Education: English
House of Lords
Lord Quirk (Crossbench)
To ask her Majesty's Government what action is being taken to increase the number of specialist English teachers in primary schools in response to the Ofsted report Moving English Forward.
To ask her Majesty's Government what action is being taken to improve the subject knowledge of English co-ordinators in primary schools in response to the Ofsted report Moving English Forward.
To ask her Majesty's Government what action is being taken to strengthen whole-school literacy work across the teaching in all subjects in response to the Ofsted report Moving English Forward.
Lord Hill of Oareford (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Education; Conservative)
We endorse the view that good subject knowledge is important for English teachers.
We intend to allocate more initial teacher training places to primary generalist courses with an additional specialism. Typically a trainee on one of these spends 80% of their time preparing for general primary teaching and 20% specialising in a subject, which could be English.
Good head teachers know the value of a whole-school, cross-subject approach to literacy work. We are supporting this through our review of the National Curriculum and changes to the syllabus and requirements for GCSE examinations. Ofsted's new school inspection framework also places a stronger emphasis on pupils' literacy skills across subjects at both primary and secondary level.