Too many young people leave school in Wales without being “functionally literate”, a damning new report says. This failing has significant social and economic impact on the nation, school inspectorate Estyn warned.
The Covid pandemic “unsurprisingly” had a negative impact on many pupils’ reading skills, Estyn’s report, Developing pupils’ English reading skills from 10 to 14 years of age, says. Although this is beginning to improve with the return of face to face teaching, reading gaps between the least well off and their wealthier peers has widened.
Findings in the report include:
- Wide variations in the reading skills of 10 to 14-year-olds remain across primary, secondary and all-age schools
- Most pupils in the first three years of secondary school don’t develop their reading skills well enough
- Only a few secondary schools successfully promote reading for pleasure
- Planning development of pupils’ skills, particularly reading skills, from the last year of primary to first year of secondary “is underdeveloped in nearly all schools across Wales”.
- Poor collaboration between Wales’ school improvement service consortia means the highest quality professional learning for reading skills isn’t available across Wales.
- Few secondaries and a minority of primaries have welcoming, accessible, well-stocked and supervised libraries.
- In many secondary schools, pupils use basic reading skills well, but only a minority develop advanced reading skills effectively.
- Reading skills worsened during the pandemic and even more so for the least well off children.
- A minority of primary and secondary school leaders monitor and evaluate the impact of reading strategies robustly enough.
- In many schools visited the negative impact of the pandemic on reading skills means teachers have to use strategies normally used with younger pupils when teaching older pupils.
More hopefully the document says reading standards in around eight in 10 primaries are “good” and “in many secondary schools, pupils use basic reading skills well”. Nearly all pupils in the sample understood the importance of learning to read and reading, although enjoyment of reading declines from age 10 to 14.
The report also highlights some examples of schools successfully developing reading skills. But perhaps the most stark and damning statement from the report is this: “There is also widespread agreement that too many young people leave school without the necessary skills to be functionally literate, which has significant social and economic costs for Wales.”
And while reading standards are starting to improve since pandemic losses, Estyn adds: “recent inspection findings show that wide variations in pupils’ reading skills remain both within and across schools.”
The findings are based on children aged 10-14 with inspectors visiting a range of English medium schools and drawing from previous inspection and other reports.
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The document notes that in the latest Pisa international reading tests in 2018 Wales’ mean reading score, for the first time, was not significantly lower than the OECD average, but said this was “primarily because the performance of some other countries had deteriorated.” In those tests England, Scotland and Northern Ireland had mean reading scores that were statistically significantly higher than Wales’ score.
Since then the pandemic has had a negative effect: “We found, enterprisingly, that the pandemic had a negative impact on many pupils’ reading skills but particularly on those pupils eligible for free school meals or from disadvantaged backgrounds, the report says.
“ Overall, many pupils’ standards in reading are beginning to improve. However, recent inspection findings show that wide variations in pupils’ reading skills remain both within and across schools.
"A higher proportion of pupils in the last year of primary make good progress developing advanced reading skills than in the first three years of high school.
“Our findings show that very few school clusters (primary schools along with the secondary school that the majority of their pupils progress to) plan effectively for the development of pupils’ reading skills from Year 6 into Year 7. This is also true in many all-age schools, which teach pupils from the primary and secondary phases.
“Our findings suggest that, overall, planning for the progressive development of pupils’ skills, particularly their reading skills, from Year 6 to Year 7, is underdeveloped in nearly all schools across Wales. This is also the case in many all-age schools because there isn’t enough communication and collaborative planning between the Year 6 and Year 7 teachers.”
And help for teachers is not always available, the report adds: “School improvement services provide school staff with professional learning opportunities relating to developing pupils’ reading skills, which are too variable in quality. The school improvement services do not collaborate well enough to ensure that the highest quality professional learning is available across Wales,” the document adds.
Inspectors said the best schools teach strategies that help pupils understand what they’re reading and develop speaking and listening skills, but warned “only a minority of secondary schools implement these strategies consistently in English lessons and across the curriculum”.
In both primary and secondary, only a minority of leaders monitor and evaluate the impact of reading strategies well enough.
Responding to the findings Owen Evans, Chief Inspector of Schools and head of Estyn, said: “Improving pupils’ reading skills is a national priority. Although the pandemic had a negative impact, especially on those disadvantaged by poverty, we’re seeing that standards of reading are improving again. Schools that have identified specific skills deficits and are focused on filling these gaps are making the best progress.
‘Our findings shows that the best teachers weave listening, speaking, reading and writing together skilfully so that each benefits the others. We recommend that school leaders, supported by their clusters and improvement partners, provide opportunities for staff to learn about evidence-based teaching strategies to develop pupils’ reading skills across the curriculum.”
The report makes a series of recommendations for school leaders, teachers, school improvement services and the Welsh Government. These include close monitoring and evaluation of the impact of reading strategies in schools, better planning between primary and secondaries and that the Welsh Government continues to promote and develop its national oracy and reading programme.
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