Yesterday, 5th March 2024, Ofsted published their Research and Analysis document, ‘Telling the story: the English education subject report’.
The full document is a must read for all English and Literacy Leads in England. We could only find an online version on the government website via the link above. We have pasted the report in its entirety into this PDF for those that want an offline copy.
Analysis by Theme
This blogpost pulls together the report by the following themes:
- comprehension
- vocabulary
- fluency
- decoding
- phonics
💡 Underlined passages are direct quotes from the report — click any one to see the surrounding paragraph from the original document.
Comprehension
What does the ofsted 'Telling the Story?' report say about comprehension?
The word ‘comprehension’ appears 33 times in the report. The following are some of the instances that stuck out to us.
From the ‘Main findings’ section: curriculum and pedagogy, primary and secondary
“Leaders in most schools know that it is important to ensure that pupils read increasingly complex texts to develop reading comprehension.”
“However, in some schools, completing national curriculum test and exam-style questions is the main, extremely limited, method of improving pupils' reading fluency and comprehension.”
From the ‘Discussion of findings’ section
“For example, in ‘guided reading’ sessions, the same text is used for teaching language comprehension and word reading fluency. These texts serve neither purpose well for pupils in the early stages of learning to read.”
From the ‘Reading’ section
“Some schools have developed clear strategies to help pupils achieve reading fluency, recognising its importance for their reading comprehension. However, pupils do not always have sufficient practice to achieve this. In these schools, teachers over-use reading comprehension questions. This does not build pupils' reading fluency.”
From the ‘Spoken Language: Summary of the review relevant to spoken language’ section
“Developing spoken language, including vocabulary, is essential for the academic progress of all children. Pupils can develop language comprehension and composition through a literature-rich environment, for example through interactions with adults and by listening to, talking about and learning by heart stories, poems, rhymes and songs.”
From the ‘Reading: Summary of the review relevant to reading’ section
“Skilled reading requires accurate, speedy word reading and good language comprehension.”
“Reading comprehension requires knowledge of vocabulary, context – including the background knowledge of the subject of the text, syntax and narrative structure, as well as the capacity to read fluently.”
“Reading comprehension strategies can help pupils to uncover the meaning of texts. However, the usefulness of explicit teaching of these strategies is time limited and unlikely to benefit pupils before they can read sufficiently fluently.”
From the ‘Reading accuracy, fluency and comprehension’ section
“In many schools, pupils who cannot read fluently have to complete written reading comprehension tasks from extracts, usually as part of guided reading sessions.”
From ‘How one primary school went about establishing a coherent reading curriculum’
“Leaders understood that reading comprehension related to background knowledge and made sure that this was taught intentionally. Comprehension strategies were time limited and effective. They came second to reading to pupils and giving pupils increasingly complex texts to read.”
From the ‘What pupils know and remember’ section
“While pupils speak positively about their experience of English, many have distorted ideas about what the subject of English is. Some pupils think that their school teaches them to get better at reading by giving them harder and harder comprehension activities.”
From the ‘Systems at subject and school level’ section
“However, in the great majority of schools, leaders have not given as much thought to how these different plans work together, what research and evidence they are based on, and how they might provide a coherent curriculum for teachers and pupils.”
From the secondary ‘Supporting struggling readers’ section
“Leaders in most schools are aware of the limited impact of comprehension strategies. They know that comprehension strategies alone will not support pupils' developing understanding. While they may provide some initial support for weaker readers, in helping them know what to think about while trying to understand a text, a continued focus on them is unlikely to improve comprehension.”
Vocabulary
What does the ofsted 'Telling the Story?' report say about vocabulary?
The word ‘vocabulary’ appears over 50 times in the report. The following are some of the instances that struck us most.
From the ‘Key terms used in this report’ section
“Knowledge of language, including vocabulary, grammar and syntax, is part of the foundational knowledge needed for reading, speech and writing.”
