Bullock (1975)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Foreword, Membership, Contents, Introduction

Part 1 Attitudes and standards
Chapter 1 Attitudes to the teaching of English
Chapter 2 Standards of reading
Chapter 3 Monitoring

Part 2 Language in the early years
Chapter 4 Language and learning
Chapter 5 Language in the early years

Part 3 Reading
Chapter 6 The reading process
Chapter 7 Reading in the early years
Chapter 8 Reading: the later stages
Chapter 9 Literature

Part 4 Language in the middle and secondary years
Chapter 10 Oral language
Chapter 11 Written language
Chapter 12 Language across the curriculum

Part 5 Organisation
Chapter 13 The primary and middle years
Chapter 14 Continuity between schools
Chapter 15 The secondary school
Chapter 16 LEA advisory services

Part 6 Reading and language difficulties
Chapter 17 Screening, diagnosis and recording
Chapter 18 Children with reading difficulties
Chapter 19 Adult literacy
Chapter 20 Children from families of overseas origin

Part 7 Resources
Chapter 21 Books
Chapter 22 Technological aids and broadcasting

Part 8 Teacher education and training
Chapter 23 Initial training
Chapter 24 In-service education

Part 9 The survey
Chapter 25: I Introduction
Chapter 25: II Primary commentary
Chapter 25: III Secondary commentary
Chapter 25: IV The questionnaire forms (not online)
Chapter 25: V Technical notes (not online)

Part 10 Sumary of conclusions and recommendations
Chapter 26 Conclusions and recommendations

Appendix A Witnesses and sources of evidence
Appendix B Visits made
Glossary
Index

Report of the Committee of Enquiry appointed by the Secretary of State for Education and Science under the Chairmanship of Sir Alan Bullock FBA

London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office 1975
© Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland.

Chapter 13 The primary and middle years
[pages 197 - 212]

13.1 The purpose of this chapter is to consider the organisation and staffing within schools as they affect English in general and language development and reading in particular, and to examine the implications of some of the suggestions we have made in earlier chapters and in certain of those which follow. We must, however, begin with a brief survey of pre-school provision, for it is important to recognise that children entering infant school start on a very uneven footing in this respect. In December 1972 proposals (1) were announced for the expansion of nursery education during the next decade. This should make possible a real advance in language development in young children, since it will allow more children to benefit from the kinds of experiences we described in Chapter 5. At present there is an immense range in the pre-school opportunities of young children, and an infinite variety in the extent and quality of the experience they eventually bring to the infant school. Some remain at home throughout the pre-school years with parents, relatives, au pair girls, or child minders, registered or unregistered. Some attend playgroups for up to six hours a week or spend as many as 45 hours a week in day nurseries and centres. Some receive full or part-time education in nursery school or in nursery classes or units attached to primary schools, spending between 15 and 38 hours a week there.

13.2 It is difficult to make even the most general observation that would summarise the circumstances of children who are looked after by unregistered child minders (2). In the nature of things it is hard to arrive with precision at either their numbers or the extent to which they are properly cared for. Nevertheless, there is every indication (3) that they run into many thousands and that the quality of care is often very poor, not simply because of unsatisfactory physical conditions but because of the absence of stimulus and attention to the child's developmental needs. In the case of registered child minders, local authority supervision is more likely to ensure satisfactory physical conditions, but the other aspects of the child's welfare must very often be just as inadequately served. Nearly 300,000 of the country's children attend playgroups. The playgroup movement sets out to create opportunities for socialisation and to provide a secure yet stimulating environment in which children can interact and in which parents can play a significant part. The staffing of the groups varies considerably, some being run entirely by parents, some by parents in association with trained colleagues, others by trained staff only. Equally variable is the quality of the provision, the materials available, and the kind of experience the children encounter. In the best groups the children hear stories, learn songs and rhymes, and are given plenty of opportunity for talk through the stimulus of their play. The day nurseries, both public and private, usually see their main purpose as providing nurture and care for children whose mothers are at work for long hours. However, there has been a growing awareness of the fact that different aspects of the child's development are interrelated. The result has been an increased concern for intellectual growth and the provision of book corners and interest areas in the better nurseries. This awareness is reflected in the training of the nursery nurses, who are encouraged to tell the children stories, help them enjoy picture/story books, and get them to talk about their experiences. Unfortunately, there is a shortage of trained nursery nurses and assistants, and the experience of children in public day nurseries is bound to vary a great deal. It is likely to vary even more in private day nurseries, since authorities apply differing standards with regard to training of staff, child/staff ratio etc in their requirements for registration. Lastly, there are the nursery schools and classes, which we have already discussed at length in terms of the important contribution they can make to language development and cognitive growth.

