Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department for Education:
What recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of teaching early literacy through phonics.
Answered by Nick Gibb
There is a significant body of evidence that demonstrates that systematic phonics is a highly effective method for teaching early reading. According to the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), phonics approaches have been consistently found to be effective in supporting younger readers to master the basics of reading, with an average impact of an additional four months’ progress. Research suggests that phonics is particularly beneficial for younger pupils (four to seven year olds) as they begin to read. Teaching phonics is more effective on average than other approaches to early reading (such as whole language or alphabetic approaches), though it should be emphasised that effective phonics techniques are usually embedded in a rich literacy environment for early readers and are only one part of a successful literacy strategy[1].
In 2018 there were 163,000 more six year olds in England on track to become fluent readers compared to 2012. This represented 82% of pupils meeting the expected standard in the phonics screening check, compared to just 58% when the check was introduced in 2012.
The Department is investing £26 million in a national network of English hubs to support local schools in developing their teaching practice, with a focus on systematic phonics, early language development and reading for pleasure. There are now 34 such hubs, based in primary schools across England.
[1] EEF Phonics Teaching and Learning Toolkit, updated August 2018 (available at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/teaching-learning-toolkit/phonics/).
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to encourage more students to take up a creative, artistic and technical subject at GCSE.
Answered by Nick Gibb
At Key Stage 4, all pupils in maintained schools have an entitlement to study an arts subject and a design and technology subject.
In addition to the revised curriculum introduced into schools in 2014, new GCSEs in a number of creative, artistic, and technical subjects including music, art and design, dance, drama, design and technology, food preparation and nutrition, electronics and engineering have been developed to be more rigorous.
These GCSEs or any other GCSEs and technical awards from the Department approved list can count towards the open element of Progress and Attainment 8. These measures are designed to encourage schools to offer a broad and balanced curriculum.
Asked by: Maggie Throup (Conservative - Erewash)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make it her policy to ring-fence a proportion of the revenue raised from the sugar levy to support the least active children to exercise more.
Answered by Edward Timpson
We want all pupils to be healthy and active. Since 2013, we have invested over £600 million of ring-fenced funding to improve PE and sport in primary schools through the Primary PE and Sport premium. Evidence indicates that the funding is having a major impact, with 84% of schools reporting an increase in pupil engagement in PE during curricular time and in the levels of participation in extra-curricular activities.
Schools have the freedom to decide how best to use the funding based on the needs of their pupils, and the evidence indicates that the majority of schools are already targeting some of their funding at the least active pupils within their schools.
But we know that there is more to do, which is we have committed to using revenue from the soft drinks industry levy to double the primary PE and sport premium to £320 million a year from September 2017. This will enable schools to make further improvements to the quality and breadth of their PE and sport provision.