BBC – Staff Writer
“Four out of 10 of England’s poorest boys start school without the language skills needed to learn, a study says. Researchers for the “Read On. Get On.” campaign warned that these children, who lag 15 months behind their peers at the age of five, might never catch up. It found the poorest girls did not fare as badly as boys, but 27% were below the basic language level at that stage. A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Raising reading standards is a key part of our plan for education.” They added: “In order to raise the quality of early years learning we have improved early years’ qualifications and encouraged high-quality entrants to the profession, through Teach First in the Early Years.” Research body Education Datalab analysed the National Pupil Database and data from a longitudinal study of 19,000 children to see how many children in England were reaching the expected level in language at age five. They also looked at last year’s national results of the Early Years Foundation Stage – an assessment of children’s ability carried out in schools at the end of Reception year.”(more)