13.3 Within any one of these kinds of experience there is a great range in the nature and quality of language preparation. This fact is sometimes overlooked when comments are made about infant schools. In the best of circumstances their task is a complex one; in areas of social difficulty the shortcomings of language development impose additional and very considerable demands. The very diversity of all this pre-school experience underlines the need for contacts between infant school, nursery school, playgroup, and home, and there is great scope for initiative. For example, where children are already in a playgroup or nursery school the infant teacher can learn much by visiting them there, getting to know their background and inviting the leader or nursery teacher to pay return visits. The pre-school child should be allowed to spend some time in the infant school with his mother in the term before he is due to be admitted. Admissions can be staggered over a period of some weeks, so that the teacher is given the chance to talk to small numbers of parents when they bring their children, and to give more individual attention to the children themselves. Some heads have found it useful to produce an illustrated booklet of suggestions to guide parents in preparing their child, and themselves, for his new experience. Parents should receive invitations to attend meetings of one kind or another in advance of their child's actually starting school. Where possible, facilities for borrowing and buying books should be extended to them, as another means of making them feel part of it at the earliest opportunity. Home-school liaison has already been dealt with at length in its relation to the child's language needs, but it is mentioned in this context to emphasise the value we place on a proper introduction to school life. Continuity and cooperation between home and school and between one stage of education and the next are vitally important to a child's development, linguistic and otherwise.

13.4 In recent years a considerable amount of time has been spent in discussing the internal organisation of schools and the way in which this affects the nature and quality of the teaching. The pattern from which large numbers of schools are held to have departed is that of the 'traditional' primary school, whose work is defined fairly precisely by a set timetable. This involves placing the 'basic skills' in the mornings, with the afternoons set aside for creative activities, history, geography, nature study, and some physical education. More often than not a scheme of work for reading and language sets out the appropriate form and content for each class. The advocates of this form of organisation say that these conditions lead to an assured attention to the 'basic skills', which results in a concern for correctness in written work and for measured progress in reading. They argue that there is a clearly defined purpose which can give teacher and pupil alike a feeling of security and achievement. As short-term objectives are sequentially attained there is a recognisable rate of progress, which parents can readily understand. Its critics contend that this kind of organisation limits the opportunities for learning. All too often the practice of reading and writing skills is totally unrelated to the pupils' other experiences and therefore lacks real meaning. Thus it is possible, as in mathematics, for a technique to be acquired without an understanding of what is involved in the process. They also suggest that such an approach implies a set of external standards which are an inadequate way of judging success. Before going on to discuss the implications of all this we are bound to say that extreme attitudes on either side are unhelpful. Moreover they represent a situation which does not exist in schools in any such extreme form. It seems to us unfortunate that public debate has tended in recent years to oversimplify a complex situation and has often been conducted through a series of slogan-like headings: progressive, formal, integration, basics, and several more. The conditions in which children learn most efficiently call for serious study, and in our view it is naive to believe that a particular form of organisation will in itself guarantee them.

13.5 Most primary schools still group children in classes according to the year in which they were born. Some are too small to do that, and their classes therefore have to contain children of different ages. Others produce this effect as a matter of policy, and their classes are then known as 'vertically grouped'. Normally, admission of children to infant schools on a termly basis can mean that some children are moved from one class to the next after only a term or two. There are four principal advantages claimed for vertical grouping: the children can remain with one teacher for a longer time; only a few new children need be taken into the class each term and they can therefore be settled easily; the younger children are encouraged to greater effort by the work of the older; slow learning children do not feel exposed. It is argued that the books and materials necessary to cover the wider age range offer an interest and challenge that is sometimes missing in classes for five year olds. Far from being hampered by the wide range of ability and age within the class the teacher can use it to good effect and give individual attention where it is necessary. There are several variant forms of vertical grouping. Some schools arrange for there to be the full infant age range in each class, while in others the 5s and younger 6s will be in one class, the 7s and older 6s in another. A number of schools regroup children for part of the week, either into or out of vertical groups. The critics of vertical grouping point out that continuity with one teacher is effective only where there is low staff mobility; the children may remain constant, but the teacher could well change frequently. Moreover, continuity can be a marked disadvantage to children if the teacher happens to be weak. A wide spread of ability within a class covering a three year age range demands considerable skill in planning and classroom organisation. It is argued that some teachers may make insufficient demands on the seven year olds or not provide appropriate help and materials for the younger children; or they may tend to overlook the needs of the middle group.

