Gill Furniss (Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab) I beg
to move, That this House has considered the availability of books
in primary schools. It is a pleasure to serve under your
chairpersonship, Ms Elliott. I am delighted to have this time to
talk about books, after raising this issue many times since
entering Parliament and serving as chair of the all-party
parliamentary group for libraries, information and knowledge. If it
were not for books I...Request free
trial
(Sheffield, Brightside and
Hillsborough) (Lab)
I beg to move,
That this House has considered the availability of books in
primary schools.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairpersonship, Ms Elliott.
I am delighted to have this time to talk about books, after
raising this issue many times since entering Parliament and
serving as chair of the all-party parliamentary group for
libraries, information and knowledge.
If it were not for books I would not be standing here now. As a
child, I started going to libraries and I have never stopped. In
fact, I spent so much time in libraries that I ended up working
in not just one but several over the years, from public libraries
to academic libraries. I eventually earned my degree in
information and library studies as a mature student. Books
changed my life. I know that they have the potential to change
the lives of millions of children, too.
As a former librarian, I have had the privilege of welcoming
countless children through the doors of my local library,
watching as they were whisked away to far-flung places,
captivated by the magic of words. Children are whisked away to
the land of Shakespeare, Dickens, the Brontës and many others.
This is a country whose identity is steeped in story, which is
why I find it so shocking that there is no statutory requirement
for schools to have any library facilities. It is no wonder that
one in six adults in the country have very low levels of
literacy, rising to one in three in some of the poorest
communities. I fear that those statistics could be even bleaker
in future.
Research conducted by the National Literacy Trust found that 56%
of eight to 18-year-olds do not enjoy reading in their free
time—the lowest level since surveys began in 2005. More than
ever, books are fighting phones and video game consoles for
relevance at home. Although those have their place, it is vital
that we do everything in our power to help establish a love of
reading during children’s formative years.
(Huddersfield)
(Lab/Co-op)
My hon. Friend is making an excellent speech. Does she agree that
libraries in primary schools are more important in areas of
deprivation than in areas of affluence? It is essential that we
listen to teachers in primary schools so that we know whether a
child has not been spoken to and not been read to. If that is the
case, they start at a terrible disadvantage, which can impact the
rest of their lives. I support her debate and her ambitions
100%.
My hon. Friend is correct. It is crucial that people in poorer
communities have access to public libraries.
Mr Sheerman
In Sunderland and Huddersfield, for example.
Yes.
(Strangford) (DUP)
I commend the hon. Lady for securing a debate on an issue of
great importance. I know that the Minister is not responsible for
Northern Ireland, but it is an issue that I can support the hon.
Lady on, because in Northern Ireland we have the same problem.
Does she agree that it is unacceptable that we have teachers
perusing charity shops at the weekend to scrape together lending
libraries for children whose parents cannot afford books? I agree
with the research that shows that the amount of time that
children spend reading independently is the best predictor of
their overall literacy and language achievement. It helps
children to build fluency and become self-reliant readers. This
debate is so important. Well done to the hon. Lady.
I could not agree more with the hon. Gentleman. I thank him for
his intervention.
Last week, led by Sir Michael Morpurgo, the current and former
children’s laureates united to call for legislation to make it a
legal requirement for all schools in Britain to have libraries.
Some may question that as a priority and deride it as something
that would be nice to have, especially during these difficult
economic times, but the benefits of reading are innumerable, and
support across the country for such a policy is overwhelming.
Eighty-six per cent. of parents said that they would support
making it a legal requirement for every primary school in the
country to have a designated school library on site—and for good
reason. Studies from the OECD show that reading for pleasure has
a more profound impact on a child’s academic success than their
socioeconomic background, while research by Farshore into the
impacts of daily story time in primary schools found that 65% of
boys and 76% of girls agree that story time makes them feel
calmer. Those children went on to develop increased enthusiasm
and motivation to read and, on average, their reading age
improved at twice the expected rate over the period of the
study.
(Darlington) (Con)
The hon. Lady is making an important speech about an issue that
is close to my heart. What she is saying is clearly demonstrated
by an example in my constituency. Skerne Park Academy had a brand
new library installed and started a reading lobster programme
whereby children who said that they had nobody to read to were
given a plush toy in the shape of a lobster so that they could
have a reading partner. Reading has taken off there, and the
children are doing really well.
I would like to follow up on the point raised by the hon. Member
for Strangford (). My love of books grew from visiting charity shops
and second-hand bookshops, because their prices are accessible
with pocket money. I do not think there is anything wrong with
people visiting second-hand bookshops. Does the hon. Lady
agree?
I am not quite sure about that. I think it is nice to have a new
book, if possible. All children should be treated as equals and
not have to show that they maybe do not have as much money as
others. I will dwell on that point, and I thank the hon.
