A £100 million scheme supporting children who are struggling to read has boosted pupils’ outcomes and “broader literacy”, researchers have said.
A government-commissioned report, published last month, found the English hubs programme (EHP) has had a “substantial” impact, with more six-year-olds meeting the expected standard in the phonics screening check.
Gap narrowed
Launched in 2018, the EHP aims to boost phonics teaching, early language and reading for pleasure, particularly for those making the slowest progress.
Each of the 34 hub lead schools was selected for its expertise in teaching early reading.
The evaluation assessed the support provided at selected primaries with high levels of disadvantage and a low proportion of pupils meeting the expected standard in the phonics screening check.
The researchers said the two- to three-year course of “bespoke intensive support” is the programme’s main focus.
They found this increased the proportion of year 1 children meeting the expected standard by three to five percentage points.
The report called the improvements “substantial” as the screening check gap between the schools receiving the support and those not in the programme stood at six percentage points.
‘Not fully sustained’
Estimates suggested the EHP’s impact increased “with each year of support and is partially (but not fully) sustained after support stops”.
The researchers also found that during the programme – which has cost more than £100 million – there has not been a decrease in impact over time.
“This suggests the EHP has been effective both during the pandemic and during post-pandemic recovery,” the report added.
It comes after earlier Department for Education research found no firm “causal” link between schools taking part in the hubs scheme and improved phonics screening check results.
But the new study attributed the difference between its results and those of earlier analyses to “a change in methods, mainly an improvement in controls used”.
More benefits
It also stressed the work does not capture the “full benefits” of the hubs’ non-intensive support, nor the impact of teachers moving between schools after engaging with the programme.
“The strength of evidence for the effectiveness of phonics as a pedagogy suggests the impact of the EHP on pupils’ broader literacy learning is likely to be significant,” it said.
The report comes after education secretary Bridget Phillipson set a new “ambition” for 90 per cent of pupils to reach the expected standard by 2029.
This year, like last, 80 per cent of pupils passed the check in year 1.
Phillipson also plans to launch a mandatory year 8 test assessing “reading fluency and comprehension”.
