Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, following their Race Disparity Audits, what steps they are taking to ensure that educational institutions improve the standard of reading among Gypsies, Roma and Travellers aged 6–7.

The department’s education reforms, including those aimed at improving teaching, literacy and numeracy, and strengthening the curriculum and examination system, are designed to deliver opportunity and high standards for all pupils, regardless of their ethnic background. These reforms are reinforced by new school accountability measures, which are intended to encourage schools to focus more closely on the attainment of all their pupils. The introduction of a new national curriculum for maintained schools from 2014, with phonics at its heart and the establishment of 32 English Hubs in 2018 specifically support primary schools to improve standards of reading.

The department knows that the most significant factor affecting pupil attainment, which cuts across all ethnicities including a high proportion of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children, is economic disadvantage. To tackle this, the department has provided a total of £13.75 billion from April 2011 to March 2018 through the pupil premium to help schools improve the progress and attainment of their disadvantaged pupils. The department continues to provide this additional funding, which is £2.4 billion this year alone.

In January last year, the department established the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller stakeholder group to inform policy development to raise the attainment and participation of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller pupils at all stages of education.