From the ‘Main findings’ section: curriculum and pedagogy, primary and secondary
“Schools use a range of approaches to introduce new vocabulary. This includes teaching vocabulary through the texts studied to improve comprehension. However, while key vocabulary is identified and taught, this is not necessarily embedded through repeated practice in different contexts. Often, pupils do not remember to use the vocabulary in their written and spoken language.”
From the primary ‘Curriculum scope and ambition’ section
“Leaders in all schools recognise the importance of vocabulary, and many are teaching this as part of the English curriculum. In most schools, this links to the texts that are being studied, which helps pupils to develop a broader and richer vocabulary. In schools where this is not considered so carefully, pupils focus on learning individual words, which they do not go on to use in a range of contexts.”
From the ‘Reading accuracy, fluency and comprehension’ section
“Some schools are clear about how, once fluent, pupils get better at reading comprehension through regular reading and by developing their knowledge of language and the world. In many schools, learning new vocabulary is part of the process of reading comprehension.”
From ‘How one primary school went about establishing a coherent reading curriculum’
“The vocabulary, genre and syntax in texts were carefully considered to ensure that pupils could understand the texts they read and be prepared for future texts.”
From the secondary ‘Curriculum scope and ambition’ section
“Leaders in all schools recognise that vocabulary is an important aspect of the English curriculum. Most schools have identified key vocabulary in the texts that are being studied, and many spend time checking that pupils understand this. Sometimes, this vocabulary is less well defined and the focus is on learning individual words in isolation, as opposed to embedding a rich vocabulary in context, which allows pupils to think, speak and write about the subject and to create their own complex compositions. This leads to pupils learning words in a decontextualised way that does not allow them to see them in action or add them to their own vocabulary.”
From the secondary ‘Writing’ section
“Most leaders identify vocabulary that supports pupils to improve their writing over time. However, they are not always clear about how pupils can build this vocabulary over time, when and where they can revisit it, and whether they can draw on it in their own writing.”
“A small number of schools have gone further than simply identifying this vocabulary. They have developed a cohesive approach to teaching. Planning includes details of when and how to approach new words, what opportunities there are to revisit them over time and how assessment can explicitly check where they are being used in pupils' work.”
From the secondary ‘Spoken language’ section
“However, the secondary curriculum should continue to teach them the components explicitly, including the vocabulary, register, tone and body language that they can use to communicate their ideas effectively.”
Fluency
What does the ofsted 'Telling the Story?' report say about fluency?
The word ‘fluency’ appears over 30 times in the report. Here are the most significant instances.
From the ‘Summary conclusions’ section
“Once pupils are able to read accurately, schools are less clear about how to build fluency and comprehension.”
“Primary pupils are not given sufficient teaching and practice to become fluent with transcription (spelling and handwriting) early enough.”
From the ‘Main findings’ section: curriculum and pedagogy, primary
“Leaders understand the impact of being able to read fluently, and choosing to read, on pupils' future academic success and life-long well-being.”
“Some schools are effective in continuing to develop pupils' reading fluency once they can decode. They provide pupils with lots of opportunities to read aloud and be read to, so they learn how to control the pace and intonation in their reading. In other schools, leaders recognise the importance of reading fluently but are not clear about how to make sure that pupils are successful.”
“Leaders arrange additional teaching for pupils in key stages 2 and 3 who are not yet reading fluently. Too often, however, this teaching does not directly address their knowledge gaps and is not frequent enough for them to catch up quickly.”
From the ‘Discussion of findings’ section
“Schools are often unsure how to help pupils who arrive at secondary school unable to read and write fluently. Teachers do not always identify and teach the specific aspects of reading and writing that pupils are finding difficult.”
