| Clackmannanshire Council |
|
| Strategy |
| The strategy remains one of a
focused approach to three main strands: |
- a formal research programme, evaluating 3 different
structured phonics programmes in P1 in 8 schools;
- the development of enhanced pupil and parent library
provision in 4 schools in areas of deprivation;
- the development of parental links and involvement through
dedicated home-school liaison officers in the same 4 schools.
|
| |
| Scope |
| Eight schools (333 P1 pupils)
have been involved in the structured research programme into phonics. Of these
8 schools, 4 have benefited from additional library support and home-school
liaison officers. The P1 cohort in these four ‘‘core’’ schools is 103,
but many more of the 605 pupils in these 4 schools will have benefited indirectly
from the project. |
| |
| Achievements and emerging lessons
|
| The research programme,
conducted by St Andrew’s University in collaboration with the authority, and
joint-funded by the authority and SOEID, has produced extremely positive initial results.
It would appear that the synthetic phonics programme adopted in three schools produces
very significant gains in terms of advances made by P1 pupils in reading and spelling ages
in comparison with chronological age after an intensive 14 week programme. The three
schools concerned include two from the most disadvantaged areas of the county, with the
third being around average in deprivation factors. As a result, all the authority’s
primary schools will adopt this approach to the teaching of reading from next session. We
await final confirmation of the results, with HMI expressing considerable interest in the
dissemination of the findings. |
| Lessons arising from the
programme include: the benefits of a clearly defined and focused programme, with
attainable targets and outcomes; the raising of teachers’ expectations of
pupils’ levels of attainment; the need for support for the P1 class teachers involved
(eg the provision of a teaching programme, staff training, support from headteachers and
the seconded development officer); the need for regular and consistent monitoring of the
programme; the need to recognise and value the contribution which is made by those
involved; the benefits of a rigorous and structured evaluation programme; and the need to
provide a continuing focus on the needs of pupils after completing the initial programme.
|
| These lessons are being taken on
board in the development of a parallel programme to improve levels of attainment in early
numeracy from session 1998/99. |
| We are currently developing
evaluation models for those parts of the programme not included in the research project.
Lessons learnt so far are that the roles of home school liaison officer are complex and
that the staff involved need considerable support from the authority and from headteachers
to define and develop different aspects of the remit. It is also recognised that the links
created need to be nurtured over a long period before they can be demonstrated to have a
direct impact on pupil |
| achievement. |
| |
| Local Views |
|
| Teachers of P1 Classes
|
| "I now know that there
is no ceiling on what my pupils can achieve: throughout the year my expectations for
reading and writing attainment have become higher and higher". "Although we felt
we already had high standards and expectations, the work on synthetic phonics has led us
to review our assumptions regarding the ways in which children learn. This has led us to
alter some of the ways we work and how we organise the teaching day. The opportunity to
reflect on our practice has been very refreshing and will have an influence on the rest of
our staff. We feel that because we have experienced the success in language, we are very
positive about early intervention in numeracy and hope it is as user/whole-class
friendly." |
| Headteacher |
|
| "The Early Learning
Initiative for literacy has been challenging and demanding in commitment, both for the P1
teacher and the school management, but it has been so worthwhile. We are proving we can
make a difference". |
| Parent |
|
| "I am very happy with
the progress Megan has made over the year. She is a lot more confident now. I can’t
believe the progress made within a year in reading and writing." |