13.6 The infant schools that pioneered deliberate vertical grouping were those which had already introduced different forms of classroom organisation, sometimes summed up in the phrase 'the integrated day'. The variations on this theme are numerous, but the principal is that subject barriers are artificial for young children. Timetable constraints are therefore removed and there is greater flexibility for accommodating individual needs and interests. For a substantial part of the day individual children, or small groups, might be variously engaged at any one time in mathematics, painting, craft work, social play, reading, or writing a story or an account of some investigation. During this time the teacher moves among the children, helping, guiding, and teaching on an individual or group basis as the need arises. Balance is achieved by bringing the whole class together at certain times for physical education, making music, discussion, or some similar activity, such as listening to a story. This way of working takes account of differences in development, interest, and attention. Language skills become an integral part of the work, and the contexts for talk, reading, and writing are provided by a variety of experiences which the child finds highly motivating.

13.7 The chief criticism is that where children pursue their own interests almost exclusively they lack direction and due attention to the basic skills. Unless there is a meticulous system of record keeping children can miss out important areas of experience and fail to make progress in certain directions. Some teachers might find it difficult to give sufficient help with reading on an individual or group basis when they are pulled in so many directions. It is the apparent excess of freedom of choice which has led some parents to worry that the basic skills are likely to suffer. The exponents of the integrated day accept that it needs skilful organising, but contend that where this is present the learning opportunities are increased. While a mixture of activities is in progress the teacher can engage one child or a group in the learning of the skill that must next be acquired. Where vertical grouping is in operation the teacher is better able by this means to cope with the wide range of attainment it must be expected to bring.

13.8 It was not possible in our survey to identify with precision the classes that were operating an integrated day in a full or partial sense. We were, however, able to do this for vertical grouping, and one of our objectives was to discover whether a commitment to it resulted in an emphasis on certain practices or in their comparative neglect. For instance it might be expected that teachers of deliberately vertically grouped classes would not set aside any particular part of the day for general attention to basic skills. The policy of setting aside time in this way was certainly common among the classes which were not vertically grouped; for it was adopted by 78 per cent of those containing six year olds. And yet as many as 52 per cent of the deliberately vertically grouped classes retained the same practice. In the case of the classes containing nine year olds there was an even greater incidence of the practice among the deliberately vertically grouped. Indeed, the proportion of classes doing their 'basic work' in the mornings was the same in both categories at 80 per cent. Similarly, it is sometimes suggested that vertical grouping and a disinclination to use phonic methods in the teaching of reading are associated. The following table reveals that although there is not a close correspondence in all methods the assumption about phonic work appears to be mistaken:

Another example occurs in the numbers showing the frequency with which teachers hear children read. The percentages, reproduced below, show that there is no great difference between the categories:

13.9 A further aspect of reading in which a comparison might be drawn is that of individual reading practice through graded schemes or other material. An analysis of this activity showed that the teachers of deliberately vertically grouped classes require it of their pupils with the same frequency as their counterparts in the other category.

It is not surprising that the differences revealed by these tables are modest, for the value of such techniques ought to depend on an assessment of the needs of individual children, not on the way the children are arranged into classes. If there is any occasion for surprise it is that so many of the deliberately vertically grouped classes should, like those in the other category, attempt to limit work on the basic skills to the morning period.

13.10 It is rightly pointed out that when vertical grouping is in operation the teacher must record with great care the progress and not merely the activities of each individual child. We argue at length in Chapter 17 that this is vitally important whatever the form of organisation. Nevertheless, it would have been disturbing if our survey had revealed less inclination for this practice on the part of teachers of vertically grouped classes. As the following table shows there was again little difference. In the case of the six year olds there were certain advantages in favour of the deliberately vertically grouped; with the nine year olds the position was reversed to a very slight degree:

We are not suggesting on the evidence of all the above tables that there is no difference of emphasis at any point between the different forms of organisation. A glance at the other tables in Chapter 25 will show where the variations occur. But we do suggest that it is mistaken to assume that any one form of teaching is tied exclusively to any given approach or provision.

