Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what her policy is on phonics screening testing.

It is vital that pupils learn to read in the early years of primary school.

There is a substantial body of evidence which demonstrates that systematic synthetic phonics is the most effective method for teaching all pupils to read. The phonics screening check for pupils in year 1 was introduced nationally in 2012, to make sure that pupils have learned phonic decoding to an age appropriate standard. Thanks to the hard work of teachers, our continued focus on raising standards and the increased emphasis on phonics‎, there are now an additional 147,000 six-year-olds on track to becoming fluent readers. Given this success, we continue to support the administration of the phonics screening check in our primary schools.