National Literacy Programme. Introduction

Transcription

1 National Literacy Programme Introduction The purpose of the National Literacy Programme for Wales is to set out clearly the actions that will be taken by the Welsh Government, and our partners, to achieve a step-change in standards of literacy over the next five years. This programme of activity builds upon the commitments we set out in our National Literacy Plan last year, with a stronger focus on how we will implement the commitments we have made and how we will measure our success, and that of the school system. The programme set out below deliberately focuses on developing literacy for children and young people between the ages of 5 and 14. We have chosen to focus on this age range because we recognise that this is the critical period in which we can do most to influence, for the better, the skills that young people acquire and take with them into adulthood. The focus of the programme is also mainly on what happens in schools. Our aim is to change what is happening in classrooms, so that children learn more, make faster progress, and move on with the confidence to tackle the next stage in their education. Improvements in literacy are fundamentally linked to our initiatives to improve behaviour and attendance and, ultimately, reduce the number of young people not in education, employment or training. We have chosen this very specific focus because we believe that if we can harness resources behind a very clearly defined goal we will maximise our chances of success. The consequence of targeting this programme on learning in the classroom, and on children and young people, is that important strands of our work around addressing adults basic skills needs and supporting literacy in the community, do not feature as strongly in this programme of work. Clearly our activity in these areas will continue, but unless we can be confident that our schools system provides every pupil in Wales with the right support to succeed in learning to read and write, and develop the higher skills of comprehension, composition and interpretation, then we will always be trying to catch-up and compensate for fundamental weaknesses in our education system. Although the focus here is exclusively on children and young people, the actions we take will also have a positive impact on levels of adult literacy in the long-term as the children of today become the adults of tomorrow. This programme is about breaking a cycle of underachievement in literacy in Wales which has gone on too long. 1

2 Vision We aim to achieve a step-change in standards of literacy within five years. Our ambition is that: children educated in Wales should be able to read and write well enough by the time that they leave primary school that they can benefit fully from their learning in secondary school at the end of their compulsory education young people educated in Wales will have developed the higher order reading, writing, oracy and thinking skills necessary to support their future choices either in further education or employment children of every age will enjoy reading and writing, because we know that enjoyment is a strong contributor to success. There will be a small number of children for whom these universal ambitions are impossible to achieve because of the severity of their learning needs, but this number should be very small indeed. We are committed to enabling these children, with outstanding support, to narrow the gap with their peers and to achieve their full potential. We also know that we need to do more to stretch the most able children and young people, some of whom are not progressing at the pace, or to the level, of which they are capable. Our national ambition is that by 2015, Wales will be among the top 20 nations in the PISA assessments. Setting ourselves an ambitious target for PISA 2015 is the right approach. It is an objective measure which compares the performance of young people in Wales with their global peers. Moreover, PISA tests the skills which young people need to succeed in the global economy. However, it is also a very challenging target. While we make progress, so will other countries around the world. It is not enough simply to get better if we want to catch up we will need to transform what is happening in our schools. What is more, the children who will take the PISA tests in 2015 are leaving primary school now. This is a reminder that we not only need to build the capacity in the system for the long-term, but also provide immediate support to improve outcomes for children in our schools today. 2

3 Measuring our progress The actions set out above will only be effective if they lead to real change in classrooms. We will therefore closely monitor progress against this plan to ensure that our efforts are making a difference. At a national level We will track progress against teachers assessments in the Foundation Phase and Key Stage 2, against the outcomes of the national reading tests and against achievements at GCSE We will monitor delivery against the detailed plans which underpin this programme through robust programme management and governance arrangements We will undertake termly stock-takes of progress to ensure accountability and focus At a local level System leaders will work with individual schools to identify strengths and areas for development in their outcomes for literacy which will be reflected in the school s development plan and targets Local authorities will track performance in schools on a termly basis and report this to their Consortia Literacy Boards at Consortia level will oversee and track progress within their local authorities At school level Professional Learning Communities will monitor the impact of their actions on pupil achievement in literacy and adjust their focus accordingly Headteachers and teachers will continually track pupils achievements, developing a rich formative assessment culture to inform future learning 3

