Thousands of Essex pupils will benefit from a new two-year project aiming to improve the progress and attainment of boys in reading.

Essex County Council has been awarded £500,000 from the Government’s Strategic School Improvement Fund for a project to help improve educational outcomes for boys in Key Stages 1 to 3.

The collaborative project between the council and Essex Teaching School Alliances (TSAs) aims to support and improve boys’ reading, and comes as statistics show the county’s boys typically underperform in the subject.

In 2017, 74% boys in Essex reached the expected standard in reading at the end of the Key Stage 1, compared with 82% of girls. At Key Stage 2 the provisional data shows 70% of boys and 77% of girls reached the standard.

The new funding will allow three separate phases of the programme to be run, each focused on a key stage (1-3) and initially led by a different TSA.

Other TSAs will then be involved in rolling it out across different schools.

The project starts this autumn and is likely to involve at least 80 primary and secondary schools in Essex.

There will be a particular focus on improving the teaching of phonics and comprehension and fluency.

Ray Gooding, county councillor for education, said: “We are committed to ensuring all pupils in Essex receive the best possible education and work very closely with the county’s schools.

“Data shows boys in Essex typically underperform in English in Key Stages 1 to 3 and we are delighted to have successfully secured funding for an exciting new programme to help reverse that trend.

“Good literacy and comprehension are vital in ensuring young people are well equipped for later education and employment.”

Andrew Smith, headteacher at Lyons Hall Primary School in Braintree, which is part of the Professional Learning Network TSA in mid Essex, said: “The reading programme has been designed to give teachers time to learn from current research and reflect on how their practice back in school can be adapted to more effectively teach and support boys with reading.

“There is a strong focus on reading for pleasure, developing fluency, reading resilience and key strategies to improve comprehension.

“Alongside the three training days, delegates will have individualised support in their own schools to help ensure that changes made to the teaching of reading will lead to improvement in outcomes for boys.”