Gentleman for his intervention.
Children are not the only ones to benefit from the impacts of
daily story time: 91% of teachers said that they want to continue
with daily story time, and 88% would like it to be mandated in
the curriculum to help mitigate the guilt of coming away from the
statutory curriculum requirements to spend time reading
stories.
It is clear from multiple academic studies and reports that a
love of books can help to form the bedrock for a better life.
However, we are in the midst of a national reading crisis. That
crisis is compounded by the fact that one in seven state primary
schools in this country do not have a library. In the most
disadvantaged communities, that number rises to one in four. We
must do more to help get books into the hands of children.
Ensuring that no child is left behind when it comes to reading is
worth every penny; it is an investment in their future and our
country’s future. However, there has been little growth in
spending per pupil over the last 14 years. In fact, the Institute
for Fiscal Studies predicted that the purchasing power of school
budgets will be around 3% lower in 2024-25 than it was in
2010.
Schools have a great deal of autonomy when it comes to allocating
their budget and, in recent years, they have been forced—as so
many people across the country have—to make difficult financial
decisions. When they are faced with buildings plagued by leaks,
cold and reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete, who can blame
headteachers and governors for making extraordinarily difficult
decisions about how they spend their budget? The lack of
prioritisation of books means that two thirds of primary schools
in the UK are without a designated library budget. When parents
were polled, however, the library was one of the most important
facilities that they wanted their children to have access to,
second only to the playground.
We must remember that there is no guarantee that pupils who do
not have access to books in school have access to books at home.
A lack of provision in primary schools will simply exacerbate
deep-rooted inequalities. We can provide the books that will help
to create a generation of readers, but simply making books
available does not guarantee that they will be read. Just as
important as ensuring that we have fully stocked libraries in our
primary schools is having the library staff. They are often
overlooked, but they are vital for ensuring that the library is a
welcoming and engaging space.
Mr Sheerman
The hon. Lady may remember the Education Committee’s winter
reports on the importance of early literacy from the time that I
chaired the Committee. A key thing to come out of one of those
reports was the programme of Sure Start centres for children. Is
it about time we went back to that, so that every community has
Sure Start centres and community centres again? They were
champions for reading at school.
My hon. Friend makes a good point. It would be good to see again
the scope of what Labour provided in its last term.
Library staff encourage new readers and put programmes in place
to ensure that reading is for pleasure, not just for study.
However, a study by Great School Libraries found that only 41% of
schools in the UK with a designated library area had library
staff, down from 54% in 2019. We need to reverse the trends in
childhood reading by ensuring that schools have well-stocked,
well-staffed libraries.
We need to empower children by letting them choose what they want
to read and ensuring that they have a wide variety of genres to
choose from. We need to allow teachers the ability to ringfence
time so that all primary school children can enjoy reading for
pleasure. The gift of reading is one of the most beautiful things
that we can impart to the next generation. We need to ensure that
primary schools are properly equipped to do so.
11.10am
The Minister for Schools ()
It is a pleasure, once again, to see you in the Chair, Ms
Elliott. It is nice to be in a Westminster Hall debate in which
we all overwhelmingly agree. I congratulate the hon. Member for
Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough () on securing the debate, and
it is good to have others taking part. We have particularly
benefited from hearing about the hon. Lady’s experience. She
mentioned her early childhood experience as a user of libraries,
and then her experiences throughout her life as an employee, a
professional and an academic in the library service.
The hon. Lady said that we should improve children’s access to
books. The Government wholeheartedly agree. Reading is the
cornerstone of a brilliant education, an important part of
growing up and adult life, and a core focus of this Government.
She talked about being in competition with video games, consoles,
phones and tablets. In the old times, we might have said that
television was top of that list. There are good arguments and
practical, useful roles for all those pieces of electronica, but
there is nothing quite like a book for the physical, mental and
emotional experience.
Mr Sheerman
Does the Minister agree that one of the real problems we all
have—I have it in Huddersfield; everyone has it in their
constituency—is early stimulation? We see so many parents now
pushing their small child in a pushchair, with their headphones
on; they are not talking to the child. That early learning of the
language, then reading at night and taking them to the library to
get their books is crucial, is it not? That is why this debate is
so important.
What can I say? The hon. Gentleman is ahead of me, and not for
the first time. I do not think he has seen my handwritten notes,
but if he had, he would know that they say, “It starts with being
read to.” I remember previous debates we have had in this
Chamber, particularly with our former colleague Baron Field, who
was the right hon. Member for Birkenhead. For example, we used to
talk about how those early experiences of being read to are so
important, not only because of the reading experience, but
because it is quite difficult to read to a very young child
without holding them, and that early attachment is part of
it.