4 What is literacy? Literacy describes a set of skills, including speaking, listening, reading and writing, which enable us to make sense of the world around us. Literacy is not narrowly about the mechanics of being able to decode the words on a page or write a grammatically correct sentence, although these are essential skills in their own right. It is about the skills needed to understand written and spoken language, to interpret what has been written or said, and draw inferences from the evidence that surrounds us. It is also about being able to communicate in our turn: fluently, cogently and persuasively. Setting out a plan for raising standards of literacy, therefore, is not simply about getting more children to the point where they can read. We must set our sights higher and look at how we can systematically develop in our young people a facility with language in all its forms. International evidence shows that it is not enough just to get the basics right in the early years. The learning required to continue to develop literacy skills in secondary school is more varied and complex, and requires continual focus and instruction. It is these higher order skills which are essential to success in the modern world. These are also the skills which are tested through PISA and which must remain a key focus if we are to achieve our ambitious targets. There is a long tradition of bilingual education in some parts of the country in which children are exposed to both Welsh and English medium teaching from a very early age. In other parts of the country there is growing demand for Welsh medium schools, including among families whose first language is English. In these schools children will be immersed in Welsh at school, but will primarily be interacting in English outside the school with their family and their friends. To an extent, therefore, all children in Wales are developing their literacy skills within a multiple language environment. This creates great opportunities for young people to develop their literacy in a rich and exciting way, but it also creates challenges of its own. For the purposes of this programme, we are chiefly focusing on the development of first language literacy in either Welsh or English for all children, plus the requirement that children attending Welsh medium schools are equally literate in both languages by the end of Key Stage 2. However, in the development of teaching materials and professional development resources which will flow from this programme of work, we will aim to capture the rich learning opportunities that flow from learning in a bilingual environment. 4

5 Trends in standards of literacy The data tells a mixed picture about standards of literacy in Wales. Teacher assessment at Key Stage 2 indicates that over 80% of children leave primary school having achieved the target level in literacy for their age (level 4). This figure has risen steadily over the last five years as illustrated by the chart below. Percentage of children achieving level 4+ in teacher assessment It is also encouraging that around 83% of pupils make two or more levels of progress between Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 (as measured by teacher assessment), and that children achieve high success rates in oracy, particularly at Key Stage 1. There is a relatively small number of primary schools in Wales which fall below 60% of children achieving the target level for their age in English or Welsh by the time that they leave the school. This is only around 4% of primary schools overall. However, these seemingly positive trends disguise other more worrying statistics. At Key Stage 2 and 3, pupils achieve less well in Welsh and English than they do in other core subjects. Moreover, at all key stages, pupils achieve less well in writing than in reading. In fact, the difference between achievement in reading and achievement in writing increases between Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2. There is also evidence that schools in Wales are not stretching their more able learners effectively enough. Although, at level 4+ performance at Key Stage 2 in Wales compares favourably with performance in England, a much lower proportion of pupils achieve level 5+ at the end of Key Stage 2 in Wales than in England. In Wales 33% of children achieved level 5+ in reading compared with 51% in England, although the difference in writing performance between the two countries is much less pronounced. 5

6 The gap in achievement between boys and girls also remains a serious issue. As Estyn stated in their 2010 Annual Report, by the age of 14 a significant minority of boys cannot keep pace with much of the work at school and experience frustration and failure. Boys who have poor literacy skills are also more likely to be excluded from school. However, PISA assessment data indicates that while there are pronounced gaps in achievement in literacy in Wales between boys and girls and between deprived pupils and their peers, this gap is less pronounced in Wales than many other international comparator countries. The percentage of young people achieving 5 or more A*-C including English / Welsh and mathematics remains stubbornly behind our English neighbours. It is still the case that, despite improvements, fewer than half our pupils at the end of Key Stage 4 achieves this threshold, which is so important for future success in learning and work. Percentage of young people achieving 5 or more GCSEs including English / Welsh and Maths in Wales and in England For individual pupils, this means that they are not progressing from a level 4 at Key Stage 2 to achieving five or more A*-Cs including English / Welsh and mathematics. Only 49% of children who achieved a level four in English or Welsh at Key Stage 2 in 2005 went on to achieve 5 or more A*-C including English or Welsh and maths in Furthermore we know that in 2010 over 1000 young people (just under 3% of the cohort) who would have achieved 5 or more A*-Cs including English / Welsh and maths failed to do so because they were unable to achieve at least a C in either English or Welsh. There are a number of ways to interpret this data. One interpretation might be that the great majority of children make good progress in their literacy up until they leave primary school, at which point their development slows. However, on the basis of the data one might also call into question how robust Key Stage 2 assessments are, and whether they might in fact be disguising slow progress in the primary phase. Indeed, a recent survey carried out by Estyn suggests that moderation of assessment arrangements at the primary level are not robust enough to ensure that national curriculum levels are being interpreted in the same way in different parts of the country or between primary and secondary schools. We need to do more to understand this 6