13.11 How a school is organised should be based on a careful consideration of a number of essentials. Foremost among these are the educational needs of the children in question, the strengths and weaknesses of the teachers, and the quality of the other resources, material and human, both inside the school and out. The organisation can be considered successful if it brings together in the most effective way the best available combination of resources, and if it includes elements that allow it to change in the direction of becoming still more effective. It is not good enough simply to have adopted whatever is currently regarded as modish, nor simply to have clung to what was the best that could be managed in the past. As far as local circumstances allow, the organisation of schools and classes should reflect certain important facts, all seemingly obvious in themselves but by no means always taken into account. Children change as they grow older; children of the same age and of the same social background differ widely in their attainment and interests, and the differences between them do not remain constant; children learn best what is useful to them. These facts are sufficiently well argued elsewhere to need no further justification here. Each has a bearing on the direction in which teachers should be attempting to modify their practices.

13.12 Our impression is that changes in organisation within schools in recent years have not generally been matched by changes in classroom practice. We have given the example of the schools where vertically grouped classes had their 'basic work' concentrated on the mornings. We visited some classes using the 'integrated day' form of organisation where the educational environment was less imaginative and demanding than that to be found in many 'traditional' classrooms. For example, when children moved to the 'language bay' they would take an assignment card and work to the instructions it gave. It might contain instructions to write a story; or a short passage with comprehension questions; or even some exercises, cut from a textbook and pasted on to the card. There was no interpenetration of language and the other learning experiences, and often little contact with the teacher. The system gave the appearance of allowing each child to work alone at his own pace. In fact, some of the work was as narrow in scope as the more 'formal' variety it had replaced, and it had the disadvantage of reducing the shared activity which gives opportunity for so much language. The important point is that when a new form of organisation is adopted the work within the classroom should be consonant with it in spirit and intent. This means that a good deal of careful thought should precede any organisational change. There is little to be gained from introducing a new system which merely carries on the practices of the one it has superseded and thus has its possible advantages neutralised. Moreover, new ways of working should not be adopted unless the staff has had a chance to prepare for them, and this has implications for in-service training. The most valuable innovations are likely to be those in which teachers are involved from the outset, and they should always result in an improvement upon previous practice.

13.13 As children mature they come to rely less on adults and more on themselves and one another. With their growing independence they welcome access to a number of teachers with more specialised knowledge than one class teacher can provide. The development is a gradual one, and is not uniform for all children. The change from one state of experience to the other has usually taken place on transfer from primary to secondary schools, often with an uncompromising abruptness. It is encouraging to see that a number of primary, middle, and secondary schools are nowadays evolving forms of organisation which modify this. We do not believe that there is an organisational solution for primary schools which is distinct from that for secondary schools and remains virtually unchanged throughout the primary years. We prefer to think in terms of a gradual development from the class/teacher situation through cooperative working to a degree of specialism for the older children. In practice this would work as follows. Between the ages of five and nine there would be a firmly based class-teacher relationship, but with a gradual extension of the involvement of other colleagues. There would be some need from a fairly early stage for the class teacher to refer to a colleague for more specialist help, but at this stage such help should be looked upon as supportive; that is to say, it would depend upon the occasion and the needs of individual children. It is likely, with five year olds, to involve only a small part of the school day for any individual child, and none at all for some children. The time required for this kind of supplementary help would gradually increase over the period between five and thirteen years, and it would probably be best arranged by having teachers work as teams. This would mean that teachers and children alike would have access to a member of staff with a particular interest in one aspect of the curriculum and a special contribution to make to it. Some of these contacts would be timetabled and some occur on an occasional basis in response to a particular need. Some would involve the whole class, some a number of children drawn from each class in the group. In certain subjects, such as French, music, and some aspects of physical education, there would be a case for full specialist teaching for the older children, but we,do not envisage English as coming into this category. Since language permeates the curriculum we believe that it should not be abstracted from it in the primary school in the form of a specialist subject. Nevertheless, we emphasise strongly the importance of specialist help along the lines we have described above. The case for a member of staff with special responsibility in English in its widest sense is taken up in paragraph 13.23. It is important that the expert knowledge of such a teacher should be available where this kind of flexible grouping is being considered. Perhaps the most urgent need to enable these organisational patterns to develop is the provision of adequate time for staff consultation. Cooperative efforts, whether to initiate change or to adapt to it, cannot be effective unless there is time set aside for joint planning, for the interchange of discoveries, ideas, and experience, and for the expertise of some teachers to help with the problems of others.

