New children's literacy campaign: should Mumsnet sign up?

[RowanMumsnet]

Hello everyone

The charity Save the Children, with whom we've done a bit of work in the past, is asking if Mumsnet can give its collective support to a campaign to improve children’s literacy here in the UK.

Save the Children say: “Reading is the key to a child’s future: it unlocks their potential and opens up a world filled with possibilities. For our poorest children, reading well is their best route out of poverty, but thousands of children from poorer backgrounds leave primary school not reading as well as they should.”

As ever, we'd like to know what you think about adding Mumsnet's voice to this. The aim of the campaign is to ensure that every child is a confident reader by age 11, but Save the Children's position is that to achieve this we all need to play our part. The campaign hasn't launched yet, but Save the Children will be working with a coalition of organisations, communities, parents, teachers and schools, businesspeople and politicians. They are working with a range of media, including The Sun. They don’t want to give away all their campaign tactics before the launch (understandably) but if you have any specific questions about the methods and aims of the campaign, let us know and we'll see if we can get answers for you.

Please do also use this thread to let us know what you think about Mumsnet officially getting behind this one.

Thanks,
MNHQ

[HumphreyCobbler]

that kind of data is readily available

[mrz]

Schools like St George's Wandsworth

[mrz]

or Elmhurst Primary Newham

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

Seagulls I can't speak for the schools mrz has linked to but in the school I'm thinking of the starting point of the children on entry is well below average, so a long way off almost reading. 95-100% of those children leave at 11 with level 4 in reading and writing.

If they can do it with 2/3 of children on FSM, above average levels of SEN and slightly lower than average attendance then most schools should be able to aim for that.

[SeagullsAndSand]

Not saying schools like that can't but just pointing out that focusing on all schools with good results isn't going to help.Schools that get good results handed to them on a plate aren't going to be able to provide much guidance.

[maizieD]

Schools that get good results handed to them on a plate aren't going to be able to provide much guidance.

What on earth do you mean by that?

Schools get good results because they know how to teach reading to all their pupils. No plates involved..
Most would be delighted to share their knowledge of how to do it..some teachers on here already do so.

[SeagullsAndSand]

Sooooo there are no schools that due to intake have a far easier journey than others as regards teaching kids to read?

What utter tosh.

I've taught in both types and believe you me the schools which have most of their parents fighting to take home books,eager to learn phonics and push their kids up the reading scheme alongside kids with good language skills on intake do have it handed to them on a plate in comparison to those where the majority of children are never heard to read at home,live in book free houses and start school with more limited language.

Frankly those schools which contain more of the latter and produce good results have much more to offer as regards finding what works for those children who are leaving school not reading properly than the former.

[HumphreyCobbler]

Everyone knows which those schools are though. Schools are already measured on their value added results, not just their blanket result.

[SeagullsAndSand]

Regardless of value added the focus should still be on the schools that contain the kids that are likely to leave not reading but do.

It is surely harder to get high level of readers from poor literacy on intake than even higher levels of reading from kids who start at a higher language level on intake.If that makes sense.

[mrz]

Our pupils arrive, most considerably below average in language skills. This year one child in Y6 failed to achieve Level 4 or higher in reading (unfortunately he arrived 8 days before the KS2 tests and hadn't previously been taught the Englishcurriculum or been in a classroom for 3 years) ... does that count?

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I see what you mean now, my fault. I misinterpreted your comment as meaning that the schools that got all their children reading were the ones where children started off with an advantage and had more supportive/literate parents so would do better. That wasn't what you meant at all, was it?

[SeagullsAndSand]

No it's that there are some schools that get vast numbers of kids reading with huge hurdles to overcome.Those should be the focus as they're actually doing what the campaign wants to achieve.

The schools that get good results in wealthier areas with an easier intake.Sorry not seeing what they can bring to the party as regards getting non reading kids from non literate poorer families reading.


Mrz count as to what?

[HumphreyCobbler]

I am not arguing with you seagull, just trying to point out that that information IS taken into account in the data that schools collect so it will not be problematic to understand which schools are the most effective.

[Feenie]

Our children also arrive on average considerably below age related expectations - 100% attained level 4 or above.

Schools with a better intake can rest on their laurels ime, assured that more competitive, interested parents will take up the slack. My ds's school is like that and their results hover around the mid 80s, which they think is good Ofsted didn't.

Interested parents still won't get every child reading - for that you need good phonics instruction from somewhere (in ds's case from me).