7 conflicting data, and the measures set out in this programme of change will enable us to do so. The relatively poor performance in literacy by the age of 15 is borne out by international comparisons. The recently published PISA 2009 data shows that Wales performance in reading for 15 year olds was significantly below the OECD average, and was worse than our performance in Furthermore the distribution of results was skewed towards the low end, indicating underperformance at all levels in the system. In order to be among the top 20 countries in PISA 2015, we need to improve our performance by 28 points, which equates to over half a year of schooling. The scale of the challenge is illustrated below: Comparison of Wales PISA 2009 performance compared with the top 20 OECD countries The PISA assessments also demonstrate the particular aspects of literacy where students in Wales are more confident and where they need to make greater progress. Comparatively speaking, young people in Wales scored higher on the reading of non-continuous texts and on their ability to reflect and evaluate. Scores were lower on the reading of continuous texts and on the skills of integration and interpretation. This suggests that pupils in Wales tend to be more skilled at making judgements about authorial techniques and determining the usefulness of a text for a particular purpose, and less skilled at using inference and deduction and linking ideas within and across texts. In terms of inspection, Estyn s annual report stated that despite improvements in the teaching of literacy in a number of sectors, schools are still not as good as they need to become at covering the full range of communication skills. Further improvements are therefore needed to ensure that more pupils reinforce and stretch their literacy skills in a range of contexts across all areas 7

8 of learning. Estyn has also found that a minority of schools do not link the different elements of language and literacy well enough or use phonics teaching routinely. Moreover, not all staff knows enough about teaching literacy as pupils progress through primary school and in secondary schools, or about the literacy levels or the reading age of their pupils so they can provide suitably matched and challenging work. At a school level, one element of performance is clear. That is, although few schools operate at a very low standard of performance, there is a high proportion of schools whose performance is mediocre and not improving 36% of secondary schools and 40% of primary schools were either static or declining between 2008 and If we are to achieve our ambition of being one of the most successful 20 countries in the world in developing our children s literacy, these schools need to rise to the challenge. 8

9 Progress that has been achieved Over recent years our education system has not stood still. We have achieved a consistently rising trend in the percentage of young people achieving five or more good GCSEs including English and Maths and around 80% of children at the end of primary school achieve the expected level for their age, as measured by teacher assessment. Take-up of Welsh as a first language is flourishing with around 20% of children in the primary phase now educated in Welsh medium schools. Some of these are among the most successful schools in the country. Thanks to the focus on targeted intervention in our National Literacy Plan we are also helping those children who have fallen behind during Key Stage 2 to catch up. In 2009/10 over 7000 primary school children received one to one support in literacy, 86% of whom were reported to have reached their individual learning targets. We have also made real progress in supporting learning in the early years through the foundation phase and flying start, and have expanded the range of curriculum options as young people move through their education. We have: made Flying Start available to 18,000 children from deprived backgrounds, supporting them to get off to a better start in life better prepared for schools, better behaved and ready to learn we have rolled out the new Foundation Phase of learning for all children aged 3-7 to give them the best possible basis for their education we have revised the National Curriculum to provide a greater focus on skills development, supported by the skills framework, an extensive suite of materials and a three year teaching improvement programme we have established the Welsh Baccalaureate Qualification in more than 200 centres across Wales, which provides young people with a world class qualification to support their entry to Higher Education We have expanded the range of vocational curriculum options on offer for young people aged at both Key Stage 4 and Post-16 to support more seamless transition through further education and into the world of work. There is a lot in our education system that we can be proud of, but this is not the time for complacency. While we have been making progress, our nearest neighbours in Europe and the OECD have made even greater strides, exposing areas in our education system where we can and should do better. 9

