Reading: Teaching Methods

(asked on 7th December 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will cancel phonics tests in 2021 in England in response to the pressures resulting from the covid-19 outbreak.


Answered by
Nick Gibb Portrait
Nick Gibb
This question was answered on 10th December 2020

Getting the fundamentals right at an early age is vital for success at secondary school and in later life. It is important, therefore, to gauge standards at an early but appropriate age, identify those pupils who need extra help, and then ensure they receive it. Once pupils can decode, using consistent synthetic phonics, they are able to focus on their wider reading skills and develop a love of reading.

The phonics screening check is considered essential to support the Department’s wider aim to help address any lost time in education during the COVID-19 outbreak. It is a short, light-touch assessment, to confirm whether individual pupils have learnt phonic decoding to an expected standard.?The aim is simply to identify the pupil’s decoding ability, so that those who need help can be identified and supported by the school.

The Department is enabling a more flexible approach in schools in 2021, accommodating those absent on the scheduled date for the phonics screening check by extending the existing timetable variation window by a further week, until 25 June 2021.

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