Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to help ensure that all schools are meeting their statutory requirements as part of the spoken language programme of study within the Primary and Secondary National Curriculum.

Standard English is taught in schools from Year 1 and the aim is that every young person should be able to use Standard English irrespective of accent or dialect, where appropriate, in writing and relatively formal speaking.

The National Curriculum for English reflects the importance of spoken language in pupils’ development across the whole curriculum. The quality and variety of language that pupils hear and speak is vital for developing their vocabulary and grammar and their understanding for reading and writing.

Pupils in Years 1 to 6 should be taught to:

• listen and respond appropriately to adults and their peers;
• ask relevant questions to extend their understanding and knowledge;
• use relevant strategies to build their vocabulary;
• articulate and justify answers, arguments and opinions;
• give well-structured descriptions, explanations and narratives for different purposes, including for expressing feelings;
• maintain attention and participate actively in collaborative conversations, staying on topic and initiating and responding to comments;
• use spoken language to develop understanding through speculating, hypothesising, imagining and exploring ideas;
• speak audibly and fluently with an increasing command of Standard English;
• participate in discussions, presentations, performances, role play/improvisations and debates;
• gain, maintain and monitor the interest of the listener(s);
• consider and evaluate different viewpoints, attending to and building on the contributions of others;
• select and use appropriate registers for effective communication.

Spoken language continues to underpin the development of pupils' reading and writing during Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4. The National Curriculum programmes of study for these key stages state that teachers should ensure pupils' confidence and competence in this area continue to develop. Pupils should be taught to understand and use the conventions for discussion and debate, as well as continuing to develop their skills in working collaboratively with their peers to discuss reading, writing and speech across the curriculum.

The Department’s poetry competition, delivered by Poetry by Heart, supports this initiative and helps to develop and support inspiring poetry teaching in schools, and to motivate pupils and teachers to explore our rich literary heritage. Pupils choose poems from the online anthology covering 1,000 years of poetry and recite these in school-based competitions. A national final will be held in July 2021 and is open to pupils in Key Stages 2, 3, 4 and 5.

In 2018, the Department launched a £26.3 million English Hubs Programme dedicated to improving the teaching of reading, with a focus on supporting children making the slowest progress in reading, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds. The 34 English Hubs in the programme are primary schools which are outstanding at teaching early 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. Since its launch, the English Hubs Programme has provided appropriate and targeted support to several thousands of schools across England. In the 2020/21 academic year, the programme is providing intensive support to over 875 partner schools.