[UK] Children hit by poverty lag behind in reading

from The Scotsman

GARETH ROSE

CHILDREN in the poorest parts of Edinburgh are trailing an average of three years behind their most successful counterparts by the time they start high school.

The gaping education divide is exposed in a Scottish Executive report that warns of the huge difference in reading ability between pupils at different city schools.

The average 11-year-old starting secondary school in some of the most deprived areas has a reading age of a child a year younger. Many of them have the reading ability expected of an eight-year-old.

But the average reading age of pupils starting at some other city secondaries is 13.

City education leaders said they were working with children and their parents from before they started school.

But the depth of the problem today sparked demands for an even more intensive approach adopted elsewhere in Scotland.

Councillor Ewan Aitken, the city's education leader, said: "This is a challenge that begins long before children get to secondary school. That is why we run centres for children from nought to five years old, so we can intervene as early as possible."

Child and family centres have been set up in some areas to encourage parents of newborn children to pick up good habits, including reading. All pupils are assessed when they start school - and each following year - so they can receive extra tuition if they fall behind. That can involve one-on-one teaching, extra homework and efforts to involve parents more.

Cllr Aitken added that dealing with different abilities caused difficulties in some classrooms.

He said: "This creates huge challenges for teachers. They have to moderate their lessons to meet the needs of all children.

"They could have three or four children with a reading age of eight in their class. Putting pupils in sets is done at some schools but it is not a cure to all ills."

The problems were highlighted in an Executive report on the effects of deprivation across Scotland. In the report, a senior manager in the city council's education department wrote: "Reading age is, on average, three years better at some secondary schools' entrance level than others.

"There is a strong correlation between those secondary schools with low reading age levels and deprivation in the areas served by their feeder primary schools." The city council was unable to provide average reading ages for each secondary school in the city.

However, reports obtained by the Edinburgh Evening News using the Freedom of Information Act show that in recent tests, new pupils at James Gillespie's High School and Balerno Community High School achieved the highest scores, while the lowest were recorded by pupils starting at Castlebrae Community High School and Craigroyston Community High School.

The Scottish Parent Teacher Council today urged Edinburgh to follow the intensive teaching approach of West Dunbartonshire. There, intensive, daily, one-to-one work with P6 and P7 pupils who are behind with their reading has led to rapid progress.

Within ten years, the number of functionally illiterate 11-year-olds has fallen from 28 per cent to virtually zero.

Judith Gillespie, the SPTC's development manager, said: "In West Dunbartonshire they've done very well in bringing everyone up to standard. They have identified who has fallen behind during primary school and put in a strategy to help them.

"That programme needs to be introduced in Edinburgh."

Fiona Hyslop, SNP education spokeswoman, called for more investment in schools in poorer areas. She said: "One thing we can do is put in more resources so they can recruit more teachers and decrease class sizes."

The Tories called for greater freedom of choice for parents to choose where they send their children, regardless of which catchment area they live in.grose@edinburghnews.com
'I want my daughter to get a flying start at secondary'

JACKIE BROCK, 43, of Marlborough Street, Portobello, intends to send her daughter Coldwell, ten, and son Corin, seven, to Portobello High School, where S1 pupils scored below the national average in recent reading tests.

She said: "My concern is that the children are doing well at St John's Primary and I don't want their progress to be hindered. I want my daughter to get a flying start when she goes to secondary school. Secondary schools should be focusing on individual needs and making sure that children of all levels are able to progress."

However, she added that she did not believe putting children in sets based on their ability is always the answer.