[BonjourMinou]

Another one that thinks whilst children's literacy is a very important issue, I could never support a campaign that would get into bed with The Sun. And quite shocked save the children would even consider it, to be honest.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I see exactly what you mean, and I agree. There's at least one school round here that I know is having their reading results bolstered by a tutor who is using phonics with the children who aren't learning to read at school.

[mrz]

Count as a school that gets all children reading or does failure to teach a child in the eight days he was with us rule us out?

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I think it might have been me that mentioned all children, not seagulls. I think she only said vast numbers, which implies not quite all. I most definitely meant all or nearly all. The story behind the numbers is as important as the numbers themselves.

Although I'm hoping that one day we might get to a point that children moving schools days before end of key stage tests won't usually be a problem because all schools will be teaching reading well.

[mrz]

Seagull asked what I meant by "count" ... But

[mrz]

But we should expect ALL children to be taught to read

[zebedeee]

Just looking at one of those schools and the available info. on them. Elmhurst Primary - synthetic phonics nursery through to Y2 'By the end of Year 2, it is our expectation that the vast majority of children will be fluent readers and will no longer need explicit phonics teaching for reading.' Ofsted dashboard puts them in 3rd quintile for Reading and 4th for Writing at end KS1, compared to all schools (lowest quintile for SEN, 2nd quintile for FSM). Is this an endorsement for synthetic phonics? Am I interpreting the data and website incorrectly?

However by end KS2 second quintile for reading compared to all schools, highest for similar, and second quintile for all and similar schools for writing (still in the lowest quintile for SEN, 2nd quintile for FSM). The focus is on comprehension using RWI. But also one-to-one tuition after school and saturday mornings, and booster classes, after school and during school holidays. The website does not mention any specific scheme/method of these classes. There is also appears to be 1-1 for school action/early intervention catch up/keep up through the school - again no mention of specific scheme/method.

The head was awarded an OBE for his services to education this year.

'it will not be problematic to understand which schools are the most effective' - but it is time consuming... and though I may not have unpicked the available data correctly, is this an effective school or not? and if effective, by what means is it effective, or what is happening that makes it ineffective? It is more effective in KS2 than KS1, but still not the most effective, so what would make it more effective? The data/website can only give a v. limited view of what schools are like, what they are doing and what is working.

It would be interesting to know what the research into what is effective that Save the Children have done. Murdoch is reported to be interested in getting into education/education publishing/free schools www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/feb/26/schools-crusade-gove-murdoch so will this be part of this plan?

[mrz]

Yes zebedeee in 2013 only 96% of Elmhursts pupils achieved level 4 or above

[Mashabell]

I am well known for blaming English literacy problems on the inconsistencies of English spelling, so my post may be disallowed, but i would nevertheless urge caution about supporting any new literacy campaign.

Ever since the introduction of the Literacy Hour in the 90s, followed by the Literacy Strategy and several reviews of the teaching of reading, there have been various literacy campaigns and the creation of literacy organisations like The Literacy Association, The Literacy Trust, The Reading Reform Foundation, The International Reading Association, etc without much effect on literacy failure.

The main English literacy problem is that learning to read and write English is exceptionally difficult and time-consuming for children who receive little educational support at home, as is often the case for the poorest children, because their parents may well be functionally illiterate themselves.

The most effective thing that any literacy campaign can do for poor, weak readers is to provide them with at least some of the support which educated middle class parents provide for their children consistently from birth onwards, especially individual daily reading practice when they first start school.

How will this campaign address this problem? Unless it does, it won't be worth supporting.

[HarveySchlumpfenburger]

I'm not sure individual daily reading practice for those children that aren't heard read at home makes much of difference. It was heavily pushed as one of several interventions for years in the school I referred to in a previous post and at one point their KS2 reading results were way, way below floor targets.

I'm not saying it has no place but it's a long way off being the most effective.

If it were my choice I would go for
-a language rich environment, with a focus on vocabulary acquisition

• early intervention for children with S&L difficulties
  
• opportunities to listen to and talk about a wide variety of good quality texts, including some longer stories not just picture books that can be read in one sitting.
  

-good quality whole class phonics teaching combined with good quality, phonics intervention for those that are progressing less slowly. Preferably narrowing the gap early, so they have less ground to make up.
-a wide curriculum providing a variety of experiences and knowledge for children to draw upon in their reading and writing.

[mrz]

Elmhurst

St George's

Not sure what zebedeee was looking at