10 Issues that still need to be addressed We know that despite the progress that has been achieved, standards of literacy across are not good enough. Moving from a fair to a good system requires honesty in identifying these challenges, and courage in tackling them. On the basis of our conversations with headteachers and local authorities, and our scrutiny of the evidence, we believe that: there is too much fragmentation in how local authorities challenge, support and quality assure standards of literacy in our schools. This exacerbates the high level of variation between schools there have been too many initiatives promoted by government which has allowed schools to focus on other priorities to the detriment of literacy and has caused confusion in the system literacy training through initial teacher training, induction and ongoing professional development has not always been coherent in its approach and consistent in its quality. We cannot be confident that all our teachers know how best to teach pupils to read and write there has been too much focus on subjects, at the expense of the skills development that children need to access the wider curriculum. Too few teachers see themselves as teachers of literacy and assume that teaching literacy will be done by others interventions to improve standards of literacy have often been small scale so even when they are effective their impact on standards overall can be limited there is not a strong enough link between the performance management of headteachers or teachers and the progress made by pupils in literacy the approach to assessment, and therefore the judgements that are made, differ between schools. It is therefore difficult at either a national or local level to chart progress or identify areas for improvement with sufficient confidence. There is also variability in what practitioners understand by the term literacy and how it should be evidenced by learners and, therefore, how it should be assessed. 10

11 Our guiding principles If we are systematically to tackle the issues set out above it will require a concerted programme of action, which has the buy-in of everyone in the system. A number of guiding principles will underpin our five year national literacy programme. These are: 1 We will learn from what other countries have achieved In Canada, Scotland, New Zealand, Australia and the USA there are examples of outstanding practice which have led to a transformation of literacy standards, often in an individual state or province. In Wales we have the advantage of being a small country. We will apply the best aspects of these outstanding regional models to a whole nation. 2 We will create a guiding coalition We cannot hope to make progress without the belief and backing of the education system. We will therefore work to develop a shared understanding of literacy and a common sense of purpose throughout the education system and we will ensure that our governance arrangements for overseeing the progress of this programme includes those who understand our education system the best outstanding practitioners. 3 We will not be afraid of central direction where this is needed Since devolution we have consciously swept away some of the more prescriptive elements of our education system. This was needed at the time, but the pendulum has swung too far. Describing and ensuring that a basic level of quality is available in every school, for every pupil, is the role of central government. 4 We will build capacity in the system We will make sure that the infrastructure is in place, through a broad range of professional development opportunities, to spread practice from our most successful schools and teachers to others in the system and to address the recognised skills needs of teachers in literacy. We will develop high quality online resources and support for practitioners, focused on what we know works. 5 We will be ambitious We will ensure that schools set targets for all pupils that are deliberately aspirational and we will not settle for second best. With effort and application, we can succeed. 11

12 Roles and responsibilities We will only achieve a step change in standards of literacy if the whole education system is geared towards improvement and individuals within the system clearly understand their roles. Estyn Professional learning communities Welsh Assembly Government (CYPSE) Regional Consortia Local authorities Expert literacy teachers All classroom teachers Teacher training colleges Teachers and support staff All teachers are teachers of literacy. This applies at every phase of education and across every subject. It applies to the earliest stages of education when children are laying down the foundations of literacy in developing their skills in speaking and listening, through to the end of compulsory education when young people are still developing higher order literacy skills, such as inference and interpretation. One of the areas of untapped potential in our education system is how children can be supported to acquire literacy skills outside English and Welsh lessons. Teachers of mathematics, science and other subjects have an essential role to play in supporting the development of literacy skills across the curriculum. Support staff also have a valuable role to play in boosting literacy skills in all their interactions with learners. This must be a conscious strategy of learning, not a fortunate by-product. Expert literacy teachers and professional learning communities Although standards of literacy overall are not as high as we would like, we recognise that there are outstanding teachers in many of our schools with exceptional expertise in the teaching and learning of literacy. The challenge for the system is to make the skills of these outstanding teachers go further, to support other teachers and to enable higher standards beyond their own classrooms and schools. 12

