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This page covers the latest literacy news from the
primary sector in the last four weeks. To search for more
in-depth information or news and initiatives by subject area
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The BBC has covered the launch of Read A Million Words Together. The scheme, developed by the assembly government's Basic Skills Cymru team, was launched at the Improving Boys' Literacy conference in Cardiff.
It urges boys in Wales to read in different ways, using the internet and comics, and will focus on using men as role-models.
A £500,000 assembly government grant will also allow schools to buy more books for boys. The campaign will target nine to 14-year-old boys and aims to encourage them to read with other boys and male members of their family.
Read the article at www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/
(BBC, 11 November 2008)
Everybody Writes Day on October 24 2008 will see schools around the country collapsing the curriculum to celebrate writing for one whole day. Everybody Writes encourages schools to try out new and interesting ways of initiating writing and to offer their young people a real audience for their writing.
Schools can get involved through a number of creative activities. Examples include creating a poetry wall, writing the scripts for local television news and creating a storytelling throne for the playground. Schools still looking for ideas for their own Everybody Writes Day can view examples of projects run in other schools on the website.
Everybody Writes is a project run in partnership by Booktrust and The National Literacy Trust and funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF).
Visit the website at www.everybodywrites.org.uk
(Booktrust, 22 October 2008)
The TES has reported on the current crisis in the children’s poetry market. Citing comment from both Michael Rosen, children’s laureate, and the National Literacy Trust, the article examines the breakdown between supply from publishers and demand from children, teachers and parents for children’s poetry.
Read the article at http://www.tes.co.uk/article
(TES, 17 October 2008)
The Guardian has reported that staff and pupils at a primary school where the children speak 26 languages have begun to use sign language to aid communication. All of the school’s 300 children and their teachers are learning to finger spell words in British sign language and communicate their emotions and feelings using the signing system Makaton.
The techniques are said to help pupils who might otherwise get frustrated they could not make themselves understood and mean that children who had previously been divided by a language barrier were now communicating among themselves.
Read the article at http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/oct/02/schools
(The Guardian, 2 October 2008)
The Independent has reported on a study of more than 1,000 men that reveals almost half of them (48 per cent) cited male primary school teachers as having had the most impact on them during their school life.
In addition, 35 per cent said having a male teacher challenged them to work harder at school while 22 per cent said males had boosted their confidence in their own ability.
The research, carried out by ICM for the Training and Development Agency – the body responsible for teacher training – comes as the number of males qualifying to teach is at its lowest for five years – 23.8 per cent. Only 13 per cent of all primary school teachers are men.
Read the article www.independent.co.uk/news/education
(The Independent, 30 September 2008)
Children’s Secretary Ed Balls has written to all primary school heads to announce that the Government will ‘redouble its efforts’ to raise standards for the one in five of 11-year-olds who fail to reach the expected level in literacy and numeracy at key stage 2. The government proposes using what it describes as ‘cutting edge intensive catch up programmes’.
Ed Balls said that the government will continue to encourage effective phonics-based teaching of early reading, as well as introduce new ‘Support for Writing’ materials. They will also extend Every Child A Reader, and introduce Every Child A Writer and Every Child Counts, in order to stop children from slipping behind.
The Government is investing £169 million on these programmes over the next three years. About 23,500 children will be covered by all programmes this month rising to over 100,000 by 2011. The three schemes, either starting or being expanded from this month, are:
• Every Child A Writer (ECAW) – being piloted in nine local authority areas, a total of 135 schools and 2,500 children, from this month and will be rolled out nationally by 2011 so that it covers over 45,000 children in up to 9,000 schools and 150 local authorities. Despite the improvements in numeracy and literacy over the last decade, writing lags behind early reading improvement rates.
• Every Child Counts (ECC) – being piloted in 21 local authorities from this month and then rolled out over the next two years, so that by 2010/11 30,000 children in 1,900 schools (105 local authorities) will be covered.
• Every Child A Reader (ECAR) – being expanded after a highly successful pilot. This year over 13,000 children will benefit from ECAR and by 2010/11 this will rise to 30,000 children in 3,000 schools (and 150 local authorities) a year struggling with early reading getting extra support.
Read the release in full at www.dcsf.gov.uk/pns/
(DCSF, 1 September 2008)
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