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Speaker 1: Afternoon. Looks like we have a turnaround and kids being

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Speaker 1: able to read. The government has just released data on

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Speaker 1: the impact that structured literacy is having on new entrants.

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Speaker 1: Back in term one, just thirty six percent of them

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Speaker 1: could read at or above expectations. That went up to

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Speaker 1: fifty one percent in term two, and in term three

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Speaker 1: it's had fifty eight percent. Erica Stanford is the Education Minister.

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Speaker 1: High Erica Hike. Were you expecting the change to be

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Speaker 1: this immediate?

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Speaker 2: Ah, I was hoping that it would be. I've seen

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Speaker 2: results from schools who had gone out in advance and

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Speaker 2: been doing structured literacy for a while, and they had

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Speaker 2: phenomenal results. But we were rolling this out at scale

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Speaker 2: to tens of thousands of teachers and thousands of classrooms

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Speaker 2: across the country and to see it drive up so

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Speaker 2: quickly is just phenomenal, and it's actually it's quite an

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Speaker 2: emotional time, like for everyone in my office. I even

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Speaker 2: made one of my deputy secretaries cry when she saw

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Speaker 2: the results. It's pretty amazing. Just really invested in it, oh, massively,

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Speaker 2: of course we all are. We've been thinking about this

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Speaker 2: for so long In opposition, I spent so much time

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Speaker 2: in classrooms and talking to teachers and learning about this

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Speaker 2: science of reading and the reading wars and phonics and

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Speaker 2: what it meant, and then developing policy and then implementing

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Speaker 2: it and resourcing it and backing our teachers. And I

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Speaker 2: said them in the stand up today, I didn't teach

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Speaker 2: a single kid to read. That was all of the

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Speaker 2: teachers on the ground who have actually put this into action,

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Speaker 2: And I owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

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Speaker 1: Now, I would imagine that these numbers will only get

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Speaker 1: better as we go on further. The thing is completely

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Speaker 1: compulsory from next year and teachers really start to understand

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Speaker 1: how this works. Would you expect that too, Well.

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Speaker 2: It's compulsory from this year, but we are still training

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Speaker 2: our teachers. We've done about eighty percent of our year

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Speaker 2: zero to eight teachers, so in most of our year

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Speaker 2: zero to three. So it is compulsory this year. But

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Speaker 2: you're absolutely right. As teachers become more confident and capable

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Speaker 2: with explicit teaching and the new curriculum and structured literacy,

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Speaker 2: the results will get better and better and better, And

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Speaker 2: we see that overseas in their results.

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Speaker 1: Where are we aiming? Are we aiming at eighty percent.

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Speaker 1: Is that right?

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Speaker 2: Well, I need eight I want eighty percent of kids

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Speaker 2: to be at curriculum by the time they go to

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Speaker 2: high school. But with our phonics check data, I've got

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Speaker 2: higher aspirations. I mean, I'd love us to get to

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Speaker 2: about ninety percent. I know the UK got to pre COVID.

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Speaker 2: I think they were sitting about eighty five percent. It

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Speaker 2: dipped during COVID, but they're heading back up again, so

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Speaker 2: there's no reason why we can't be up there as well.

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Speaker 1: While I've got you, how do you feel about the

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Speaker 1: secondary school teachers with the rolling strikes this week?

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Speaker 2: I think it's deeply unfair for students who are about

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Speaker 2: to sit the final exams that they have been getting

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Speaker 2: ready for for years, and who need those teachers in

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Speaker 2: their classrooms for that last minute revision. This is disrupting

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Speaker 2: not only that last bit of time they've got with

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Speaker 2: their teacher, but also a lot of their mock exams

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Speaker 2: that they'll get their derived grades from. It's really disappointing

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Speaker 2: that the union never took the offer to their teachers

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Speaker 2: before they decided to go on this strike. That's what's

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Speaker 2: so disappointing. I know that teachers want the best for

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Speaker 2: their kids. I'm just not sure about the unions.

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Speaker 1: Erica. Thank you very much, Erica Stanford, the Education Minister.

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