13 Professional Learning Communities will provide the vehicle for teachers and support staff to work collaboratively to tackle focus on improving literacy teaching and learning. The structured approach will support schools to identify literacy challenges which are directly relevant to their pupils and engaging in an enquiry approach to developing solutions. This approach to learning and building capacity will take place both within and across schools and will be quality assured through external facilitation. Local authorities and regional consortia Local authorities have the statutory responsibility for ensuring good standards in schools and providing support and challenge where standards could and should be higher. They have a key role in identifying excellence and spreading best practice as well as targeting those schools which are underperforming in terms of literacy and those teachers who require additional support. Local authorities will also be responsible for carrying out much of the training and ensuring that schools are accessing high quality materials and resources. Regional consortia will be essential in holding local authorities to account, quality assuring the training and support that is provided, standardising systems and processes and providing the main interface with the Welsh Government. As part of the five year strategy they will be responsible for convening a local literacy board to oversee the regional plan to raise standards in literacy and appointing a literacy coordinator to quality assure the support and development available locally. Welsh Government It is the role of national government to set a clear vision and direction, to create a robust accountability system with the right incentives for success, to intervene in cases of failure, and to provide a mechanism to share best practice and expertise across the country. We are committed to learning from what is happening in schools in Wales, but at the same time where objectively proven best practice exists that has been shown to work consistently on an international stage, it is the role of government to ensure that it is implemented routinely and systematically. 13

14 A five-year programme of action Achieving a transformation in standards of literacy in Wales requires a focus on what happens in the classroom. We need to build the capacity of the system to embed literacy skills in the medium term, but we also need to inject pace and urgency with targeted interventions for those children who are in schools now and not getting the support that they need. We need to be confident that in every school in Wales there is: 1 High quality first teaching in reading, writing, speaking and listening for every child 2 Differentiated learning strategies for personalised learning 3 Targeted catch-up and intervention programmes for children at risk of falling behind 4 Skills based approach to literacy across the curriculum 14

15 In order to achieve this consistency in the classroom we need to implement a systemic approach to reform. This is described in the diagram below: 15

16 National expectations and standards This sits at the heart of our approach to reform. It encompasses the need to define a clear and aspirational vision, which is shared by practitioners; the development of clear performance based standards that define what children should be able to achieve in terms of their literacy on a year-by-year basis; the alignment of the curriculum to support the priority of literacy and the achievement of the performance standards; and the strengthening of the assessment system to provide reliable data to inform progress. These national standards and expectations should permeate and inform all the other aspects of our reform model. Support and development Professional support and development are essential if we are going to change what happens in the classroom. We know that effective professional development encompasses a wide variety of different formats including coaching and mentoring, action research, reflective practice and peer collaboration. Therefore the approach to professional support and development embodied in this programme promotes a wide variety of learning opportunities. We want all schools to establish a Professional Learning Community, focussed on increasing progress in literacy and numeracy. In addition, through the new Masters for teaching programme we will be encouraging teachers to engage in action enquiry in their schools, focused on literacy development. All newly qualified teachers will complete a structured induction programme which will have literacy and numeracy at its heart and will expose newly qualified teachers to leading practice. Teaching will be underpinned by access to a simple, high-quality set of resources, which support the achievement of the performance standards. Furthermore, we will continue to recognise the critical role of support staff in supporting literacy and provide opportunities for them to participate alongside teachers in appropriate professional development activity.. This will give us confidence that all teachers and support staff have access to the skills, knowledge and understanding that they need to effectively teach and support literacy. Targeted interventions This element of the reform programme is about differentiating our approach at school, classroom and pupil level so that we are bearing down on underperformance and putting in place proven interventions that are targeted towards specific needs. Local authorities will have a critical role in identifying those schools where underperformance is most entrenched and putting in place the right support that will help turn these schools around. At a teacher level we will look to partner those who are struggling the most with literacy 16