13.14 Children of the same age differ in attainment and interests, but these differences do not remain constant over a period of time. The evidence of longitudinal studies is that children develop unevenly, a factor which adds to the demands created by individual differences. These differences call for corresponding variations of treatment, and these in turn suggest work in small groups and as individuals, with the teacher taking an active part. Group interaction is highly important in language activity and response to literature, and any decision to produce individual assignments and worksheets should take account of this. Furthermore, opportunities of working together as a class should not be lost. In some classrooms this shared experience has almost entirely disappeared. We talked to teachers who never read a story or a poem to the class or talked to the children collectively. Indeed, some felt that they would be wrong to teach the class or any part of it directly, since this would compromise their commitment to a 'child-centred' programme. In our view this represents a serious narrowing of opportunities. Some of the conventions of language, for example, need to be taught directly; not necessarily to a full class, but taught none the less. The degree of 'structure' and the mode of learning will differ from one time and situation to another, and a teacher's repertoire of methods of organisation should be able to accommodate these various needs.

13.15 We might summarise our position by saying that our view of language learning has certain general implications for class and school organisation. Children learn to master their mother tongue at individual rates and by individual routes. All that goes on in a classroom may directly or indirectly contribute to the process, given an organisation flexible enough to allow this to happen. Independent work, by individuals and by groups, provides the best sustained context for effective instruction by the teacher and should therefore be the principal form of classroom activity. There will be some occasions when the teacher will find it appropriate to teach the whole class, or when the whole class will be watching or listening to something collectively. Where an organisation of this flexible kind is working successfully, frequent and regular timetable breaks are likely to amount to an interruption to learning.

13.16 Many witnesses urged that classes should be smaller, and in the questionnaire we took steps to find out the distribution of class size in our sample. They were as follows:

This table tells its own story, and in our view there are still far too many classes which are larger than they should be. We would be going beyond our brief in recommending any particular level of pupil-teacher ratio. This is an issue which concerns the school situation in general, and not simply that part of it into which we have been inquiring. Nevertheless, the question of class size is important to our considerations, and it was certainly regarded as such in the schools we visited. Many teachers told us that with large classes they were unable to give individual attention with sufficient frequency and in sufficient depth. This is of particular importance in the early stages of reading, and unless the teacher can spend time with the individual child the kind of suggestions outlined in Chapter 7 cannot be effected. We recommend as a first step that schools should be staffed in September according to the largest number of children expected during the coming school year. At present many are staffed according to the expected average for the year. Since many schools with infants continue to take children at subsequent points in the year the result is generally a disturbance of the pattern of work. There is often an unsettling rearrangement of children and teachers, which almost invariably hampers progress. Even where the school contrives to avoid this rearrangement the arrival of new children progressively reduces the teacher's freedom to give individual attention. If the school were staffed at the maximum point at the beginning of the school year these disadvantages could be reduced.

