Funding of £500,000 has been awarded for a new scheme to improve boys' reading skills.

Thousands of pupils across Essex are set to benefit from the project, throughout Key Stages one to three.

Essex County Council has been awarded funding for the project from the Government's Strategic School Improvement Fund and will work with Essex Teaching School Alliances on the project.

Statistically the county's boys underperform in reading, with 74 per cent of them reaching the expected standard at the end of Key Stage one, compared with 82 per cent of girls.

Key Stage two figures also show a disparity of seven per cent between genders.

The new grant funding will help launch three phases of the programme to run, each focused on a specific age of pupils.

It will begin this autumn and is likely to involve at least 80 primary and secondary schools in Essex.

Andrew Smith, headteacher at Lyons Hall Primary School, Braintree, 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.”