Minister praises city’s reading improvement

A government minister has written to Brighton & Hove City Council to praise a ‘substantial’ leap forward in children’s basic reading skills across the city.

The Rt Hon Nick Gibb MP, Minister of State for School Standards, was commenting on an improvement of 4.6 percentage points in the city’s annual phonics screening results.

Phonics is a way of teaching young children to ‘decode’ letters and words, and is seen as a key strategy for helping children learn to read. 

The improvement has taken Brighton & Hove above the national average.

The Minister said: “Achieving early fluency in decoding is a necessary first step in acquiring the key skill of reading.

“This is a sizeable improvement and is a credit to the hard work and professionalism of teachers and headteachers in your local authority area.”

The chair of the council’s children, families and schools committee, Councillor Les Hamilton, said: 

“This is about getting the basics right, and I’d like to thank all our schools and the council’s education team for the excellent work they are doing in this area.

“It’s the latest in a series of improvements in academic standards city-wide that we’ve seen in recent years – and it’s one that bodes very well for the future.” ENDS