13.17 Research evidence conflicts on the question of whether there is a correspondence between class size and standards. There was an interesting observation upon this matter in a large-scale comparative study (4) of reading in a number of countries: 'it does not seem at all odd that no systematic relationship between class size and reading attainments had been found. The variety of experience in the classrooms of different countries is so complex that it would be surprising to find any simple connection of such a kind'. The investigators said this held true despite quite large differences in class size from country to country, e.g. Sweden 25; Denmark 28; Norway 30; Germany 38; France, sometimes over 50. It was suggested, therefore, that other factors 'overwhelm the differential effect of class size within this range of 25 to 50 pupils per teacher'. The NFER publication A Pattern of Disadvantage (5) comments usefully on the difference between teachers' views and research findings: 'The findings (that is on class size and standards of attainment) relate to the measurable outcomes of education rather than to the more diffused concepts of quality in education'; 'The fact that the majority of teachers will reject the evidence relating to class size is perhaps a reflection on the wear and tear they experience in handling large classes day after day'. This is a helpful observation, for it seems to us a matter of common sense that a teacher with a large number of children in his or her daily charge will find the situation more difficult to organise effectively than if the number were smaller. We emphasise the words 'daily charge' and the 'day after day' used in the NFER publication. For there can be no strong grounds for arguing that teaching groups should invariably be confined to a given size. We have no hesitation in saying there should be an improvement in the pupil-teacher ratio, but it is not a simple matter of recommending a straight reduction in average class size. It is a question of relating improved resources to the demands of any given situation in as productive a manner as possible. A straightforward reduction in the number of children per class would be welcomed by teachers; of this there is no doubt. But schools should also be able to organise their classes in such a way that group size is matched to the needs of the work at any particular time. For example, it should be possible for whole classes or groups of classes to be divided, evenly or unevenly, from time to time to allow different kinds of activity. In some circumstances this would mean one or more teachers free of a main responsibility for a class, and therefore one or more other teachers temporarily having a larger group of children than usual. This would be one consequence of a flexibility where a group of teachers divide or re-divide the children between them. We believe that most teachers would accept this concept and that what they find most limiting is the constant and unrelieved pressure of working with a large class. In our view most primary schools are reaching a stage in their development where the chance to create very small groups as occasion demands would be more profitable to them than a simple reduction of average class size. The international study (6) cited experience in Denmark, where in recent years some classes have been divided into smaller units for lessons in the native language. The result, according to the Danish contributor to the report, has been that 'division of classes for a few lessons has proved more satisfactory in its results than previous efforts directed at reducing the size of the whole class, for example from 32 to 28'. We believe there can be considerable advantages where teachers work with a group of classes and divide and re-divide them to form clusters of varying abilities, interests, and numbers. There are, however, certain conditions essential to its success. The teachers should be committed to the idea, and the arrangement should not be introduced until they are able and willing to adapt their separate ways of working to the new demands. This implies careful planning and consultation, a clear understanding of the whole programme, and adequate facilities.

13.18 Before continuing the discussion of staffing we might consider briefly the last of these provisos, that of facilities. Later chapters are devoted to resources of various kinds, but we refer here to physical accommodation, for which flexibility of the sort we have been describing poses obvious questions. It would be wrong to assume that nothing can be done unless the spaces are purpose-designed. Some schools have been very successful in introducing patterns of variable grouping in premises offering no special facilities. Teachers have exercised great ingenuity in improvising to make old buildings and old furniture serve modern purposes. It is obvious, though, that where the building does not impose constraints the opportunities are so much the greater, and this has implications for primary school design. The best design recognises that educational methods and patterns of organisation are in a continuous process of evolution. This means that a building should offer its users a range of choices which will enable them to develop their work along a variety of lines. As a recent DES Design Note (7) expresses it: 'The wide range of activities taking place in schools needs to be matched by equally varied facilities. Some activities are compatible, but others conflict and require separation. Each has its own requirements for a suitable teaching environment. Thus it is necessary to provide the right balance of spaces with different environmental conditions'. A concept of this kind will allow for various small groupings, but also for a large number of children to be taught as a class. It will allow for freedom of movement where necessary, but also for reading and writing in the privacy and quiet of the enclosed space. Design should also take account of the involvement of parents and other adults in the daily life of the school, and the Design Note quoted above gives an interesting illustration. In our own recommendations we suggest that young children's language development will be furthered by opportunities for one to one conversation with adults. We believe that in the design of new nursery and infant schools the brief should include a requirement for several spaces to which an adult could withdraw with an individual child or a small group. When LEAs are considering the most effective use of minor works money for modifications to school buildings, the value of this facility should be taken into account.

