£24m catch-up fund for Generation Lockdown

PRIMARY pupils will get extra help with language and literacy skills after new school results revealed the devastating impact of the Covid pandemic and lockdowns on their education.

- Jonathan Walker

The Government is to provide an additional £24million for phonics and expert literacy teaching as part of its Covid catch-up programme.

The announcement also marks the end of Dyslexia Awareness Week, with literacy support helping dyslexic pupils develop reading skills.

It comes as Department for Education figures showed a major fall in maths and English results among young pupils. Just 67 per cent of seven-year-olds met the target in reading by the end of the 2021-22 school year, down from 75 per cent in 2019, before the pandemic.