The low achievers left behind
Updated on 22 October 2007
Why do around 40,000 children in England and Wales leave primary school each year with the reading and writing skills of a seven-year-old at best?
They pledged to get more children reading and writing, but despite the Government's ambitious literacy targets those at the bottom are still being left behind.
In English schools the figure has barely changed over the last decade.
Critics say it's because the tests children take before they move up to secondary school leave the very lowest achievers behind. As part of Channel Four's literacy week - Lost for Words - Lucy Manning has this special report:
'There's some people in here that can't even write their own names'James Barney, inmate
I went to Ashfield Young Offenders Institution near Bristol. Teenagers are sent here for all kinds of different offences. But two thirds of those who do come here have one thing in common: they can't read and write properly.
"Well I didn't do nothing really, didn't do no writing, definitely no reading. There's some people in here that can't even write their own names." James Barney, inmate
"If you can't learn to read and write you can't really get a job and that so you won't bother with the jobs like you just stay on the road and do robberies and that." - Guy Guikahuie, inmate
If you can't learn to read and write you can't really get a job and that so you won't bother with the jobs like you just stay on the road and do robberies and thatGuy Guikahuie, inmate
Young offenders like these are part of a hardcore of literacy underachievers - many can't read a book or fill out an application form. And surprisingly the numbers of those really struggling hasn't got much better since Labour came to power.
Outside of the prison there are thousands not in the prison system who also can't read and write properly. So why is it with a supposedly world class education system there are still many school-children who can't seem to master these basic skills?
Over the past ten years the Government has introduced a range of measures to improve literacy in our state schools.And at the top end of the scale - it's succeeded in getting more and more children up to the expected levels of literacy.
But when it comes to the least able children it seems the Government's strategy just isn't working.
When Labour came to power in 1997 - 7 per cent of children leaving primary school couldn't read and write properly. Over the years those figures have remained virtually the same despite all the money and despite all the initiatives - and this year well there's little change again.
So what's going wrong?
Children in their last year of primary school, ten, eleven year olds are trained and drilled for the tests and it's disastrous. I think it impacts particularly heavily on low achieving children."Mary Hilton, Children's Literacy, Cambridge University
Around 40,000 children leave primary school each year with the reading age of a seven year old or lower. Part of the problem say critics is the exam they take at age 11.
"Children in their last year of primary school, ten, eleven year olds are trained and drilled for the tests and its disastrous.
"I think it impacts particularly heavily on low achieving children because their targets and the things they have to work on are banal quite often - like use more connectives, or use full stops.
"These children more than anyone else need to be motivated and engaged with ideas."
Mary Hilton, Children's Literacy, Cambridge University
In Huddersfield Cowlersley primary school has brought in a children's author to try to make literacy more appealing to children of all abilities. The school's had to pay for his visit themselves.
Alan Gibbons was himself once a primary school teacher. He thinks the pressure teachers are under to get sufficient numbers of children through the end of primary school exam makes them focus on borderline pupils - those most likely with help to get through the test. The lowest achievers just get forgotten.
"I think they are getting squeezed out.
"When teachers know that there are going to be league tables of test scores comparing different schools in a kind of free market, they are going to always be pressurized.
"So everything's put into the borderline kids to make sure they get the eye-catching newspaper selling average level for their age. The danger is those children who can't reasonably get that target may just stew and stagnate." Alan Gibbons, author & former primary school teacher
'There is no good evidence at all that children are falling behind because of testing.'Lord Adonis, Minister for Schools and Learners
Another criticism is that testing limits creative approaches to teaching, especially important for those children failing their reading and writing towards the end of primary schooling.
"What we must have is teachers that feel able to be imaginative in all different ways with these children. The trouble is we've got this very, very hefty testing drilling for the testing, regime going on in our primary schools which is interfering with this vital imaginative side of teaching. And I think yes I think there is an onus on the government to re-engage hard core of low achievers in the curriculum and to motivate them." - Mary Hilton
The Government disagrees with this view - far from holding back the lowest achievers and stifling creativity, testing, it feels, is a crucial part of its literacy strategy.
