Whilst I may not agree with many of the new Government’s policies there is one I am a strong supporter of – more focus on literacy and in particular reading and even more in a particular literacy assessment. I remember being a child in primary school and pretty much the whole day was taken up with the 3 Rs – Reading, Riting and Rithmatic ! I can still remember the excitement when were able to do something just a little bit different such as history. I think this has been a failing of consecutive Governments – the focus SHOULD be on reading and writing in the early years because without these basic skills how else is a child meant to access the rest of the curriculum. The concept of a test for all 6 year olds is sound – it gives all teachers a standardised assessment of where a child is. A group test – as suggested by the Government also provides an insight into how well groups of pupils are performing in relation to their peers across the country. The output data from these literacy assessments is hugely useful in identifying which pupils need additional support and the effectiveness of literacy intervention strategies being used.
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