We have a focus these days on the home learning environment, and
some of the ways we can make everyday experiences—little
moments—matter. Everyday experiences at a bus stop, on a train or
in a supermarket are all part of that early literacy experience.
Ideally there should be books at home, and I pay tribute to some
of the organisations that have tried to make that more
widespread, particularly in disadvantaged communities or for
people on lower incomes.
Of course, there should also be books at school. School should be
the great leveller. I have visited a lot of schools in my time.
Like the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman), I am a
former member of the Education Committee. I am now and have been
previously an Education Minister, and, like all of us, I am a
Member of Parliament. In those three roles, I have visited a lot
of schools. I am always struck by the prominence that schools
give to books and reading. They are an important part of school
life, and that is true for reading time in school and for
children taking books home to enjoy them there.
All pupils deserve to be taught a knowledge-rich curriculum that
promotes extensive reading both in and out of school, and reading
is a principal way to acquire knowledge. The texts that our young
people read play a big part in their wider development, too, by
broadening their horizons and introducing new ideas and
perspectives.
We have strengthened the national curriculum to focus on
developing reading. To encourage the development of a lifelong
love of literature, we are requiring pupils to study a range of
books, poems and plays. The national curriculum also promotes
reading for pleasure, as the hon. Member for Sheffield,
Brightside and Hillsborough rightly says, with evidence showing
that that is more important for children’s educational
development than even their parents’ level of education.
Charities such as BookTrust and the National Literacy Trust work
tirelessly to raise the profile of reading for pleasure, and I
thank them for their work. Of course, such organisations also do
important work to raise awareness of the vital role of libraries,
and we recognise the particular importance of libraries in
increasing children’s access to books and promoting reading for
pleasure, whether in school or in the community library. I am
grateful to the organisations and authors who are currently
shining a light on the difference that libraries can make, such
as Julia Donaldson, Michael Morpurgo, Philip Pullman, Cressida
Cowell and others.
I also recognise the important work undertaken by a range of
organisations to promote the work of libraries to children,
families and schools. For example, Schools Library Services
assists schools with everything from developing whole libraries
to book stocks and staff training, and the Reading Agency’s
summer reading challenge, which I think many MPs also take part
in directly or indirectly, motivates more than 700,000 children
of all abilities to read for enjoyment over the summer holidays
through their local library. It is for individual schools to
decide how best to provide and maintain a library service for
their pupils, including whether to employ a qualified librarian.
Our reading framework provides guidance on that, including how
best to engage children with the books that are available in
school.
Public libraries have a strong offer to support children’s
development as readers beyond school, not just through books and
resources, but through events such as Rhymetimes. The experience
of visiting a public library these days is quite different from
when we were children: there is so much more going on, and it is
much more inclusive and welcoming.
Does the Minister agree that cuts to public services mean that
there is less access to public libraries? Many have closed, and
community libraries, which adults in particular used to rely on,
are no longer accessible.
I accept that there have been strains on public finances. The
origins of those are well known: when the Government came in in
2010, there was a recurring annual public deficit of £155
billion, which is £5,500 for every household in the country. That
meant that difficult decisions had to be made over time, but
libraries remain an essential part of the fabric of our country.
There are statutory requirements around libraries for upper-tier
local authorities, and there were 2,892 static libraries in
England at the last count. That does not include mobile
libraries, of which there is not a similar count.
Talking of libraries gives me the perfect opportunity to
highlight the fantastic work in Darlington, where our library was
threatened with closure by the Labour-controlled local authority.
The public were up in arms and they launched a campaign to save
it. It is has been put in the hands of independent trustees, has
just undergone a multimillion-pound revamp and is now at the
heart of our community. Not every community has lost its
library.
Well, I am pleased to hear of the good ending to that story. I
pay tribute to my hon. Friend for all the work that he does
locally and for his championing of these causes.
In 2022, my noble Friend , the Minister for Arts and
Heritage, appointed my noble Friend Baroness Sanderson to review
the public libraries sector to help inform future work. Her
review of public libraries was published last week and makes a
number of recommendations, which will inform the development by
the Department for Culture, Media and Sport of the new Government
libraries strategy for England.
For children to develop a love of books, we need to build a
strong foundation in reading early on, and the Government have
introduced a range of measures to support the effective teaching
of reading right from the start.
Mr Sheerman
The Minister is making some very good points, but this is not
just about books, surely—it is about what those books are. I had
the honour of knowing Benjamin Zephaniah, who opened the John
Clare cottage, which I am chairman of, but we are struggling to
get children to come out of school into places such as that to
learn about poetry and to hear and read poetry. Reading poetry at
school has diminished. Trips outside of school have diminished.
