Tim Farron – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Tim Farron on 2016-05-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to minimise the difference between the number of words to which young children in low-income and high-income households are exposed.
Nick Gibb
No matter where they live or what their background, every child in this country deserves the opportunity to read, to read widely, and to read well. The Government wants all children to develop a wide vocabulary irrespective of their background. In August 2015, the Secretary of State launched a literacy campaign to make children in this country the most literate in Europe, in the next five years.
We placed phonics at the heart of the curriculum to give all young children the skills to decode words and provide the foundation for them to read fluently.
The National Curriculum framework sets a clear expectation that teachers develop pupils’ vocabulary, building on pupils’ current knowledge. This covers both general vocabulary development and the subject specific language that pupils need to be able to use to progress in, for example, mathematics and science.
Vocabulary development is emphasised and integrated throughout the programmes of study for English and linked to their reading, writing and spelling. Both the reading and writing domains of the English programmes of study emphasise the importance of building pupils’ vocabulary.
Reading widely and often, together with reading for pleasure is also reinforced throughout the programmes of study, and attention to the quantity and quality of reading will support vocabulary development.
We are working with The Reading Agency to set up book clubs in hundreds of primary schools across the country; we are supporting their work to enrol 8 year olds in libraries; and we support the voluntary sector’s ‘Read On. Get On’ campaign, which is playing a key role in raising literacy. Our ambition is that children can get to know the classics of English literature whether or not these books are on the bookshelves at home. In February 2016, Penguin Classics launched their ‘Classics in Schools’ initiative to give sets of 100 classics to schools at reduced cost.
