Early Reading and Phonics Leader Questions (2026/27) are self-review questions for reading and phonics leads, English leads and senior leaders, and for secondary leaders supporting pupils who are not yet fluent readers. 2026/27 edition, rewritten for the Ofsted school inspection toolkit (v2.0) for inspections from 7 September 2026.
The toolkit says inspectors must evaluate how well pupils secure strong foundations on every inspection. These questions cover systematic synthetic phonics, fluency, books matched to pupils' phonics knowledge, keeping up, daily story time, oracy, and support for older pupils and pupils new to English.
What's inside
- 30 questions in six sections: leading early reading; phonics and word reading; language, vocabulary and a love of reading; pupils who are not yet fluent readers; reading across the curriculum; and achievement
- An evidence column and a next-step column for every question
- A summary of what the expected and strong standards look like
- A priorities and actions table
Editable Word document, 5 pages, landscape.
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