A Vexing Question
Sir Ian Hall

Click here for a print version of this article.

I have recently read two reports which have brought the vexing question of literacy back to the forefront of my thinking. The Department for Education and Skills annual report, published last week, indicated that improvement in reading and writing at primary and secondary school still shows slippage compared to the targets that had been set. The report also indicated that the number of NEETs, students not in education, employment or training, has increased by 1% since 2005 rather than fall by 2% as the target required.

These findings allowed certain sections of our glorious press to emphasise the 'continued failure' of both our schools and the present government, despite huge financial investment. However, what these newspapers failed to point out was that this is not a challenge confined to these islands. Similar statistics are emerging from other countries including New Zealand and the United States. It is an international challenge not a local one.

The second report came from the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the Institute of Education in London. This report followed the progress of some 15,500 children born between 2000 and 2002 noting circumstances of pregnancy and birth, parental background and their progress in the early years of their life. The basic findings are hardly surprising.

In vocabulary tests, the three year old sons and daughters of graduates were found to be more than ten months ahead of those from families with few qualifications. Middle class children were also twelve months ahead in their understanding of colours, letters, numbers, sizes and shapes. A more worrying aspect of the survey found that Bangladeshi children were about a year behind their white contemporaries in terms of 'school readiness' tests. A quarter of black children from African and Caribbean backgrounds were delayed in their development compared with just four percent of white children. The report indicated that the findings may be related to family income, in that two thirds of the Bangladeshi and Pakistani three year-olds were from families living below our accepted poverty line, which is set at 60% of average national family income. Across all ethnic groups, 72% of children with single mothers are growing up in poverty.

It is meaningful to link both of these reports into the findings of some research conducted in Kansas from 1985 to 1995. Here, the researchers followed 42 families who had newly born children in 1985. Twenty one of these families were described as having parents whose occupations classified them as professionals whilst the other twenty one were drawing welfare benefit. Each family was visited once per month in order that the researcher could observe the development of the child and record interactions between parent and child. Again, whilst not being surprising, the findings were quite disturbing.

It does not take much to see the common threads that run through all three pieces of research. Positive parenting in a stress-free environment is the best start that any child can have. There has been a great deal of financial investment in the last decade to try and help this happen. There have been many successful interventions such as Sure Start, but this is a challenge from which we must not walk away despite the depressing statistics. There is a strong correlation between low levels of early years' literacy acquisition, underperformance in secondary school, and the increasing number of NEETs that we are now seeing. Nor should it be surprising that most of the children who fall into this correlation live in our urban environments.

A former colleague of mine leads a successful primary school in a deprived part of Manchester. Recognising the need to give the very best to the children in her school, she reframed her entire curriculum around the concept of emotional literacy. The continuous development of literacy became the corner stone of the curriculum. Aspirations were raised, sanctions were abolished, and praise and kindness became the order of the day. Children were continually encouraged to say nice things about each other and assemblies were occasions of continual praise. The ethos of the school was that of a positive, supportive and harmonious learning environment.

Sadly this was often eroded by the negative forces that the child could be subjected to once outside of the school gate. Frustrated parents were often seen immediately chiding their offspring as they collected them. They were often accused of being slow and keeping them waiting. Expletives were a natural part of their vocabulary. The frustrations of the parent's life in a complex urban environment immediately counteracted the positive efforts of the school. It takes a strong school leader to take the challenge of 'positive parenting' outside of the gates and into the community, and in this school the challenge was taken up through the offer of 'positive parenting' classes.

If we do not want a divided society then we must constantly emphasise the benefits of positive parenting and reframe the urban curriculum around the concept of emotional literacy.

Our urban educators, in both primary and secondary schools, constantly face the challenges of redressing the divisions in our society. Great strides are being made in improving the basic skills and life chances of their students yet headteachers and teachers still suffer the indignity of perceived failure when the newspapers need a headline. I await the day when an editor is brave enough to swop jobs for the day and see if they can do better. I doubt that they can!

Sir Iain Hall is an associate director of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust. He is presently seconded from the Trust to act as Director of Leadership Development for the Future Leaders organisation and is a NET leading thinker.

Back to the top of the page