Skip to main content

Written question asked by Angela Rayner (Labour) on Wednesday, 21 June 2017, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 26 June 2017. It was answered by Nick Gibb (Conservative) on Thursday, 29 June 2017 on behalf of the Department for Education.


Literacy: Teaching Methods

Question

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

Answer

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.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
463
Session
2017-19
Subjects
Literacy Teaching methods
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk