The power of reading how the next government can

Recommendation 3: Ensure stronger
support for disadvantaged children who
are falling behind
$ESPITEMAJORPROGRESSINPHONICSANDDECODING
skills, a significant minority of children are not 
reaching the expected standard of reading during 
primary school. Children from disadvantaged 
backgrounds are at a significantly greater risk of 
failing to reach the expected standard. 
A significant minority of children fall behind in reading 
during primary school, putting them at greater risk of 
not being able to read well at the age of 11:
s !QUARTEROFSIXYEAROLDSARENOTMEETINGTHE
expected level in phonics, rising to two-fifths of 
children eligible for free school meals.
s /NEINTENSEVENYEAROLDSDONOTACHIEVETHE
expected standard in reading, rising to one in five 
children eligible for free school meals.

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s #HILDRENFROMDISADVANTAGEDBACKGROUNDSARE
likely to be further behind in their reading than 
children who struggle with reading but are from 
wealthier families.
50
s #HILDRENWHOFALLBEHINDINPRIMARYSCHOOLARE
less likely to catch up and achieve a good English 
GCSE than their better-off peers.
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In what is likely to be a tight public spending round, 
our priority for further investment is to improve the 
quality of early education for the poorest children, 
as set out above. However, there are options for 
reforming existing pupil premium spending for 
primary school children so that it focuses resources 
and accountability on children from disadvantaged 
backgrounds who are falling behind. 
Currently, a catch-up premium worth £500 is paid to 
secondary schools for each Year 7 pupil who did not 
achieve the expected standard in reading or maths 
at the end of primary school.
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There is no specific 
catch-up premium for children who start primary 
school without achieving the expected standard 
in early language and literacy, or who fall behind 
while they are in primary school. Yet there is strong 
evidence that low-income children who are falling 
behind benefit from earlier support, rather than 
waiting until they get to secondary school.
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One option proposed by the Fair Education Alliance 
is to refocus the existing pupil premium on children 
who are eligible for free school meals and who start 
primary school behind.
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This would use existing 
funding and accountability mechanisms for the 
pupil premium to focus attention on children who 
need the most urgent help to progress, including 
in reading. It would make primary schools more 
accountable for how they support disadvantaged 
children who are falling behind. 
The primary pupil premium will be worth £1,300 per 
pupil in 2015–16 and is paid straight to schools for 
any child registered as eligible for free school meals 
at any point in the last six years. The FEA proposes 
halving the existing premium, and redistributing the 
other half to children who meet the existing eligibility 
criteria 
and
have low prior attainment. New baseline 
tests for children at the start of the reception year, 
to be introduced in September 2016, could be used 
as the basis for measuring the prior attainment of 
children starting primary school.

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#HILDRENWHOENJOYREADINGANDCANREAD
well by the age of 11 have the door opened 
to new discoveries and wider interests, 
to knowledge, creativity and confidence. 
Reading is the key to unlocking every
child’s full potential and opens up a world
of possibilities. 
While we all have a role to play in getting all children 
in our country reading well by 11, there is an 
important role for government to play in leading
this national ambition for our children’s futures.
The year 2015 represents a crucial moment in the 
Read On. Get On.
campaign – action needs to begin 
now if we are to meet our 2025 goal of all children 
leaving primary school able to read well. 
Schools, of course, have a huge part to play, and 
thanks to the hard work of teachers and other 
school staff across the country, hundreds of 
thousands of children reach the necessary standard 
to do well at secondary school and into adulthood. 
But what happens before children begin primary 
school has a big impact on their achievement at 
age 11. That is why this report argues that we must 
focus more investment and priority on our early 
years education system, through improving the 
quality of the early years workforce. In particular, 
we want to improve quality through ensuring that 
more children – particularly those from low-income 
families – attend nurseries led by a graduate.
We also need to ensure that staff working with
very young children are trained in children’s early
language development, as language development is 
the building block on which later reading develops. 
On schools policy, we argue for further reform in 
line with policy changes that have been introduced 
in recent years, including building on the focus on 
phonics and the introduction and implementation 
of the pupil premium. We want to see a focus on 
reading comprehension, a strengthening of middle 
leadership in schools, particularly roles such as literacy 
coordinators, and stronger support for disadvantaged 
children who are falling behind. 
The 
Read On. Get On.
campaign’s priorities for the 
next government are: