Phonics (Hansard, 22 November 2001)

§ Baroness Brigstocke
asked Her Majesty's Government:
In the light of the recent Ofsted paper on the teaching of phonics, what further action they will take to secure the proper teaching of phonics in primary schools and teacher training colleges.

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Skills (Baroness Ashton of Upholland)
My Lords, Ofsted reported last month that the amount of phonics teaching had increased substantially since the implementation of the national literacy strategy in 1998. We have made excellent progress, but there is still much more to do. We are continuing to provide a comprehensive programme of training and support to teachers and to teacher trainers on phonics, which is critical to children's early literacy.

§ Baroness Brigstocke
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that Answer. I agree that a start has been made, but I hope that she agrees that many of the comments in the Ofsted report are still worrying. Does she have any plans for improving the teaching of phonics, which are acknowledged to help enormously with the learning of reading and writing, particularly for year 3—the eight and nine year-olds—where the inspectors found so many lessons to be less than satisfactory?

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, the noble Baroness makes some excellent points. It is worth pointing out that in five out of six schools the teaching of phonics in years 1 and 2 was considered by Ofsted to be satisfactory, which I interpret to mean fine. The teaching of phonics is also good in the majority of reception classes. The noble Baroness pointed out that the teaching of phonics in years 3 and 4 is not so obvious. In a sense, that does not surprise us, because if a good grounding has been made, we do not expect every lesson to put the same emphasis on phonics as was the case when the children were younger. However, we have trained all reception and year I teachers in phonics and we continue to give teacher trainers professional development in phonics. We have endeavoured to spend good resources this year to ensure that that happens. Last year, we trained 38,000 primary teachers in phonics teaching.

§ Baroness Andrews
My Lords, given the tribute that the excellent Ofsted report, mentioned by the noble 1236 Baroness, paid to the role of phonics in the overall success of the national literacy strategy, which has raised the achievement of many thousands of children of all ages in primary schools, will the Minister take this opportunity to congratulate the teachers and classroom assistants who are working in such effective partnership to raise standards across the country?

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, I am sure that, as my noble friend has said, the whole House will wish to congratulate teachers on the excellent work that they do and to pay full recognition to the role of classroom assistants, who play a fantastic part in the development of children's education. We have seen significant progress in reading, writing and spelling over the past four years. The number of seven year-olds achieving the expected level in reading has gone up from 80 to 84 per cent. In spelling, the figures have gone up from 62 to 75 per cent.

§ Baroness Sharp of Guildford
My Lords, does the Minister agree that there are as many factions in the teaching of reading as there are among the Northern Alliance? Does she also agree that different children learn to read in different ways? While it may be good to start off with a good grounding in phonics in the first two years in primary school, it is important for teachers to be aware of and trained in other methods of teaching reading so that they may respond to individual needs.

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, I have no information about the factions in the Northern Alliance, but I understand the noble Baroness's point, which is a good one. That is why we put the emphasis on phonics teaching in reception and year 1, but we recognise that by years 3 and 4 teachers are diversifying their strategies. We believe that phonics provide a good grounding. The proof is in the results of those schools that put an emphasis on phonics in the early years. However, we have fantastic teachers and we recognise that they develop strategies that are appropriate to their classes and to individual children as they get older.

§ Baroness Gardner of Parkes
My Lords, will the Minister define phonics for us and tell us how they are used? I do not know exactly what she is talking about.

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, I do not believe that I have the time to answer that question properly, but phonics are essentially about groups of sounds that are put together. My guess is that the noble Baroness was taught phonics, because the method has been used over the years, though it was felt to have been lost along the way in the teaching of children. It is about groups of sound coming together so that children recognise the sound and attempt to turn that into writing. It is a simple and basic way of exploring a language, but it is very important for small children, who get confidence in language as a result.

§ Baroness Walmsley
My Lords, does the Minister agree that the important thing is that the classes are 1237 taught by a fully qualified teacher who knows the children, and preferably not a supply teacher? Will she assure us that however many classroom assistants the Government employ, classes of that age will always be supervised by a fully qualified teacher, who is in a position to make a judgment between the different reading schemes available?

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, it is very important that teachers teach. The purpose of classroom assistants is to support them in that role and to do some of the work that teachers unnecessarily do or feel that they have to do because they do not have enough support. Classroom assistants can work with groups of children under the supervision of a qualified teacher. That is applicable to all years. It is important that we enjoy a range of adults coming into our schools to support teachers. We must free teachers to teach.

§ Baroness Blatch
My Lords, does the noble Baroness accept that some of us never lost our support for the teaching of phonics? There was a movement in education that lasted throughout the 1960s and 1970s which decided that creativity was more important than phonics. I hope that the noble Baroness agrees that a great deal of damage was done to young people at that time. It is all very well to be creative, but unless children understand the fundamentals of reading and writing, creativity has no home.

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, I agree with the noble Baroness that it is important to get a balance in education. We want children to be creative and to explore and express themselves, but the noble Baroness is right about the basics—hence the national literacy strategy.

§ The Earl of Listowel
My Lords, have the improvements among children whose first language is not English mirrored those among English-speaking children since the introduction of the literacy strategy?

§ Baroness Ashton of Upholland
My Lords, I cannot give exact figures. I understand that the pattern is varied, but with good teaching and good support, children for whom English is a second language are doing very well. However, that is not universal. As noble Lords are fully aware, there is more to do.