A whole language approach to teaching reading gives kids a whole linguistic picture of how words work. This includes teaching individual letters and sounds, as well as what the words mean in context.
English is a code-based language, with 26 letters to represent 44 speech sounds. Children must first learn to master the code if they want to be successful readers.
Years 5-7 typically include the transition from primary to secondary but the reading slowdown can’t just be blamed on this, because numeracy progress has improved. So what’s going on with reading?