Schools to blame for children who hate books

The "unacceptable" failure of many schools to teach children to read properly is laid bare today in a damning report from education watchdog Ofsted.

Under-achieving children are being "let down by the system" despite a decade of attempts to force schools to improve the teaching of reading.

Teachers in the worst schools are often too ready to blame parents for not caring enough to make sure their children read at home, Ofsted said. But the best schools make no excuses for under-achievement, even if most pupils do not speak English as their first language. Ofsted found

that high-quality teaching and willingness to do whatever it takes to get children reading makes a crucial difference.

Its report, Reading For Purpose And Pleasure, is the result of Ofsted's third major investigation into the quality of reading in English state primary schools in little more than a decade.

Today's findings are likely to trigger yet another bout of national soulsearching over the persistence of what Ofsted chief inspector David Bell called a "stubborn core of pupils at the bottom end of the scale".

The main failings that Ofsted highlights today include:

Inspectors visited 45 primary schools across a wide social spectrum and talked to pupils as well as teachers.

Many of their observations make for depressing reading.

One spoke to a boy of eight who was already below the level expected for his age. The inspector wrote: "I pick up the book and ask if we can read this one together. He hesitates and looks away, turning his face. He picks up the book a few minutes later and tries to read the title. He spells the word and sounds out each letter but cannot blend them.

"He is frustrated and says, 'I don't know the cover, how can I read it?'"

After more frustration and "wild" guesses, the inspector recorded: "He gives up and says that he is rubbish and can never read."

The incompetence of schools that do not teach reading well enough drags down children who pick up reading quickly, Ofsted said.

One seven- year- old girl told inspectors she was not allowed to read books outside the school's reading scheme. Because they were so easy, she finished them at home in a couple of days - but was only

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allowed a new book once a week. The report noted: "She is frustrated that she has to wait a week to change the book."

Schools risk stigmatising struggling pupils by rigid adherence to reading schemes that become a "race" in which the winners get the right to choose their own books, the report found.

But Ofsted also highlighted the huge boost that good teaching gave.

One seven-year-old boy said: "I read my dad's newspaper because I like to know what is going on."

Another said: "I like fiction because it gives you things you may not have thought of and words you may never use. It helps me dream about things."

Mr Bell said it was simply not good enough for schools to blame parents or economic circumstances for their own failings. He added: "Reading is the cornerstone for learning. There are so many excellent tools available to teachers to help them engage and inspire children but the lacklustre approach we have found in ineffective schools is very worrying."