13.19 This takes us back to the question of staffing and to our recommendations for the extension of language work with young children. There is no need to repeat them here, but we would draw attention to the staffing implications of the extra demands they would create. For example, where a school is working with parents and accepting secondary school pupils (paragraphs 5.37; 5.11) the pressures on teacher time and attention are increased, and the authority's staffing policy should take account of this. We have suggested (paragraph 5.42) that it would be valuable for some schools to have facilities for visiting parents in their homes. Heads to whom we talked about this possibility preferred that members of their staff should have this opportunity rather than that an educational visitor be appointed for the purpose. The ideal might be an additional teacher whose home liaison role involved her not only in visiting but in working with a class while their teacher was herself visiting. These and associated suggestions in Chapter 5 are particularly relevant to the special needs of schools in inner city areas and other areas of marked social disadvantage. We are in no doubt that such schools require additional help. An examination of the difficulties they face makes it obvious that they need a more favourable staffing situation than schools which do not encounter them. These difficulties have been discussed in detail elsewhere in the Report, notably in Chapters 2 and 18, but we refer again to them here to emphasise the strain to which some schools are subject.

13.20 The National Child Development Study (8) pointed to certain environmental features which could be related to poor performance in reading, e.g. overcrowding and absence of amenities in the home. Family size was another factor, and the difference in reading attainment between first and fourth or later born children was equivalent to 16 months of reading age at the age of seven. The additional effect of two or more younger siblings could mean a loss of a further 7 months' reading age. The relationship between home environment and reading achievement was confirmed in all the developed countries in a recent international study (9). It was found that home and family background provided an appreciably accurate prediction of the reading achievement of individual pupils and of the average achievement of children in a school. Several studies confirm that many backward readers display restlessness, antisocial behaviour, and a rebellious attitude. There is, then, ample evidence of a link between reading failure and socio-economic disadvantage and a relationship with emotional disturbance. The ILEA research department found that among children in Inner London schools there is a markedly higher incidence of emotional disturbance than the national average. The ILEA 1968 Literacy Survey revealed that at the age of eight one in six children was a poor reader compared with one in twelve nationally. The school questionnaire associated with that survey showed that on average 22 per cent of the school roll received special help with reading, mainly in small withdrawal groups. In our national sample 11 per cent of the twelve year old secondary pupils were in 'remedial' or withdrawal groups for this purpose.

13.21 We visited a number of inner city schools in London and elsewhere in the country whose difficulties derived from the severe social problems of the area. In one such school 47 per cent of the children were having free school dinners, 30 per cent were from one parent families, and the staff judged that 53 per cent came from 'problem families'. 50 per cent of the fourth year juniors were non-readers. Some schools draw almost all their pupils from areas where there is an extremely high incidence of overcrowding, crime, rent arrears, debt, lack of standard housing amenities, people living in one or two rooms, children in care, and referrals to social services departments. We are in no doubt that such schools need additional teachers, but we do not underestimate the difficulty of recruiting them. Some of the schools have an abnormally high rate of staff turnover (10), and we spoke to heads whose staffs had undergone two complete changes of personnel in three years. This mobility is often matched by that of the children themselves, and we visited one school where as many as 32 per cent of the eleven year olds had not started there at seven. Almost as high a proportion would have left the area before completing a secondary school course. In circumstances such as these the picture is one of shifting encounters, against a background which creates a need for sustained relationships and a sense of security. It is clear that steps so far taken, as in EPA areas, have proved to be inadequate, and that this is a serious problem which calls for vigorous action involving more than simply educational agencies. We welcome the action of the Secretary of State in setting up a unit within the Department to study the problems of the disadvantaged, and his approval of an increased allowance to teachers working in stress areas.

13.22 There remains the important question of staff support within the school in language work and the teaching of reading. There is clear evidence that when above-scale payments are being allocated in primary schools English is all too often not even considered. Our own survey showed that of the schools with the power to award above-scale posts only 29 per cent have assigned one to responsibility for advising other teachers in the teaching of English. We feel this situation is unsatisfactory, and that it reflects a mistaken belief that any teacher can cope with all the varied aspects of English without additional training or specialist advice. We believe that every school should have a teacher with this responsibility, and that where authorities and schools have the power to make additional payment for it they should do so.

