Children's literacy campaign - we'd love to know your thoughts

Have now re-read the OP, Aka which is what I should have done properly in the first place!

But The Sun is mentioned specifically, perhaps they are providing some funds for the campaign.

There was a reasonably successful funded 'initiative' in schools a few years ago called Every Child a Talker (ECAT) and it trained school staff in specific S&L strategies to get the youngest children (3-5) understanding, talking and conversing. Children were assessed using Speech and Language development assessments to identify the children who would benefit most from the intervention activities. It was closely monitored ..I will have to look up and see what happened to all the data!

It is true that in many schools, due to the pressure to produce 'test results' the story time and pleasure of texts time has taken a much lower priority than the technical reading skills (important but not the panacea) ! I find that some schools are formulaic and dull in their approach to teaching literacy skills. This is a direct result of various government interventions and in my experience does not inspire children to want to read!

I thought phonics was compulsory in English and Welsh schools. Does anyone know if any flexibility is allowed for children who do not do well on that system?

Using phonics does not exclude using other methods too, also, as well as....

I would have thought the best way to help our poorest children out of poverty would be to give them something to eat. Can't learn to read on an empty stomach.

Poverty and obesity?

The statutory requirements for state schools include all sorts of things but because phonics is tested specifically & spelling and grammar will be tested specifically and results used to assess if the school is 'good' or otherwise it is easy to see why schools feel pushed to narrow what they do to the 'technical' skills first and squeeze in the application/practise of them as and when.

Poverty and food banks.

I wonder why they have chosen 11 as the "cut off" age? There is significant research which shows that children who have reading problems suffer serious set backs in their first years at secondary school, where they still require support.
I think possibly this is an impossible task- not every child will be a confident reader when they are 11. Maintaining support is the only way to ensure they succeed.
Is it perhaps ironic that I was told when I was at college that for most tabloids (including The Sun I suppose) you needed a reading age of 10-11years to tackle them.
That said if safe guards are built in any intervention is better than none.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28892364

Malnutrition is as important to conquer as reading problems for the poorest.

We need to think about the phrase "poorer backgrounds" with regard to education as being about the lack of the basics of good communication with children as described by FlicketyB and others. It is not just a lack of money.

The poorer backgrounds arise from those parents who are unable to engage with their children in positive communication. Usually these parents themselves never experienced this sort of positive interaction when they were children. Now many more parents that 50 yrs ago suffer from problems with substance abuse and because of this are having problems with parenting.

Watching my DD with DGS I note she has automatically engaged verbally with DGS in a positive way and I can often hear myself in her.
I did this with my children "automatically" and my mother who only had an elementary school education did the the same.

It rather amazes me that these patterns of good interaction with small children seem to be unconsciously learned by us when we are small and are repeated automatically, if we have had good experiences of this ourselves

I hope this campaign will support public libraries. The Standard has had a high profile literacy campaign but it seemed to go out of its way to ignore public libraries. They are free and children can choose to borrow whichever books they like. The stories about children who only have the Argos catalogue in their homes never seem to point out that poverty is no barrier to borrowing library books.

Thanks Starling, at last libraries are mentioned. My first thought was that any literacy promotion is a good promotion.
Then my second thought was that this is what we as public librarians are already doing in the community and in partnership with schools.
I am afraid that if literacy and public library services are administered by charities and volunteers much expertise will be lost.

Anything to help this cause, I say Yes

Hi Treebee, it's good to know some librarians are still employed!

Certainly Gransnet should support the campaign.
Although I agree with those who say it should start at home, not all parents are able to give the right encouragement, for various reasons.
Also agree that language development is crucial in learning to read.
Some primary schools have a scheme (or used to) of retirees in the neighbourhood coming into school to chat with the children, encourage language development, and listen to some read. This always seemed to work well, for all parties concerned.
The adults as unpaid volunteers.

TriciaF - the organisation that runs that volunteer scheme used to be called Volunteer Reading Help but is now called Beanstalk (they have a website if anyone is interested in volunteering).

"That does include work with The Sun, and a vast range of other media."

OMG! Shock horror!!!

Sounds so patronising!

Teachers have been doing this for years.

There have been very many campaigns and 'initiatives' over the years to try to increase literacy levels particularly within families perceived to be less literate than the majority. They have met with some success but nothing is sustained so that it becomes 'normal' as the funding runs out!

I've found out that they are actively working with public libraries, so I'm all for supporting this.