Late and Lengthy Guidance for Teachers Issued with Letter from Cabinet Secretary for Education

On Monday morning, the Cabinet Secretary for Education, John Swinney, issued a letter to all teachers in Scotland along with links to three separate documents:

A Statement for Practitioners from HM Chief Inspector of Education August 2016 (6 Pages)

Benchmarks Numeracy and Mathematics Draft, August 2016 (43 pages)

Benchmarks Literacy and English Draft August 2016 (49 pages)

In his letter he says, 

"I accept in the last few years, that time (of teachers) has become cluttered by a plethora of guidance and advice that, however well intentioned, has led to increased workload, confusion and duplication. I am determined to tackle that problem."

While he promised to deliver this to teachers by the beginning of the new school year, he must be embarrassed that he has missed his target by two weeks with two of the documents unfinished and only issued in draft. Issuing almost one hundred pages of additional guidance may also suggest that he has not made a good start in simplifying and clarifying the priorities for our school teachers.

Clearly more documentation will need to be considered when the final versions of the Benchmarks for Maths and English are eventually circulated. I think, the length and ambition of the new documents mean that it will be difficult for our Head Teachers to find collective time to work out with their staff what this means for their schools until the next CPD days in November. 

This is a disappointing start from the Cabinet Secretary for Education.

Link to Guidance and Benchmarks

The Reads and the Read-Nots - Implications for Dundee?

Yesterday the National Literacy Trust published a study about the reading habits of children and young people in the UK. 
Their research of 18,141 children revealed a polarised nation of young readers with 1 in 6 reporting that they don’t read a single book in a month, while 1 in 10 say they read more than 10 books in a month.

This divide between the “reads” and the “read-nots” is concerning because the research shows reading frequency has a direct link to attainment, as 8 in 10 children who read over 10 books a month are above average readers compared with just 3 in 10 of those who rarely read.
Fresh approaches are urgently needed to encourage young people to read more. However, the number of children who never read a book suggest our schools and libraries have a challenge on their hands.

The research also found that:

• 77% of children who read for longer than an hour at a time are above average readers, while just 4% who read for over an hour are below the level expected of them.
• Only 30% of children who read for up to 10 minutes at a time are above average readers, with 20% below the reading expected level for their age.
• Text messages are the most popular thing for children to read outside of class with 60% saying they read texts outside of class.
• Children who read text messages but not fiction books are twice as likely to be below average readers compared to those who also read fiction (10% versus 5%). 

National Literacy Trust Director, Jonathan Douglas, said:
"Our new research shows that 1 in 6 children don't read a book in a month, and we are worried that they will grow up to be the 1 in 6 adults who struggle with literacy to the extent that they read to the level expected of an eleven-year-old, or below."

I have written to Michael Wood, Director of Education, to ask him to put this report on the agenda of the next meeting of the Council's Education Review Group. I think there are some important issues for us to examine in relation to promoting reading amongst children and young people in our city.