Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to ensure that the Centre of Excellence for Literacy Teaching provides support for learners with dyslexia and other literacy needs.
Answered on
18 July 2018
The Department is currently in the process of selecting English Hubs, which will share effective practice with a particular focus on language and literacy teaching in reception and Key Stage 1. One of the programme’s key aims and objectives is to develop and promote effective, evidence-based teaching practice in all aspects of early literacy for all children, including systematic synthetic phonics.
Good phonics teaching, as highlighted by England’s highest ever results in the 2016 PIRLS study, provides an excellent foundation for reading: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pirls-2016-reading-literacy-performance-in-england. There is also evidence that structured, systematic synthetic phonics teaching, in addition to engaging with reading books, can also help pupils in reception and Key Stage 1 with dyslexia to read well. The reformed National Curriculum and the Phonics Screening Check, encourage teachers to use this method and since the introduction of the Phonics Screening Check in 2012, 154,000 more six-year-olds on track to become fluent readers.