The Reading Ape

Here’s my Sea of Write blog blast from the past Now on Substack clare673203.substack.com/p/t…

We put so much effort into convincing and inducting Labour. They literally avoided our successful schools. They carried on recycling the arguments. They were quickly captured by those ideologues with a score to settle.

The real reason children no longer enjoy reading.” Mary Wakefield has a theory in the latest Spectator.  Instead of screen addiction, she blames school curricula which teach “to the test” rather than reading for enjoyment. Children are so busy analysing brief extracts, they can’t enjoy the book as a whole. I read incessantly as a child, including illicitly when I was supposed to be sleeping. Not “great literature”, it was Dr Dolittle, Biggles, Bulldog Drummond, Just William, Arthur Ransome, Percy F Westerman. It would certainly have included Harry Potter if he’d been around then. I don’t believe I ever had my “comprehension” tested. I just loved reading. Is Mary Wakefield right?

This needs to be corrected to read ‘English’. Not out of superiority, but to highlight the very different systems and outcomes of the four nations. As a Scot it maddens me that the historical reputation of competence has been squandered by poor strategies and policies.

This is serendipitous @TheReadingApe. In a recent meeting we agreed that beginning readers should use phonic knowledge to decode, but then debated what skilled readers are using, as there was a claim that skilled readers then switch to guessing. Thank you.

I have a bad feeling about this. order-order.com/2026/07/28/e…

Two things can be true: 1. Schools should bear the ultimate responsibility for whether children learn to read. 2. One-to-one reading with an adult massive accelerates reading development, and schools simply don't have the capacity to provide more than a small amount of this.

Maybe, but it's important not to confuse the horse and the cart. No one loves to do things that are unpleasant and difficult. If you want children to love reading, teach 'em to read.

Sigh. For 2026, the 'pass mark' for England's Year 1 PSC is 31 out of 40. This is the first time the expected standard has been lowered from the 32 out of 40 mark. @SWLiteracy @TheReadingApe @pastpolitics1 @tombennett71

If only we had data on how well devolving education policy has gone in other areas of the UK 🧐 gov.wales/achievement-15-yea…

The EEF's new guidance on inclusive teaching is a very interesting piece of work. There is much to like, some bits to criticise, and one absolutely HUGE statement that should be getting a lot of attention. Here are my thoughts: - There is a lot there. Most won't read it. - There is a heavy emphasis on explicit instruction, and the creation of simple routines and "calm classroom environments." This is what "trad" teachers have been banging on about for years, so is most welcome. - There is very little that I can see about specific conditions/neurodevelopmental issues. If you want to know about how to support specific needs, the information isn't directly in this guide. - This makes sense, because "While targeted interventions can help, they are most effective when they supplement – rather than replace – effective everyday teaching." - This line is buried in one of the "myths" but is absolutely MEGA: "Strong universal provision reduces the number of pupils who require additional support..." I mean, let that sink in. I've said stuff like this before and been pilloried for it. It's a huge claim, and from what I've seen actually the most significant thing in the whole report. - This is an important line: "Teachers should not be making assumptions about pupils’ learning rates based on their socio-economic background or SEND status." I have this conversation with people quite a lot. They say things to me like "how do your students with SEND respond to Name at End questioning?" or "how do your pupil premium students respond to your expectation that every student answers a question every lesson?" I always say the same thing, which is that the label tells me nothing, and that we need to reframe the relationship between label and issue. There is nothing causative there, it is all correlational. - There aren't many concrete examples of good "inclusive practice" in the report itself. There is a link to other supporting resources, but you need a login for that. You can only log in with a school email account (odd choice for a research organisation), but I couldn't get it to work so 🤷 - Without concrete examples, it is almost guaranteed that people will do weird things, and cite the EEF in support. educationendowmentfoundation…