WHITE working class boys in Reading are sinking to the bottom of the education barrel as new data on literacy skills reaffirms.

Roughly a third of pupils in the borough failed to meet the minimum standards of phonic decoding at the end of Key Stage One last year, and the demographic group which has concerned leaders for a number of years came lowest of all.

The tests — which are designed to screen the ability of six- to seven-year-old children to recognise and decipher word sounds — found that 31 per cent of all pupils in Reading Borough failed to meet the basic requirement — the lowest in Berkshire.

John Ennis, education leader for Reading Borough Council, said: “There are some schools that are really good in Reading whose Key Stage Two results are above the national average. But their phonics results are still low and it is the white working class boys that are particularly low. We have to work extra hard to ensure that they are not being negatively affected.

“Reading is one of the lowest in the country and that could be down to schools but it could also be the sizeable number of children coming in to the classroom when they are not school-ready.

“We are trying to target specific groups and children by giving them special reading material and extra time in the classroom.” Children in Reading whose first language is English also fared six per cent worse than those who had another language as their native tongue, whereas on a national level there was only a one per cent difference between these groups.

Of those who qualified for free school meals, 15 per cent less pupils passed the screening tests than those who do not, according the data from the Department for Education.

Mike Edwards, former headteacher and field worker for the literacy charity ABC to Read, said there is a very strong correlation between failing to learn at a young age and future difficulties. He added that a high proportion of teenage youth offenders have a reading age of less than 11.

He said: “White working class boys have been among the lowest achievers for some time in Reading but what is concerning is that they still are. If children arrive into the education system with no knowledge of books or stories then teachers face an uphill struggle.” The test comprised a list of 40 real and nonsense words which the child must correctly pronounce or decode in a one-to-one session with a teacher.