13.23 We have used the term English in order to emphasise the inclusiveness of the role. Several witnesses suggested that each school should have a teacher responsible for supporting his colleagues in the teaching of reading. This is a recommendation which we readily endorse, but we would broaden it to include the development of language in general. The task would be a demanding one, and a consideration of what it would involve makes it all the more surprising that such an important role is filled in so few schools. In the first place the teacher would act as consultant to his colleagues on matters of reading and language. It would fall to him to assess the results of screening and to discuss with his colleagues the diagnostic procedures and special help required by individual children. It is important to emphasise, however, that his concern extends beyond the language and reading needs of the slow learner, and should equally involve those of the able child. He would obviously need to be well informed of current developments and new materials, and this would include a knowledge of children's literature, since one of his responsibilities would be the guidance discussed in Chapter 21. As a teacher with a special contribution to make in a particular area of the curriculum he would play an important part in any regrouping arrangements of the kind described earlier. It would be unprofitable for us to attempt to define too closely the extent of such a teacher's function. To do so would be to risk circumscribing it or extending it beyond the practicable, for a great deal will depend upon the size of the school. For example, in a small school it would be reasonable for the post to include responsibility for library books. In a large school this would clearly need to lie with another member of staff, though both teachers would work in close cooperation. For this recommendation to have the best effect there would have to be adequate preparation. Though there are many teachers in primary schools with a keen interest in language development and reading, there is a limit to the number with a special knowledge of them. This would mean effective in-service training provision for the teachers selected for these posts. It would also mean sustained support from the local authority advisory team, whose role we consider in a later chapter. At present neither of these forms of support is sufficiently well developed in most authorities to perform the task, or, for that matter, the more general one of helping schools to a better understanding of English teaching. We emphasise that all teachers in the primary school must carry equal responsibility for language and that for this reason they should receive support of these two kinds in the teaching of English in all its aspects.

13.24 The importance of good leadership by the head cannot be overstated. This was identified by Morris (11) in her Kent survey as a characteristic of those schools which achieved good reading standards and progress. The heads produced carefully defined goals and the organisation necessary to attain them. They were enthusiastic teachers, involving themselves in the work of the classroom and providing an example to their staff. A similar conclusion emerged from the Cooperative Reading Studies of the US Office of Education, where an important factor in success was found to be 'the amount of interest and attention given to the organisation of the reading programme by the school administration'. Our own visits left us in no doubt that where the head sets a high value on language development an essential precondition for success has been established. This reveals itself in a variety of ways, of which concern to raise every child's level of achievement is the most apparent. There is a positive expectation for every child, and the staff are encouraged to keep careful records of each child's progress. There is a receptivity to new ideas and approaches, which are not adopted uncritically but evaluated carefully. The head discusses them with his staff and puts them into practice only where the conditions are right and an improvement in standards is likely to result. This is an aspect of the notion of the school as its own in-service training unit. Sometimes courses will be held within the school, and whenever a member of staff attends an outside course its benefits are shared with colleagues. The head's own part in this process is of vital importance, and his leadership can often find its best expression when he works alongside his colleagues in the classroom. The appointment of a teacher with a responsibility for language and reading would not diminish the importance of this leadership. Indeed, support of this kind would help the head to realise the policy more effectively. It cannot be emphasised too strongly that the teacher is the biggest single factor for success in learning to read and use language. The school with high standards of reading is the one where the teachers are knowledgeable about it and are united in ascribing to it a very high priority. A coherent strategy, understood and agreed by the staff, is the best instrument for improving standards of reading and language, and the head's part in the process is central to its success. In small schools, where the head is called upon to take responsibility for a class for a substantial part of the time, there should be some provision to enable him to fulfil this role, including generous secretarial assistance.

References

1. Education: A Framework for Expansion HMSO: 1972 and Circular No. 2/73: Department of Education and Science: 1973.

2. Yudkin S 0-5: A report on the Care of Pre-School Children National Society of Children's Nurseries: 1967.

3. The Illegal Child Minders Priority Area Children: 1972.

4. Downing J (ed.) Comparative Reading Macmillan, New York: 1973.

5. Donnison D (ed.) A Pattern of Disadvantage NFER: 1972.

6. Downing J (ed.) op. cit.

7. Design Note 11: Chaucer Infant and Nursery School, Ilkeston, Derbyshire Architects and Building Branch, Department of Education and Science: HMSO: 1973.

8. Davie R, Butler N, and Goldstein H From Birth to Seven Longmans: 1972.

9. Thorndike RL Reading Comprehension Education in Fifteen Countries: International Studies in Evaluation III International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement: 1973.

10. See Report on Education No. 79 Teacher Turnover Department of Education and Science: 1974.

11. Morris JM Standards and Progress in Reading NFER: 1966.