We know that phonics works. It’s as close as you get to an absolute truth in education.

For the past decade schools have worked hard to embed systematic phonics teaching in the early years of primary education.

It hasn’t always been popular, and it certainly hasn’t always been done well. But the evidence now speaks for itself. The latest government data shows that 80 per cent of pupils met the expected standard in the phonics screening check in Year 1 this year. Ten years ago, that figure was just 77 per cent.

And while that is an enormous leap forward, clearly there is still headroom for further improvement. Where phonics is taught with consistency and fidelity, there is no good reason why that figure shouldn’t begin with a 9.

What’s more, disadvantaged pupils are performing less well in the phonics screening check than other pupils, with just 67 per cent meeting the expected standard in Year 1 this year. Worryingly, that figure is down one percentage point, from 68 per cent in 2024.

Children who are in mainstream classrooms, without identified special educational needs, should all be able to decode confidently and fluently by the end of key stage 1. Where this is happening, it represents a triumph of evidence-informed practice and schools should feel rightly proud of that success.

But we shouldn’t confuse decoding with reading. And we shouldn’t assume that because we’ve (mostly) fixed the start of the pipeline, we’ve cracked the system.

Because if we’re honest, we still have a reading problem.

Moving beyond phonics

The transition from decoding to broader reading fluency and comprehension is a tricky one. As children move through key stage 1, the curriculum needs to be carefully planned to build on the foundation of strong decoding skills and continue to expand vocabulary and give children access to a wide range of rich texts. Time also needs to be dedicated to practising reading, as a class, in pairs and individually.

The texts themselves are key - comprehension skills can only develop when children are given the space to learn texts deeply, engaging with and understanding different plots, characters, themes, narrative perspective and literary devices. Reading, as a broader skill, is woven from a rich tapestry of knowledge and expertise.

Get this right in Years 2 and 3 and reading is set up to flourish in key stage 2 and beyond.

Far too many children enter secondary school technically able to read but not yet readers. And far too many are reading way behind their expected reading age. Even more don’t read for pleasure. And they aren’t reading often enough. They lack stamina, background knowledge and the vocabulary to tackle the texts we ask them to engage with at key stage 3 and beyond.

While the significant majority might now be passing the phonics check, they haven’t yet reached that deeper threshold of fluency and understanding.

Of course, this matters. Because if a child isn’t reading confidently by the end of primary, they will struggle in pretty much every single subject in secondary school. They will find it harder to access maths reasoning, science content and history sources. They won’t understand fully what is going on in lessons or understand what is really being asked of them in exam papers. Reading is the keystone on which so much else rests.

Yet the number of children who say they enjoy reading is falling. The National Literacy Trust reports that just one in five children aged 8 to 18 read daily for pleasure.

The need for universal training

So, where does that leave us? The bottom line is that every teacher - primary and secondary - needs to be a teacher of reading. And yes, that includes maths teachers, science teachers, DT teachers - everyone.

In my trust, we are doing just that. This year we have started rolling out a new two-year training programme designed to ensure that every teacher, regardless of phase or subject, understands how children learn to read, how reading supports learning, and how to make reading central to the school culture.

A universal training offer will be delivered to all pupil-facing staff - in all our schools, both primary and secondary - with the programme building to role-specific training that develops deeper expertise. Reading leaders will be trained up in every school, and the training will be incorporated into our induction programme for all new joiners.

Reading can no longer just be the preserve of English leads or key stage 1 teams. It’s everyone’s business. From the science teacher who introduces tier 3 vocabulary carefully, breaking down new words into syllables and modelling words in context, to the pastoral leader who spots that a pupil is struggling with reading because they’ve been trained to do so; every adult in a school can support reading development.

It’s time to stop thinking of reading as something we sort out in Year 1 and Year 2, or even just in primary. Instead, we need to see it as a thread that runs through the whole school journey. And we need to equip every teacher with the tools and training to help bind that thread more tightly.

Phonics is one of the great success stories of modern school improvement. But the job isn’t done - we need to build on it.

Claire Heald is CEO of The Cam Academy Trust

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