This is holistic. Would the Minister not agree that many children
in our country from more deprived backgrounds are missing out
holistically, not just in terms of libraries?
I am not quite sure how the hon. Gentleman would or could know
that. I certainly know that when I visit schools, I see and hear
poetry being read, discussed and being written by children. I
agree with him entirely that poetry is a really important part of
our literature, and it is a really important thing for children
to be exposed to. Like the study of music and learning a musical
instrument or to sing, they can find ways to express themselves
in ways they did not know existed. It provides ways to understand
the world in ways they had not previously appreciated. I agree
with him absolutely on the importance of poetry.
I was talking about the earliest years, and in particular the
early years foundation stage. As the hon. Gentleman will know, we
introduced landmark reforms in the early years foundation stage
to improve early years outcomes for all children, particularly
disadvantaged children, in those critical areas that build the
foundations of later success, including, importantly, language
development and reading. The reforms will ensure that children
receive the best start and develop a love of reading from early
on. We have invested in early language intervention and are
supporting parents through the home learning environment campaign
that I mentioned a moment ago, which has been backed by further
investment.
To drive up the standard of literacy teaching in primary schools,
we have followed the evidence and focused on ensuring
high-quality systematic synthetic phonics teaching for every
child. Since 2010, we have turbocharged the effective teaching of
phonics by placing it at the heart of the curriculum and
introducing the phonics screening check in 2012 to assess pupils
at the end of year 1. We have incorporated phonics into the
teachers’ standards, the baseline of expectation for teachers’
professional practice. We have placed a greater focus on phonics
and the teaching of reading in Ofsted’s inspection framework and
supported schools to choose good phonics programmes by publishing
a list of schemes validated by the Department.
In 2018, we launched the English hubs programme, which is
dedicated to improving the teaching of reading. The programme has
so far supported over 1,600 schools intensively, with a
particular focus on helping children making the slowest progress
in reading, many of whom come from disadvantaged backgrounds. It
includes schools in Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough, which
are supported by two of the hubs, Learners First and Saint
Wilfrid’s. The programme is having a measurable impact. Schools
supported intensively as partner schools by English hubs
outperform non-partner schools by around seven percentage points
when comparing the change in year 1 phonics screening check
results between just before the pandemic and 2022.
Mr Sheerman
May I make a final intervention? The Minister’s colleague, the
hon. Member for Darlington (), has rudely left him on his
own.
Go on. The hon. Gentleman spoils us.
Mr Sheerman
My hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield, Brightside and
Hillsborough () wants the Government to say
that every school must have a library. Is the Minister for that,
or is he against it? When is he going to introduce it? He has not
got much time before the election.
Look: schools have books. I do not know what schools the hon.
Member may have visited that do not have books on shelves, but
schools have books. Sometimes libraries these days get called
“learning resource centres” and all sorts of different things.
Sometimes they are laid out in different ways and not necessarily
laid out as a set-aside room, but schools have books. We trust
schools, headteachers, boards of governors and trustees to know
what is right for their school and how to provide best for their
children. We want reading and books to be at the heart of that
and, in my experience of primary schools in England, that is
indeed what happens.
The hubs that I mentioned are about more than phonics. In 2021,
we rolled out the “Transforming your school’s reading culture”
programme, which was developed by hub schools and sector experts
to support reading for pleasure. Reaching around 600 schools last
year, English hubs is now into the third year of delivering that
research-based continuing professional development programme,
which trains teachers in schools across the country to ensure
that every pupil develops a love of books.
We know that the hub programme cannot reach every single school,
so to ensure that all teachers had clear guidance to support
their teaching of reading, we published a reading framework.
Updated last year, the framework offers non-statutory guidance on
best practice in the teaching of reading from reception to year
9. It recognises the importance of encouraging a love of reading,
including the vital importance of pupil choice and access to a
wide variety of books. More than 90% of schools have taken our
first reading framework published in 2021 and 66%, or two thirds,
have made changes to their practice as a result.
Our clear focus on reading is making an impact. England came
fourth out of the 43 countries that tested children of the same
age in the 2021 progress in international reading literacy study,
which is an assessment of the reading abilities of primary-age
children across the world. I am grateful to all the primary
school teachers, teaching assistants and everybody in our
brilliant school system whose commitment to reading and to our
children has made that possible. The strongest predictor of PIRLS
performance was the year 1 phonics screening check mark, with
higher marks predicting higher PIRLS scores.
The Department is committed to improving literacy for all pupils
because we cannot knock down barriers for children if we do not
teach them to read well. We are determined to drive progress
further still and ensure that all children can benefit from
high-quality teaching, giving them a solid base on which to build
as they progress through school.
Question put and agreed to.
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