Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans he has to improve literacy rates of key stage 1 students from lower income households.

The Government is committed to continuing to raise literacy standards – ensuring all children, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, can read fluently and with understanding.

There is sound evidence that systematic synthetic phonics is a highly effective method of teaching reading to children. The Department introduced the light touch phonics screening check for Year 1 pupils in 2012. Phonics performance is improving: in 2018, 163,000 more six year olds were on track to become fluent readers compared to 2012. This represented 82% of pupils meeting the expected standard, compared to 58% in 2012.

Building on this success, in 2018 the Department launched a £26.3 million English Hubs Programme. The Department has appointed 34 primary schools across England as English Hubs, which are taking a leading role in supporting nearly 3000 schools to improve their teaching of reading through systematic synthetic phonics, early language development, and reading for pleasure. The English Hubs are primarily focused on Key Stage 1 and focus on supporting schools with high levels of disadvantage.