubs. The English Hubs programme is supporting nearly 3000 schools across England to improve their teaching of reading through systematic synthetic phonics, early language development, and reading for pleasure. The English Hubs are focused on improving educational outcomes for the most disadvantaged pupils in Reception and Year 1.
The overall programme is aimed at improving the teaching of early reading across England. In this early delivery stage, we are focusing on systematic synthetic phonics, but our hubs will start to deliver medium-level support in all three priority areas: improving the teaching of systematic synthetic phonics; encouraging early language development; and developing a love of reading. For early language development, hubs will focus on providing evidence-based approaches to early language development and closing the word gap in Year Reception and Year 1, including appropriate use of formative assessment.
Throughout the COVID-19 outbreak, English Hubs have continued to offer support and training to schools across the country by bringing much of their offer online.
Asked by: Baroness Rebuck (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the statement by the Prime Minister on 4 November (HC Deb, col 318), whether literacy is intended to be a part of the tutoring programme; and if so, (1) what plans they have to survey literacy levels across all age groups, (2) whether the tutoring will be available to all schools across England, and (3) what steps they are taking to ensure that adequate funding is available for that programme.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
We are providing £1 billion of catch-up support to schools to help make up for lost learning. All schools with pupils aged 5-16 are receiving their share of the £650 million catch-up premium, which can be used to prioritise support for all pupils. We are spending up to £350 million on the National Tutoring Programme (NTP). The NTP will provide additional, targeted support to disadvantaged children and young people in schools across England who need the most help to catch-up.
The NTP for 5-16 years olds went live on 2 November. The NTP offers tuition support for a range of curriculum subjects, including English, at both primary and secondary level. It is important that decisions about what support pupils receive are made locally by those who understand their needs. As such, teachers use their professional judgement to determine which pupils would most benefit from NTP support based on their need. Further information about the launch of the NTP is available here: https://nationaltutoring.org.uk/news/national-tutoring-programme-launches-in-schools.
Additionally, the NTP is supporting an oral language programme for reception-aged children. Any state-funded school with a reception class was able to register their interest in delivering the programme, with priority given to those schools with the highest levels of disadvantage (percentage of free school meals). Participating schools will begin delivery in January 2021. Further information about the oral language programme is available here: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/covid-19-resources/neli/.
We are also making funding available to school sixth forms, colleges, and all other 16-19 providers to offer support small group tuition for lower attaining 16-19 year olds, in English, maths, and other courses where learning has been disrupted as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak. Further information about this is available here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/16-to-19-funding-16-to-19-tuition-fund.
Asked by: Baroness Rebuck (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Education Endowment Foundation’s publication Improving Literacy in Key Stage 1, published on 30 September 2016; and what additional funding they plan to provide to schools to improve literacy, including for (1) the accurate assessment of the capabilities and difficulties children have in literacy, and (2) for one-to-one tutoring for those in greatest need returning to school after the COVID-19 lockdown.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
The Education Endowment Foundation’s publication emphasises the importance of systematic phonics approaches in reading and writing activities with pupils in key stage 1. There is sound evidence that systematic phonics is a highly effective method for teaching early reading. The evidence indicates that the teaching of phonics is most effective when combined with a language rich curriculum to develop children’s positive attitudes towards literacy. The National Curriculum for English places a renewed focus on the requirement for pupils to learn to read through systematic phonics, applying phonic knowledge and skills to word reading.
In 2018 the department launched a £26.3 million English Hubs Programme. The department appointed 34 primary schools across England as English Hubs. The English Hubs Programme is supporting nearly 3,000 schools across England to improve their teaching of reading through systematic synthetic phonics, early language development, and reading for pleasure. The English Hubs are focused on improving educational outcomes for the most disadvantaged pupils in reception and year 1. The Education Endowment Foundation’s publication has been used widely across the English Hub community.
The government has announced a catch up package worth £1 billion, including a ‘Catch up Premium’ worth a total of £650 million to support schools to make up for lost teaching time. Our expectation is that this funding will be spent on the additional activities required to support children and young people to catch up after a period of disruption to their education.
