Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to support children with dyslexia to achieve grade 5 or above in English and Maths GCSEs.

The department is committed to improving outcomes for all children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), including those with dyslexia.

On 5 February 2025, the government announced a £2 million investment to drive high and rising standards in reading and writing. In secondary school, teachers are being offered new training and resources this year to help them support readers at all levels, and next academic year the department will deliver further training that will be focused specifically on struggling readers in secondary school who are at risk of falling behind. The English Hubs programme is also dedicated to improving the teaching of reading, with a focus on supporting children making the slowest progress in reading. As part of the continuous professional development provided by the English Hubs, the Reading Ambition for All programme has been launched to improve outcomes for children in primary who need additional support with reading, including those with SEND.

The department funds the Maths Hubs programme, a school-led network aimed at improving the teaching of mathematics for all pupils in publicly funded schools. The programme covers primary, secondary and special schools and uses a mastery-based teaching approach which aims to secure understanding of key concepts. This includes training for teachers on techniques such as avoiding cognitive overload by breaking learning down into small manageable steps, using representations to expose mathematical structure and ensuring that learning is sequenced in a coherent manner so it makes sense to pupils.