From the ‘Reading accuracy, fluency and comprehension’ section
“Teachers help pupils to build fluency in reading while they are learning to decode, by making sure that they read and re-read decodable books. This builds up the bank of words pupils can read 'at a glance'. Beyond phonics, and into key stage 2, some leaders recognise the importance of reading aloud and repeated reading to build fluency. However, pupils do not always have sufficient practice to achieve this. In many schools, pupils who cannot read fluently have to complete written reading comprehension tasks from extracts, usually as part of guided reading sessions. This is at the expense of other kinds of work, such as reading the text repeatedly, being monitored by an adult when reading aloud, rehearsing reading with prosody (patterns of stress and intonation), or reading more whole texts to build fluency.”
From ‘How one school went about developing reading accuracy and fluency’
“In one school, leaders had carefully considered the relationship between early reading, fluency and comprehension. This school continued to check that pupils had secure knowledge in phonics and frequent opportunities to practise reading accurately to automaticity up to Year 6.”
From the ‘Recommendations’ section
“plan a reading curriculum that over time builds pupils' reading fluency, linguistic knowledge and knowledge of the world, and that does not limit them to responding to exam-style questions”
“help those pupils who enter key stages 2 or 3 unable to read fluently to catch up quickly. This includes making sure that teaching addresses specific gaps in pupils' phonics knowledge or provides additional practice for pupils who have accurate knowledge, but still read too slowly to absorb information effectively”
From the secondary ‘Supporting struggling readers’ section
“Developing pupils’ fluency in reading also needs to go beyond simply providing opportunities. It requires schools to have a clear purpose for how, what and when pupils are being asked to read.”
Decoding
The report is unambiguous that accurate, automatic decoding is the essential foundation for all reading progress — with working memory cited as the key reason why this matters so much.
From the ‘Key terms used in this report’ section
“Decodable books: This refers to books that have been written so that they only present words that include the GPCs that pupils have learned and the common exception words they have been introduced to. As these words are consistent with pupils' developing phonic knowledge, pupils know how to decode them and do not need to guess what they say.”
“For example, in English, pupils need to be able to decode accurately and automatically to help make cognitive space available to consider meaning. Similarly, fluency in transcription frees up working memory to focus on composing writing.”
From the ‘Discussion of findings’ section
“With limited decoding skills, they cannot yet read at the level of their oral understanding.”
From the ‘Reading: Summary of the review relevant to reading’ section
“Urgency is necessary to ensure that pupils learn to decode accurately and with automaticity at the start of primary school. This also enables pupils to form positive attitudes to reading.”
From the ‘Reading accuracy, fluency and comprehension’ section
“In all schools, pupils in the early stages of reading are learning to decode words using systematic synthetic phonics. This includes using decodable books that are consistent with the pupils' developing phonics knowledge, for word-reading practice at home and in school. Most pupils with SEND are also learning to read through these programmes. Pupils who struggle to keep up with their peers at an early stage do not always get the teaching they need to build on what they already knew and secure what they have learned so far. These pupils quickly fall behind and need additional catch-up support. Schools do not always address this with enough urgency.”
From the ‘Recommendations’ section
“continue to ensure that pupils in Reception and key stage 1 have daily phonics teaching until they are accurate in word reading (decoding). This includes identifying pupils who are beginning to fall behind and giving them extra practice”
“make sure that staff who support the weakest readers know how to identify whether they need help with decoding or reading fluency, and act on it. This may include careful diagnosis to place pupils at the right point in catch-up teaching sequences”
From the ‘Assessment’ section (primary)
“Ongoing assessment of all children's phonic knowledge is critical to identifying pupils who need intervention. They need to be taught the alphabetic code as effectively and as swiftly as possible so that they do not fall behind their peers, and so that they have full access to the curriculum that proficient reading gives them.”
“In one school, there are regular reading assessments that review pupils' proficiency in phonics as well as their fluency and automaticity. This means that teachers can diagnose exactly what pupils need further help with. This informs teaching, and some pupils receive targeted and time-efficient interventions to catch up.”
Phonics
The report paints a broadly positive picture of phonics teaching in England’s schools, while identifying important areas where progress is still needed — particularly in key stage 2 and secondary school.
