Developing literacy across the curriculum

The ingredients for success
Barriers and solutions

Barriers and solutions

In June 2003 the 200 delegates attending the NLT secondary conferences in London, Birminghm and York took part in group discussions about what were the essential ingredients for introducing literacy across the curriculum successfully. The groups then identified the key barriers to progress and discussed solutions for overcoming these barriers. A key point arising from the feedback was the need for a clear focus that is built on over time through genuine staff involvement.

Below is a summary of the potential barriers identified by the groups and their suggested solutions. The summary was compiled by Julia Strong, July 2003.

If you have and comments or additional suggestions please email julia.strong@literacytrust.org.uk.

Other suggestions for developing literacy across the curriculum - compiled earlier for anyone starting from scratch.

Barriers	Solutions
Not enough time: - too many initiatives - no training time	Be focused: go for one issue - call it Teaching & Learning/Raising achievement/ Assessment for learning. This has the widest appeal and covers all the same ground as literacy (embrace thinking skills within this). Never use the word initiative. Gather a critical mass of support for this approach through literacy/Teaching & Learning working group and get enthusiasts on board - possibly via voluntary meetings for enthusiasts. Create a staff-owned development plan based on this approach which makes the breadth of the initiative manageable Focus this plan on a few central issues at a time linked to SMART targets. Don't try to do everything at once - identify what you need and ditch anything you don't need. Focus on positive - what is working. Make things specific, explicit and concise. Work out areas of commonality so that you meet a range of targets at one fell swoop. Use meeting time effectively so focuses on teaching and learning not on administration. Use a weekly 10 minute department briefing to clear administration/organisational issues - this could take the form of a department newsletter to impart administrative detail. Include T/L issues on agenda for everything including department time - so it is part of the action plan; part of the meeting schedule and a part of INSET. Remember to bid for Inset time on Teaching & Learning early Create planning time to work on schemes of work - again this can be clawed back from an overemphasis on administration. Include a buddying system for planning lessons Share good practice. Use cross-curricular peer observation to share good practice and as a way of spreading the message. Build collaboration into your approach so that departments are paired for sharing good practice and preparation of resources. Use support staff for invigilation to free teaching staff for cross-curricular observation & discussion and cross-phase visit Additional suggestions introduce the approach as a pilot with enthusiasts work with one department at a time use a literacy group to cascade training use the Ofsted threat as the stick/carrot
Funding	liaise closely with LEA teams to find out exactly what money is available set up a specific budget for literacy/Teaching & Learning co-ordinator make money available for training and the provision of technical support
Insufficient understanding of integrating literacy into practice	involve consultants in working with departments/individuals on a unit or scheme of work provide quality whole-school training that integrates literacy approaches relevant to all subject areas and includes subject specific exemplification - thus ensuring you've answered the key question: What's in it for me? Provide staff with the big picture. Organise joint training with primary colleagues use good practitioners in school to share practice. Provide opportunites for observation of effective practice in action and for shared planning - buddying helps secure the approach ensure everyone understands text type - whole issue of text type needs to be simplified and shown to be relevant to subject areas apply sequence of importance: Model, try, apply, secure and model the literacy skills of reading, writing, speaking, listening. Help teachers know how to activate prior knowledge evaluate your approach
Lack analysis of pupil weaknesses and planning to rectify weaknesses	set up a think tank of appropriate colleagues - getting together is more useful than just tracking and target setting audit analyse and evaluate pupil progress/weaknesses (with criteria) to show need for focus on this area and plan to rectify weaknesses - linking this to related target setting by teachers and pupils. Sample work at departmental and whole-school level as part of this analysis - track children's writing across the curriculum. Use lesson observations to aid planning. use the information from cross-phase liaison - Year 6 teachers have lots of information about their pupils that is very useful for Year 7 targets integrate Individual Education Plans into your approach involve support staff/LSAs underpin teaching with the assessment for learning approach
Maintaining momentum	get people to buy in to the process and feed it for example by allowing opportunities to show off and celebrate success provide time for joint planning of specific pieces of work between subject teacher & literacy co-ordinator include opportunities for joint delivery of lessons and evaluation use the school bulletin to keep the focus on specific elements eg spelling; active listening so that you have a cycle of departmental focuses - this could take the form of bi-weekly whole-school targets eg paragraphing; each student sets own targets within this focus - gets it signed off from different curriculum areas - include competitions and events provide time for middle management monitoring provide time for training, development supported by resources and the opportunites to share good practice within departments use local expertise provide exemplar material - show how it can be done with children from your school - send an envelope to every dept for materials to put in to the exemplar material
Lack of teacher confidence/staff reluctance	send teachers on training set up a buddy system (underconfident teacher paired with confident practitioner) share good practice sessions (across the curriculum and in department sessions) ensuring it answers the question: What's in it for me? create atmosphere of trust & openness
Poor staff morale	focus on good pratice that will help raise attainment - get departments to do before/after presentation of what worked - maximise use of concrete success stories present not as extra work but as a more effective way of working give staff ownership - provide forum for staff to influence the planning convince staff that it's not just spelling and grammar provide forum to air concerns and focus on specific worries support teachers in classrooms including collaborative working, providing small steps
Not understanding primary practice	make liaison multi-purpose - focus on what's going on in literacy - then use some of the primary training materials to help staff understand primary practice plan time for visits to primary schools show videos of primary practice encourage primary teachers to deliver Inset maintain easy contact via email/ use video conferencing
Lack of senior management buy-in	Senior management buy-in was identified as an essential ingredient for success and thus lack of SMT support and involvement was also identified as a major barrier to progress. One suggestion to maximise headteacher recognition of the centrality of literacy/teaching and learning to raising pupil attainment, was to put the issue on the agenda of the Headteachers' Conference. An update from a deputy head, in May 2006, pointed out that now that the new League Tables will include results in English GCSE, senior management teams seem much more willing to grasp the importance of literacy.