Children in years 3 to 6 should be reading “at least one book a week”, schools minister Nick Gibb has said.
Mr Gibb made the comments yesterday during a speech at St Andrew’s Primary School in Soham, Cambridgeshire.
He said the second objective of the government’s English curriculum was practice, encouraging children to “improve the fluency and speed of their reading” by reading “large numbers of books”, adding: “The more you read, the more vocabulary you acquire and the easier it becomes to comprehend.”
He said: “For this reason, I would like to see every pupil in years 3 to 6 of primary school reading at least one book a week. ‘A book a week’ should be the mantra for anyone hoping to eliminate illiteracy in this country.”
It is not the first time the government has used the “book a week” phrase.
In a document released by the Department for Education last March entitled Reading: the next steps, the government threw its support behind the “Read On. Get On.” campaign.
The document said: “The government strongly welcomes the campaign’s commitment to inspiring families to read more at home, giving parents the confidence to encourage children to build this daily reading habit up to reading a book a week by the end of primary school.
“This is both ambitious and exciting, and could make a real difference to how well children do at school.”
Admirable sentiment but made more difficult as public libraries are closed and squeezed budgets make it less likely schools will invest in their own libraries.
Will he ban TV and games systems and sport and all the other “distractions” children enjoy so they can manage it? Or will he allow teachers to have time to read with children in the classroom! 30 minutes individual reading per day would help. But what will schools be allowed to cut from the curriculum?
My son is an excellent reader but hated reading! He read religiously to get his 4 reads a week in his comment book until the end of year 6. Then guess what…his secondary school doesn’t enforce it and he doesn’t read at home anymore. Maybe the government should put more pressure on secondarys to raise attainment and get them to be ‘good’ schools rather than ‘requires improvement’.