The following article appears in this week’s copy of TES Scotland (8th December) Do I have to spell it out? Synthetic phonics works Last month I gave evidence at the Scottish Parliament on my petition to improve literacy standards in schools through research-informed reading instruction. It calls for national guidance, support, and professional learning […]
Next week (Thursday 9th November) I will be giving evidence at a hearing in the Scottish Parliament on the petition that I submitted over the summer. Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to i) provide national guidance, support, and professional learning for teachers in research-informed reading instruction, specifically systematic synthetic phonics; […]
You can feel it in the air. The end of term. Proms, prize-givings, leavers’ assemblies and celebrations for all that’s been achieved in another full-to-bursting academic year. As schools close their gates for the summer, many involved in Scottish education – the teachers in particular – will be glad to see the end of the […]
As 2016 drew to a close, Strictly Come Dancing, X Factor and The Apprentice all crowned new champions, as the losers clapped to hide their misery in the side-lines. In PISA, the biggest education tournament of them all, Scotland recorded its ‘worst scores ever’ in reading, maths and science. The news seemed to shock many, […]
I am delighted to be able to post this letter from Dr Marlynne Grant, to the Prime Minister, on the subject of tackling inequality through education. The Rt Hon Theresa May MP Prime Minister 10 Downing Street London SW1A 2AA Dear Prime Minister Tackling Inequality Through Teaching While the debate about grammar schools hits […]
Today Nicola Sturgeon officially launched the 'First Minister's Reading Challenge'. Here is an article that I wrote for TESS about the challenge. It was published in TESS on 1st April 2016. TESS article: When it comes to literacy, let's start at page 1 First Minister Nicola Sturgeon recently launched a competition aimed at nurturing a lifelong love […]
Inset/In-Service Training All of our courses are available as an inset/in-service day, for individual schools, clusters, or as a local authority initiative. Consultancy and Training Packages Looking for something more in-depth? Anne is now able to offer one or two-day consultancy and training packages to work with SMT, teachers, and children directly. The focus can […]
Recent comments from Nicola Sturgeon suggest that national testing might be about to return to Scotland. I do support our forward-thinking curriculum, but I also feel there are bits of it where we could do better. We cannot ignore the uncomfortable truth that, when it comes to literacy, we are in a worse place now than […]
Dear Ms Constance I wrote to you in March 2015, although I realise that you probably don’t actually get to read every email you receive, given the demands of your job. I also wrote to my MSP Alasdair Allan back in January 2015 regarding my concerns about the attainment gap and the teaching of reading […]
On 29th April the latest SSLN results were published, revealing the performance of our children in reading, writing, talking and listening. You would hope, that given the fact that almost all of our teachers now feel confident in delivering the Experiences and Outcomes of Curriculum for Excellence, that we would see an improvement in performance […]