The package also includes the National Tutoring Programme which provides up to £350 million to support disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils. This will increase access to subsidised, high-quality tuition for the most disadvantaged young people, helping to accelerate their academic progress and tackling the attainment gap between them and their peers.
To support settings to make best use of this funding, the Education Endowment Foundation have published a COVID-19 support guide which includes evidence-based approaches to catch up for all students. Details can be found here: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/covid-19-resources/national-tutoring-programme/covid-19-support-guide-for-schools/.
Asked by: Baroness Rebuck (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they support UNESCO’s work in discovering what kind of literacy skills people need to navigate a digitally-mediated society; and what actions they plan to take in the UK to explore and fund effective adult literacy policies and programmes which leverage the opportunities that the digital world provides.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
We welcome the work that UNESCO is doing on digital literacy to highlight some of the challenges and opportunities that the digital world presents.
The Government supports adults in England to develop the basic English and digital expertise they need for employment and everyday life. We provide funding for adults to access a range of literacy training up to English GCSE and equivalent qualifications, and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses.
Provisional Further Education and Skills data shows that in 2016/17 the Government funded the participation of 536,700 adults in English courses and 114,400 adults in ESOL courses. We are also introducing a similar right to funding for specified Information and Communication Technology courses.
Asked by: Baroness Rebuck (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of how many adults in the UK lack basic digital skills, and of that number, how many are functionally illiterate; and what plans they have to ensure that such people do not end up marginalised.
Answered by Lord Agnew of Oulton
The Skills for Life Survey in 2011, assessed the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills of adults aged 16-64 in England using four competencies: word processing; emailing; spreadsheets; and a multiple-choice assessment of other ICT skills such as internet use (see table attached). The survey results demonstrated a broad correlation between the respondents’ performance in the ICT and in the literacy tests.
The Government is supporting adults in England to develop their basic digital skills for the workplace and in everyday life. We are introducing a new entitlement to fully-funded training in digital skills, which will mirror the current approach for improving literacy and numeracy.
The Department also funds the Future Digital Inclusion programme that aims to help one million adults gain basic digital skills by 2019. A majority of these adults are educated below Level 2, unemployed, in a low-income household, in receipt of means-tested benefits, or living in social or sheltered housing.
Asked by: Baroness Rebuck (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what research they have undertaken to better understand the impact on literacy levels of initiatives undertaken by voluntary sector organisations; and how they intend to ensure that funding is targeted where it will be most effective.
Answered by Lord Nash
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), which was set up in 2011 through a £125 million grant from the Government, received £10 million from the Department in 2012 specifically to fund and evaluate 24 projects focused on interventions to improve the literacy of pupils who do not achieve the expected standard in English at the end of primary school.
To date, the EEF has published evaluation reports on 26 literacy-related projects. Of these, 11 involved voluntary sector organisations. Details of all of these projects and the individual evaluation reports are published on the EEF website at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/school-themes/literacy.
The findings from evaluations of these and other EEF funded projects are incorporated into the EEF’s teaching and learning toolkit. This provides school leaders and teachers with an accessible summary of evidence from robust research studies on the impact and cost effectiveness of a range of educational interventions. This information can be used by voluntary sector organisations to inform their own approaches. The toolkit is published on the EEF website.
Asked by: Baroness Rebuck (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what progress is being made in using behavioural insights to identify how to motivate adults to improve their reading skills and to encourage learners to keep studying once enrolled on a course.
Answered by Lord Nash
This Government understands the importance of strong literacy skills and makes English provision a priority for support within the adult skills system. We know that it can be difficult for adults to return to learning and to persist with their studies with the competing demands of work and daily life. That is why we are working alongside the Behavioural Insights Centre for Adult Skills and Knowledge to trial a range of interventions to identify how to motivate adults to engage in learning and to keep studying once enrolled on a course.
Trial results point to a number of positive findings. For example:
The Government is now working with the Behavioural Insights Centre for Adult Skills and Knowledge to disseminate best practice from these behavioural insights trials amongst providers of basic skills courses.