Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the research by Rebecca Simpson-Hargreaves Starting a new chapter – childhood literacy education, published on 25 May; and in particular, the conclusion that the focus on phonics creates a non-balanced approach to literacy and the related finding by the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) that only 29 per cent of English children say that they enjoy reading.

By ensuring high quality systematic synthetic phonics teaching, the government wants to improve literacy levels to give all children a solid base upon which to build as they progress through school and help children to develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information.

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has carried out a comprehensive review of robust studies on the impact of phonics. It found that phonics is more effective on average than other approaches for early reading, when embedded in a rich literacy environment.

Evidence has also shown that phonics is an important component in the development of early reading skills, particularly for children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The reading framework, published on 11 July 2023, is unequivocal in its support for reading for pleasure and provides guidance on how the best schools build on their strong phonics teaching to create a strong reading culture.

Those reaching the expected standard in the phonics screening check (PSC) are substantially more likely to subsequently reach the expected standard in Key Stage 2 reading. In 2022, 85% of those meeting PSC expectations in Year 1 subsequently met Key Stage 2 reading expectations, compared to 18% of those who had not met PSC expectations in Years 1 or 2. Additionally, the strongest predictor of Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) performance was the Year 1 phonics check mark, for which a 1-point increase was associated with nearly a 4-point gain in PIRLS 2021 overall reading performance.

In PIRLS 2021, 76% of surveyed pupils in England reported that they ‘very much like’ or ‘somewhat like’ reading.