"Testing isn't the be all and end all, it is a way of diagnosing the state of a child's development and of course it has to go hand in hand with a broader curriculum and with a focus on activities the children enjoy including books and other literacy activities. There is no good evidence at all that children are falling behind because of testing. On the contrary, every good school tests, this is a fact of life." - Lord Adonis, Minister for Schools and Learners
But this conventional wisdom isn't accepted everywhere in the British Isles. In Wales they've ditched the testing system still used in English schools - and they say that literacy is improving - especially for those who are struggling.
Instead of compulsory end of primary school exams - children's abilities in Wales are now monitored by regular teacher assessments.
'I never used to read books, innit. But when I started this I had to read books and that help me with my reading and writing'Guy Guikahuie
Without the rigours of the testing system, Waunfawr School in South Wales says it feels more able to use imaginative methods.
"With the English system the poor little strapper at the bottom really struggles and it's not, it's not devised for his needs. This is teaching that stimulates children, enthuses children and as a result then the outcomes that you get are much, much better." - Paul Fowler - Head Teacher, Waunfawr Primary School
Unlike in England, for some years Wales has been improving the literacy skills of its lowest achievers. In 1999, 9 per cent of children here left primary schools unable to read and write properly.
The figure was down to 6 per cent when compulsory exams at the end of primary school were scrapped. Now it's 4.8 per cent - well below the English level.
"Some would say that the English system really allows parents a good snap shot, there is an exam and they can see how their child is doing and the Welsh system doesn't provide that?
"I would disagree with you there - I think you'd find that we're doing a lot of assessing and we're using those assessments to identify the, the lack of understanding that particular child has and then we can address those things through our teaching" - Paul Fowler
The Government is taking a cautious wait-and-see attitude towards the Welsh experiment
"The Welsh changes are very recent. If we look at the English example the introduction of serious testing went hand in hand with a dramatic improvement in standards in primary schools and that improvement in standards is continuing." - Lord Adonis
Lost for Words
Find out more about Channel 4's campaign to get kids reading, and what you can do to help.
Find out more
But it's those at the bottom who seem to be missing out in England whereas they seem to be improving in Wales. But it is far too soon to draw any conclusions on the basis of changes in a small number of, of pupils over a tiny period.
What is clear is that the literacy strategy followed by the Government in England is having little impact on primary school children with the worst reading and writing skills And once they get to secondary school - many of them never catch up.
Those that end up in prison cost the taxpayer twice as much to educate in jail than on the outside.
"When I came to govern Ashfield I was so surprised at the low levels of literacy and the poor reading and writing skills of the young people here, well I was shocked. I think literacy is crucial to staying out of places like this" - Vicky O'Dea - Director, Ashfield Young Offenders Trust
Maybe because they are a captive audience, teaching these young men to read and write does seem to work - here it is made an integral part of their practical training.
"They have to write out that recipe. At the end of the lesson they then have to write out a diary sheet explaining what they've learnt, what skills they've learnt on that day and how they thought the lesson went" - Peter Knight, food tech teacher
James Barney said to me:
"Just used to spend my day doing nothing. And now it's just all filled up with education and that. It's helped, it's helped me coming in here, it's helped me realise what I need and that like so."
"Do you think your reading and writing's got better since you came here?
"Yeah definitely"
When I spoke to Guy Guikahuie again, he said:
"I never used to read books, innit. But when I started this I had to read books and that help me with my reading and writing. "
Many believe there needs to be much greater emphasis on those children at the bottom. Because the consequences of not doing so are so great.
The literacy challenge is still how to help that group of low achievers. Is it through a change in testing - maybe more creativity in the classroom. Because if there are no improvements well it's places like this that are still going to have to pick up the pieces.