17 experts to support them in the classroom, model best practice, and help them to improve. For pupils we will ensure that those who are falling behind are identified earlier and receive well implemented support programmes which are appropriate to their needs and help them to catch up with their peers. We will also develop specific interventions for the most able children and young people who are not currently fulfilling their potential. Accountability and challenge We will ensure that our accountability mechanisms support the achievement of the vision set out in the programme. The new Estyn Common Inspection Framework already focuses much more explicitly on the progress made by pupils in literacy and numeracy. As more schools are inspected under the new framework we will use the intelligence this brings to target our support and challenge for literacy more closely. Alongside inspection we will strengthen the performance management system for both headteachers and teachers to reflect literacy priorities and give local authorities a direct role in the process. These system leaders will play a critical role in having a professional dialogue with schools, challenging them on their internal performance monitoring and self assessment and brokering in support to further their improvement. 17

18 Priority A National expectations and standards Unless we have articulated literacy as a clear priority, described national performance based standards of achievement and aligned our curriculum and assessment systems to support these, we will not achieve the clarity of purpose which is vital to successful reform. To ensure that the system is all pulling in the same direction we have set four clear objectives to guide our work over the next five years. Objectives A1 A2 A3 Establish a clear vision for literacy in Wales which has the support of the profession Maximise the scope within the curriculum to teach communication skills including oracy, reading, and writing Strengthen the overall approach to both ongoing and end of phase assessment of literacy so that pupils progress can be clearly and rigorously tracked 18

19 Objective A1 Establish a clear vision for literacy in Wales which has the support of the profession and remove competing priorities Action Description A1.1 Following the publication of this programme, the Welsh Government and local authority directors will hold a series of professional conversations with headteachers and literacy teachers across the country to ensure the vision and future priorities are understood, shared and embedded in practice. A1.2 The Welsh Government will establish a working group to oversee delivery of this programme, which includes outstanding representatives of the profession. A1.3 Ask local authority consortia to convene a literacy board that will oversee the quality of regional efforts to improve literacy and will ensure effective joint working of key partners locally. A1.4 Local authority consortia will consult with teachers on what currently prevents them from focusing on literacy and, on this basis, the Welsh Government will take action to de-clutter the curriculum. 19

20 Objective A2 Maximise the scope within the curriculum to teach communication skills including oracy, reading and writing. Action Description A2.1 A2.2 A2.3 A2.4 The Welsh Government will carry out a rapid review of the current Skills Framework, consulting with the profession, to ensure that it is fit for purpose and to simplify the current priorities for teachers. The Welsh Government will develop a statutory National Literacy Framework so that it becomes a focus for teaching and learning in every school and has a central role in the acquisition of literacy skills. The Welsh Government will set a clear expectation that every child will be taught a variety of effective reading skills as part of a holistic approach to developing literacy skills in the Foundation Phase. The Welsh Government, working in partnership with local authorities and consortia, will create a professional development programme to support teachers and support staff to implement the National Literacy Framework and will be available for teachers of both Welsh and English. This professional development will focus on literacy development in both the primary and secondary phases of education. 20

21 Objective A3 Strengthen the overall approach to both ongoing and end of phase assessment of literacy so that pupils progress can be clearly and rigorously tracked Action Description A3.1 The Welsh Government will provide schools with guidance regarding the moderation of standards in English and Welsh at the end of Key Stages 2 and 3 to support an agreed and consistent approach in primary and secondary schools to the assessment of oracy, reading and writing. A3.2 A3.3 A3.4 A3.5 Local authority consortia will undertake focused moderation of standards of literacy in Key Stages 2 and 3. The Welsh Government will introduce a national reading test in English and Welsh. Tests will be sat by all pupils from Year 2 to Year 9 on a voluntary basis in Summer 2012 and from Summer 2013 on a statutory basis. The Welsh Government, working with literacy experts, will publish a clear suite of performance based standards covering year by year progress in literacy from the age of 5 up to 14. These will be skills-based, and part of the National Literacy and Numeracy Framework, and will enable teachers to assess the progress of their pupils, and understand how to support their further development. The National Literacy and Numeracy Framework will be implemented on a voluntary basis from September 2012, then on a statutory basis from September The Welsh Government will strengthen professional development opportunities in literacy for teachers and support staff and provide clear guidance for teachers on how to interpret the pupil data available. 21

