“We Have Shockingly Low Levels Of Literacy”
Too often, conversations about improving literacy provision treat children with SEND as invisible, says Nancy Gedge…
- by Teachwire
When you look at literacy outcomes for young people today, you could be forgiven for taking a deep breath.
Headline statements from key position papers about literacy state worrying statistics, and children and young people are being failed by our education system, sent out into the world ill-prepared in terms of literacy.
They are at greater risk of being trapped into poverty than their peers, with limited opportunities for well-paid work and a higher chance of falling into crime.
Struggling with literacy at school has a negative impact on a child’s sense of self worth, and consequently their mental health.
Complex and overlapping
For a developed nation, we have shockingly low levels of literacy amongst our young people.
Clearly, something needs to be done.
Literacy outcomes for all need to be improved – the goal of 100% literacy is an important, even noble one – but when we at The Driver Youth Trust looked at 21 education policy and position papers published by the government, think tanks and organisations such as Ofsted, the Sutton Trust and the Education Policy Institute (which are all rightly concerned about literacy levels), we found something rather mysterious.
Some children, it seems, are invisible.
No, they haven’t got themselves a scholarship to Hogwarts – these children and young people have special educational needs which, rather depressingly, might as well add up to the same thing.
And we’re not talking small numbers, either – DfE data shows that there are currently 1.2 million SEND learners, the overwhelming majority of whom go to mainstream schools.
When analysing those 21 reports, strategies, policies and initiatives, we found that the focus for change is on tackling social and economic disadvantage.
Children disadvantaged by SEND were seen as an entirely separate group, if indeed they were seen at all.
Yet anyone who’s worked in a school, especially those like myself who have served children from extremely disadvantaged backgrounds, will know that these groups overlap and link together in a number of complex ways.
Cultural stigma
We can only speculate as to why this might be, though we know that the stigma of a SEND label is strong and long-standing, culturally speaking.
If we accept that as a group, ‘the disadvantaged’ are deserving of our attention morally, politically and materially, then there’s every reason for us to expect a well-articulated vision of what the system must deliver in order to raise standards.
Unfortunately, though, what we find tends be nothing more sophisticated than good-quality teaching, comfortable story corners, well-stocked libraries and fathers reading to their children at bedtime.
The focus remains obstinately upon those children who may ‘catch up’ conventionally, rather than upon those with SEND, for whom an alternative approach is necessary.
What we need is a discussion of how best to identify barriers at the system level, and how to overcome them in such a way as to bring about the greatest improvements.
Solutions need to be practical for schools and teachers to manage in relation to their other demands and priorities, and they must bring about tangible results.
We must recognise that ‘all children’ means all – not just the 80% who are typically developing, and our approaches to literacy provision need to reflect this.
Nancy Gedge is a consultant teacher at the Driver Youth Trust. Browse ideas for International Literary Day which takes place in September.
