Minister praises The Olive Schools’ performance in annual phonics check
We’re very proud that our primary school pupils have achieved so highly in the 2017 Year 1 phonics assessment.
Two of our primary schools – The Olive Schools in Blackburn and Preston – have been named in the top 3% of all primary schools in England for phonics performance. 100% of pupils who took the Year 1 phonics screening assessment last summer at these two schools reached or exceeded the pass mark.
Minister of State for Schools Standards Nick Gibb has praised this “outstanding achievement” in letters congratulating the schools. Nick Gibb MP wrote:
“Your success in teaching phonics means your pupils are developing a firm foundation in reading, from which they can become increasingly fluent and develop a lifelong love of reading.”
Phonic decoding is one of the most widely recognised and successful approaches to teaching young children to read. The phonics screening check is a short assessment of pupils’ phonics skills at the end of Year 1.
Pupils at The Olive School, Blackburn have achieved a 100% pass rate in the annual phonics test for the last four years, since the school opened in 2013.
At The Olive School, Preston, which opened in September 2016, it was the school’s first Year 1 cohort that scored a perfect 100%.
The Olive School, Bolton, which also opened in September 2016, achieved a 98% result. At The Olive School, Hackney 97% of pupils who took the Year 1 phonics assessment passed. And The Olive School, Birmingham’s first cohort of Year 1 pupils also achieved highly with a 93% pass rate.
The results from all five of our primary schools exceed the national average in the 2017 test, where 81% of children met expected standards in phonics decoding.
Mufti Hamid Patel CBE, Chief Executive of the Trust, said, “It is wonderful to see our young pupils achieving so well and, moreover, putting in place a solid grounding in the decoding skills necessary to develop their reading ability. These phonics screening results, among the best in the country, are without doubt testament to the hard work of Early Years and Key Stage 1 staff across all our primary schools. Parents must also be congratulated for the ongoing support they give through listening to their children read at home.”
Added By: Claire Tulloch | Date Added: 27th Oct 2017 | Posted In: Latest News