Debating should be encouraged to boost pupils’ oracy and steps should be taken to ensure exam preparation does not “distort” the English curriculum, Ofsted has said.
The findings form part of the inspectorate’s latest subject report, which evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of how English is taught in schools across the country.
The watchdog visited 50 schools in England to inform the report and said its evidence for early reading was from trips to 25 schools as part of “routine inspection activities”.
The teaching of reading has “improved markedly” but the curriculum for writing and spoken language is “less effective”, it concluded.
