Reading as the main priority of KS1 and KS2

 It’s important to consider the purpose of education starting from a very early stage and how it’ll benefit our children in the future. To take this into consideration I’ve researched a few priorities that are needed to help out schools and with a desire develop their weaknesses via choosing a key priority to discuss.

  As discussed in seminars with my supported investigation of different academic sources, the UK Government points out their crucial plan where reading standards needs to be raised. It’s been suggested on their research that only “89% of children reached the expected standard of reading at Key Stage 2”, resulting 1 in 5 children leaving primary school, who are unable to read at the minimum standard to ensure that they will succeed in secondary school. With the Government’s research, I feel that more reading needs to be implemented within the curricula and everyday activity whether it’s inside or outside of school. Throughout other modules on the Primary Education Pathway Course, literacy within reading has been demonstrated to help develop all round of holistic areas, such as language, cognitive and social skills. Further developed by the National Literacy Trust (2015), the organisation believes the major impact on the development of their literacy skills is influenced by children’s early language skills. 

  These language skills could be influenced by the popular topic of society, which are social class and the inevitable barrier that cannot be broken. More from the National Literacy Trust (2015), children living in poverty tend to have weaker early language skills than their better-off peers and that they are more likely to experience language delay at the age of 3 – resulting them to significantly be behind in literacy at the age of 11. While Locke et al (2002) believe that their general cognitive abilities are average for their age range, their language skills are well behind due other factors affecting the child’s ability to overcome the basic skills of reading – these suggested factors by Law et al (2010) are; mother’s educational level, overcrowding, parent a poor reader, low birth weight etc. From my discussion above on how reading affects language skills, vice versa, I feel that this continues to raise a thought-provoking question of ‘Why does poor language affect the life chances of children in low income families?’

Again, further intriguing me to look into why the motive of ‘reading’ is the most important priority for the curriculum has teachers to prepare children for jobs that does not exist yet, also increasing the country’s economy; to-do so we can prevent the decline in employment where the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (2009) believe that poor language and communication skills in school leavers reduces the probability of getting into employment. Hence, this is why we need to emphasise more on the concept of pleasure for reading, reading games, story-telling activities etc.

  Another focus regarding the benefit of reading is encouraging young children to become more philosophical throughout their lives. During the end of the seminar of my first term, we explored the concept of ‘P4C’ – translating as ‘Philosophy for Children’ – where it’s an enquiry-based approach to open up children’s learning the exploration of ideas. In advance to this it allows children to become more involved in a philosophical enquiry, in such a way where people connect with one another as they are and analyse ideas/thoughts in a critical manner.  As discussed on the topic of ‘P4C’, we should consider the outcomes and view numerous of positive aspects, for instance the concept of learning to think before they speak and supplying reasons for what they say; learning to respect and negotiate, and to value their views and the views of others. Most importantly we cannot forget Lentton’s and Vidion’s (2016) approach of learning not to be fearful, for this reason working in small groups/ or as a class would help the child build their own confidence, in order to feel comfortable around others and not to fear about being right or wrong.

  References:

·      Law, J. et al (2010) Modelling developmental language difficulties from school entry into adulthood. Journal of speech, language and hearing research, 52, 1401-1416

·      Lawton, K., Warren, H. (2015) The Power of Reading: How the next government can unlock every child’s potential through reading. Read on, Get on Campaign. National Literacy Trust. 

·      Lenton and Vidion (2016) Available at: http://www.philosophy4children.co.uk/home/p4c/

·      Locke, A., Ginsborg, J., and Peers, I. (2002). Development and disadvantage: Implications for early years and beyond. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, 37(1), 3-15

·       UK Commission for Employment and Skills (2009) The Employability Challenge

                http://www.ukces.org.uk/tags/employability-challenge-full-report