22 Priority B Support and development The most successful models of educational reform focus on increasing the number of children who are taught well first time, and decreasing the number who need individual support to help them catch up or plug gaps in their knowledge and understanding. This requires all teachers to be accomplished at teaching reading, writing and communication skills, the consistent implementation of effective teaching strategies, and high quality teaching of literacy across the curriculum. To achieve this in all schools will require a more systematic approach to developing the skills of the whole workforce in the teaching and learning of literacy skills: There are four key objectives which will enable us to deliver this priority. Objectives B1 B2 B3 Develop the infrastructure and capacity to support professional development in literacy Establish a national approach to professional development in literacy through initial teacher training, induction, and early and continuing professional development Quality assure, make accessible and maintain a bank of resources for use in schools 22

23 Objective B1 Develop the infrastructure and capacity to support professional development in literacy Action Description B1.1 Local authority consortia will appoint literacy coordinators for both English and Welsh to oversee the quality, delivery and focus of literacy professional development in their region. B1.2 Local authorities will identify outstanding literacy teachers who can be deployed model best practice in the classroom, alongside other teachers. B1.3 Professional Learning Communities will be tasked with making the teaching and learning of literacy skills their prime focus in They will use data to identify a specific literacy learning challenge and using the National Model for PLCs will pupils learning in the area identified. B1.4 Each local authority will allocate an external facilitator to each Professional Learning Community. This literacy facilitator will quality assure their work and ensure that they are drawing upon recognised best practice and capturing new leading practice to feed into the system. 23

24 Objective B2 Establish a national approach to professional development in literacy through initial teacher training, induction, and early and continuing professional development Action Description B2.1 The Welsh Government will explore the possibility of developing a Masters degree for Teaching and Learning in Wales which focuses on literacy, numeracy and developing teachers practical skills and knowledge, through action research and peer collaboration. B2.2 The Welsh Government will create a literacy module, which will be accredited so as to form part of any Master programme developed. We are looking into the possibility of incorporating the Masters programme into the induction process for newly qualified teachers. It would also be open to other teachers or support staff to take up voluntarily, or as prescribed through their performance management arrangements, as part of their continuous professional development. B2.3 The Welsh Government will develop a training package designed for Early Years practitioners on how to develop communication and literacy skills in young children, including evidence-based methods for teaching reading in Years 1 and 2 of primary school, including phonics based methods. The training package will cover language acquisition in both Welsh and English medium education. This will be delivered by Foundation Phase training officers in local authorities. B2.4 The Welsh Government will ask Estyn to carry out a focused survey on the quality of the ability of Newly-Qualified Teachers (NQTs) to teach literacy effectively (including teaching literacy across the curriculum) and to make recommendations for improvement. The Welsh Government and HE institutions will work together to respond effectively to the findings of Estyn s survey. B2.5 The Welsh Government will work with ITET providers to develop and administer literacy skills tests for all entrants on ITET courses in Wales. 24

25 Objective B3 Quality assure, make accessible and maintain a bank of literacy resources for use by schools Action Description B3.1 The Welsh Government will work with WLGA, Local authority consortia, Professional Learning Communities and individual schools to identify leading practice in teaching literacy in Wales. These will be made available across Wales as quality-assured resources to ensure best practice is shared and are directly linked to the National Literacy Framework targets. B3.2 The Welsh Government will establish an independent expert panel whose task will be to quality assure the best practice and materials being developed and quality-assure those which are of a sufficiently high standard. Specific dual language resources will be commissioned or sourced which support the development of higher order literacy skills tested through PISA and other international assessments. B3.3 The Welsh Government will design a new dedicated area within the WG website where the resources will be hosted. It will be interactive and easy to navigate, enabling teachers to communicate with each other to share best practice. This site will also include international literacy resources which meet the exacting criteria of the expert panel. This new on-line portal will be a living resource which is regularly updated to reflect leading practice. 25

26 Priority C Targeted interventions at the school, class and pupil level There is no substitute for good quality teaching of literacy in every classroom. This requires consistent minimum standards, highly skilled teachers across the system and secure mechanisms for accessing and spreading best practice. However, good universal teaching and support must be supplemented with targeted interventions if we are to hone in on underperformance at every level in the system. This means being clear, at a school and classroom level, where progress is not being made and putting the appropriate programme of support and challenge in place. For pupils this means supporting more reliable identification of those children who are at risk of falling behind, or more able children who are failing to reach their potential, and putting in place proven interventions which enable them rapidly to catch up with their peers, or accelerate their learning. We have set ourselves three clear objectives to guide our work over the next five years. Objectives C1 C2 C3 Roll-out leadership focused interventions in significantly underperforming schools Target teachers with low skills in teaching literacy and partner them with a literacy expert Implement proven intervention programmes for pupils at risk of falling behind or those not achieving their potential 26