From the ‘Context’ section
“The Year 1 phonics screening check (PSC) assesses whether children can accurately decode a selection of words that include common grapheme–phoneme correspondences (GPCs): the first step in word reading. Performance overall in the PSC has improved substantially since 2012, the year of its introduction.”
From the ‘Summary conclusions’ section
“Schools have invested in phonics programmes and training so that teachers know how to teach pupils to read.”
From the ‘Main findings’ section: curriculum and pedagogy, primary
“An increased emphasis on reading (through government policy and Ofsted's focus on how well schools teach pupils to read) has helped leaders to understand the importance of teaching systematic synthetic phonics. Compared with our findings in previous reports, this represents an overwhelmingly positive shift towards having all children reading by the end of key stage 1.”
“However, when there are weaknesses in phonics teaching, some pupils in Reception and key stage 1 struggle from the beginning. Schools do not always identify or address this.”
From the ‘Discussion of findings — Reading’ section
“All the primary schools visited adopt systematic synthetic phonics programmes to teach pupils to read. Most primary leaders recognise phonics as the curriculum for teaching all pupils to read, including those with SEND, not just as an approach that works for some pupils. However, there are differences between schools in how effectively phonics programmes are being taught in Reception and key stage 1. This means that, in some schools, pupils who struggle from the beginning fall further behind and are not helped to catch up quickly.”
“In key stages 2 and 3, teachers’ weaker subject knowledge of early reading results in additional support for pupils being less effective. Assessment does not always help teachers to identify and target gaps, and additional teaching is often not precise or regular enough.”
From the ‘School systems’ section
“In primary schools, there has been a significant commitment to training teachers to teach phonics, although this does not always continue into key stage 2.”
From the primary ‘Curriculum scope and ambition’ section
“Most schools teach phonics daily from Reception through to the end of key stage 1. For struggling readers in key stage 2, phonics interventions often continue alongside English lessons.”
“In key stage 1, for example, pupils’ knowledge of phonics is not always considered when they are asked to read or write in other English lessons. This leads to tasks that are beyond pupils’ capabilities. In key stage 2, teachers are often not trained in phonics. This means that they are unable to use phonics strategies in key stage 2 English lessons to help pupils to embed their knowledge of word reading and transcription.”
From the ‘Recommendations’ section
“make sure that all key stage 2 staff are trained in systematic synthetic phonics and so can reinforce pupils' word reading and transcription skills in key stage 2 reading and English lessons”
From the secondary ‘Supporting struggling readers’ section
“Some schools use phonic-based reading programmes for pupils who need more support with reading. Some of these are not carefully targeted or tailored specifically to the sounds that pupils need to know, and there is little diagnosis of the barriers that pupils face to becoming fluent and confident readers. These programmes are not always given adequate time to allow pupils to practise. They often take place a few times a week or even once a fortnight.”
“They then provided regular opportunities to specifically teach what was needed, for example making use of a phonics programme where gaps were identified, often in a one-to-one setting. Pupils then used decodable books to practise, both in school and at home. They also had access to other stories and texts, which introduced them to some of the complex vocabulary and ideas before the main class teaching. Additional English lessons were then used to provide these pupils with opportunities to revisit these texts. Pupils quickly gained proficiency in reading, including those with SEND or EAL.”
Useful or Relevant Commentaries
Many have commented on this report, from the critical to the supportive. We offer these links not because we agree or disagree with the positions of the authors, but because it feels useful to gauge sentiment of various interested parties.
English & Media Centre
The EMC published their critique of Ofsted’s Telling the story report in March. You can read it here.
The Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE)
The CLPE published their critique of Ofsted’s Telling the story report in March too, calling it ‘Telling the Story — what’s the real story that’s emerging?’ You can read it here.
Michael Rosen
Michael Rosen published a blogpost on the Ofsted report which you can read here.
