Speeches by Bailey.

“We absolutely encourage people to have a diverse range of books, but it is up to schools what books they have in their libraries. That is the right way, because headteachers know their school community the best, and they know what is best, but as a Department we recognise and reflect the importance of a diverse range o…”

“That is a really important question. I am conscious of the literary heritage of your constituency, Manuela. We want lots of Shakespeares to come from all our schools. We might follow up in writing with some more information on exactly what we are doing in this regard, but I will say that it is very important, and I agr…”

“I have an additional, personal reflection. My mum died recently, and I have been talking to a lot of her former pupils and hearing the difference that an English teacher made, not just from the perspective of some people saying, “I’m now an English teacher myself,” or “I’m now working in this field myself,” but, “Becau…”

“First, it starts with the wonderful staff who work in early years settings. Literacy and reading is embedded in early years practitioner training, and that is focused on a love of reading. It is also embedded in the teacher training for the early years foundation stage. The staff who work in these settings are trained …”

“I really do. I really think there is something in that. Also, Frank has done a fantastic job as the children’s laureate, and I think his Reading Rights campaign has been brilliant. As he comes to the end of his year as the children’s laureate, I thank him for all his work. He is right and fun is critical. A love of rea…”

“Absolutely. Thank you. As I said, literacy and encouraging the joy and love of reading are embedded, I believe, in all the qualifications that staff working in early years acquire. If you are interested, I can send further information to the Committee on exactly what that looks like in the training context, but it is c…”

“First of all, the evidence for the phonics approach is very well established, and it works; I point the Committee to the evidence from the EEF in particular. We know that it works for most children. I think that we need both. You need to enable children to access reading themselves and learn how to do that. The phonics…”

“I understand. I do not recognise that in what I have seen and in what is happening in our early years settings. In those contexts I see most of our teachers really captivating children’s attention in a story and telling that story well, whether that is “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” and stamping on twigs on the floor, or…”

“Absolutely. Best Start family hubs are my favourite topic to talk about. Sorry if I have talked about them too much. There is £900 million in hubs overall. You have pointed out the way that we are supporting the home learning environment. Some of the programmes that I mentioned earlier on are examples of what that migh…”

“I will probably miss stuff in my answer, so we can always follow up with more information, Jess. NELI is a good example of something that we are directly funding and funding for the duration of this Parliament. We have also worked with Nesta to produce a guide to the evidence-based interventions—a menu, if you like, of…”

“Absolutely. We can definitely follow up. There are interventions that do that. As Jenny said, a lot of it is early communication. Certainly, there will be examples. Everything that we are doing in Best Start family hubs is around the three words—chat, play and read. These are the three most important things that we wan…”

“It is a significant investment that we have put into the Best Start family hubs. One of the things I would like to emphasise here is that we have recently had this new stretching target—we want 2,000 network sites. Part of that is about trying to force more connections between things that are already happening in commu…”

“I have mentioned before that having a love of reading is something that is in the curriculum. It is also something that is embedded in the initial teacher training and early careers frameworks. I think in every school in the country a love of reading and learning to love reading is really embedded and central to our ed…”

“That sort of school-to-school, peer-to-peer relationship really works. You will know from your experience as a school governor that that is the most effective way of spreading good practice and getting a love of reading.”

“I will definitely have a look at it, because that sounds like it would be very instructive. We can follow up with you, Manuela.”

“I have said—and I stand by this—that a love of reading is embedded in everything that teachers are doing and is embedded in the curriculum. In fact, it is directly discussed in the curriculum. First, the most important thing to say is that our teachers are doing a brilliant job at that, and I thank them for all their w…”

“If I can test what you are saying and what you have heard in the evidence, that sounds like a text challenge—what the children are engaging with in the English literature GCSE—and that is something that we are addressing in our response.”

“I have tried to address the congestion point and the time point, but on the text point I would just add that we are accepting the recommendations and making changes to ensure that schools can pick more texts that we think their children will love. Whether that is about their place or things that they recognise their ch…”

“I agree with Jenny. You will know, Sureena, that our approach with the curriculum and assessment review was to have strong academic foundations, but there is a breadth that we also want to see across sports, music and the arts, and the space and time that we want to see, as we have discussed. We also just want to bring…”

“Earlier we discussed the target groups we are looking at. Across the board for the National Year of Reading, we are looking at the early years, because we have to embed that love of reading. We are looking at disadvantaged communities, where we want to make sure we have good access to books, and we are looking at teena…”