27 Objective C1 Roll-out leadership focused interventions in significantly underperforming schools Action Description C1.1 Local authorities and regional education consortia will use the national banding system to help identify schools which would benefit from targeted support and challenge. C1.2 The Welsh Government will identify a suite of proven leadership focused literacy intervention professional development based on the best practice available internationally. C1.3 Local authority consortia will work with the schools where underperformance is most marked every year. They will ensure that these schools follow one of the approaches set out in the suite of programmes described above. Targeting, delivery and quality assurance will be overseen by the Consortium Literacy Coordinators. 27

28 Objective C2 Target teachers with low skills in literacy teaching and partner them with a literacy expert Action Description C2.1 Local authorities, through their System Leaders, will work with their schools to identify teachers who are not successfully supporting their pupils to make progress in literacy. C2.2 The Welsh Government will fund Literacy System Leaders (in both English and Welsh), identified by local authority consortia to spend at least 40% of their time modelling best practice in classrooms and undertaking professional outreach. C2.3 The Literacy System Leaders will be tasked with directly supporting PLCs, reaching out to all teachers in Wales and targeting those whose skills in teaching literacy are the least developed. The partnering arrangement will last for two years, so that over that period, all teachers in Wales should stand to benefit. 28

29 Objective C3 Implement proven intervention programmes for pupils at risk of falling behind or those not achieving their potential Action Description C3.1 Funding for Induction and the first year of Early Professional Development (EPD) will include, as developmental priorities identified by the workforce review, additional learning needs (ALN) and behaviour management. C3.2 The Welsh Government will commission and pilot a series of resources that support the development of the higher order literacy skills needed for adult life; for example, as measured by PISA-style assessments and work with local authorities to roll these out nationally. These will support the delivery of the National Literacy and Numeracy Framework. C3.3 The Welsh Government will commission a parallel piece of research that investigates the underlying factors which contribute to boys underperformance. This will inform strategies to tackle boys literacy development both in and outside the classroom. C3.4 The Welsh Government will also develop plans to improve support for those pupils in our schools that have been identified as falling behind in literacy and numeracy. To facilitate this, we will seek to implement proven intervention programmes for pupils at risk of falling behind or those not achieving their potential. 29

30 Priority D Accountability and challenge In order to address the significant variation both within and between schools, we need a clear system of accountability and challenge to run alongside our approach to setting national standards, providing support and professional development, and targeting interventions to lever up underperformance. To achieve this we have set ourselves two objectives. Objectives D1 D2 Clarify and strengthen the local accountability model Ensure a greater emphasis on performance in literacy in teacher and headteacher performance management arrangements 30

31 Objective D1 Clarify and strengthen the local accountability model Action Description D1.1 The Welsh Government will introduce a national banding system for primary and secondary schools which includes a strong focus on the progress made by pupils in literacy. D1.2 Local authorities, working in ADEW Consortia, will carry out a comprehensive assessment of schools based on the above criteria and to agree a consistent approach to support and challenge based on the assessment. D1.3 The School Standards Unit, based in the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), will establish a sequence of regular stock-takes to monitor progress and hold consortia to account. D1.4 All local authorities, working within Consortia, will set targets in literacy based on their key priorities as identified in their self evaluation. 31

32 Objective D2 Ensure a greater emphasis on performance in literacy in teacher and headteacher performance management Action Description D2.1 The Welsh Government will seek to revise the performance management arrangements for head teachers to ensure that each head has an objective relating to improvement in pupil s literacy and the local authority has a direct role alongside governors in setting and monitoring progress against these targets. We will undertake this exercise in consultation with stakeholders. D2.2 The Welsh Government will establish an expectation that every teacher should develop a professional development portfolio with evidence of how they have improved their practice to better support the acquisition of literacy and language skills among their pupils. D2.3 The Welsh Government will explicitly include literacy in Practising Teacher Standards (PTS) and leadership standards, and this will inform performance management. 32