Guernsey Press

‘Some Year 7s can read only like a six-year-old’

NEW statistics have revealed the extent of falling literacy standards in primary schools and that an ‘unacceptably high proportion’ of pupils have levels of reading and writing that mean they will struggle with secondary education.

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Clare Sealy, head of curriculum and standards. (Picture by Sophie Rabey, 25962735)

In 2018, 81% of States school pupils achieved the minimum expected standard of reading at key stage 2, but this year that dropped to 71%.

The key stage 2 writing standard at gateway level also fell, with fewer pupils reaching the basic benchmark.

The decline in standards was evidenced at key stage 1 this year as well, where fewer pupils achieved the minimum expected standard for writing, although there was an improvement in reading among this age group.

This autumn’s new Year 7 have just finished tests and provisional data has showed that their overall standard in English is significantly below the national average set by the assessment company.

More than a quarter of the current Year 7 were ranked ‘below average’ or ‘very low’ in English and it means they cannot access the full curriculum.

For example, a student studying geography might not understand about volcanoes because they cannot read sufficiently to grasp the concept.

Very few students were classed as illiterate, but some of the current crop of Year 7 pupils have the reading age of a six-year-old.

Over the past four years there has been a roughly 40% spike in the number of students identified as requiring additional literacy support.

In contrast at the early years foundation stage, which covers the age group up to five years old, there have been consistent improvements in reading and writing since 2016.

Education president Deputy Matt Fallaize announced in the States last month that an immediate review of literacy was under way and would be carried out in the current school term.

The review will consider possible reasons and suggest solutions which can be put in place to reverse the decline.

Until that investigation is carried out it is not deemed possible for definitive conclusions to be drawn.

However, education experts believe that one factor that could be contributing to the drop in overall achievement is the Bailiwick curriculum, called The Big Picture, which was introduced to some fanfare in 2017 with the slogan ‘promoting joyous and purposeful learning’.

This curriculum, which covers all the age ranges from five to 19, focuses largely on skills and preparations for the world of work, but it is thought this model is leaving gaps in young people’s content learning and knowledge.

Another possible theory to explain the decline in literacy in state schools is that following the abolition of the 11-plus and selective education, some parents could have taken higher attaining pupils out of the state system and into the colleges and this has skewed the statistics.

The drop in standards though is considered too pronounced to be put down to that reason alone.

The possibility that the decline is due to a one-off weak cohort has also been ruled out because the data shows across-the-board dips.

The new head of curriculum and standards, Clare Sealy is in charge of leading the reforms into how children are being taught, and she is determined to raise standards.

‘If you are one of these children who is really struggling, we’re not just going to say it’s a shame he or she didn’t learn to read and write at primary school and it’s a normal distribution curve, we are not going to be fatalistic like that, we are going to move heaven and earth to get them to catch up, so that’s a big significant investment that the committee has pledged,’ she said.

‘It’s just not fair on those children, we have more ambition for those children, we know of programmes that really work in a focused way to push these children up, and that’s what we’re going to bring in.’