Department of Education and Skills Draft National Plan to Improve Literacy and Numeracy in Schools

As a practising primary teacher I welcome this refocus on Literacy and Numeracy. However I have concerns about a number of aspects in the draft national plan. Over the years like many of my teaching colleagues I have struggled to plan for English effectively and have turned to research to broaden my knowledge base and look for research-based practices. I believe that teachers require knowledge about what effective literacy development entails; the skills, strategies and thinking processes that have to be developed for a student to become a successful reader, writer, speaker and listener. In addition to this information, teachers need guidance on how to plan for English in order to develop the essential literacy skills and strategies in the context of real reading, writing and communicating activities.  I have concerns about the recommendation on page twenty of the report calling for the development of a generic skills-based programme. The importance of formative assessment is acknowledged in the report; however, I feel if we go down the line of a prescriptive, generic skill-based programme, the professional autonomy of teachers will be undermined and the focus will shift from assessment for learning to mere box ticking, as teachers strive to complete programmes with little time to consider students’ learning. As an alternative to a generic, skills-based programme, I suggest that teachers should be provided with information on research-based, balanced literacy frameworks which incorporate explicit instruction in essential literacy skills and strategies in the context of real reading, writing and communicative contexts. Sample long term and short term plans should be provided for teachers illustrating how all the elements of effective literacy development can be incorporated and developed in effective English plans.

The sharing of good practice between teachers and schools is always welcome however the ‘Schools Like Ours’ initiative outlined on page 41 is concerning. While the authors of the report insist that this initiative is not about publishing league tables or rank ordering schools, why then  is the intended data to be used, generated by means of standardised achievement tests. Would formative assessment data not offer more opportunities for evaluating students’ learning and setting future targets? The information gathered by means of standardised testing alone while informative is limited to achievement results and does not explain what factors have influenced the results.

The RAI committee is preparing a written response to this report in the coming weeks and would like to hear the views of members. Are there any (or many) concerns that are jumping out at members? Are there any issues that members would like to see addressed in a National plan for Literacy and Numeracy? Please contribute to this blog with your ideas.