All recent data (Estyn, PISA, GCSE, etc.) quite clearly indicates that Wales has a serious literacy deficit. Bizarrely, at the same time, the Welsh education system seems incapable of lifting its heading and providing a means for many literacy experts to play a full role in helping address the problem (eg the author above). For example, how many jobs have been advertised for “literacy experts” in the last 12 months across Wales? Very few, if any?

The problem seems to me to be based very much in a complacency and bad case of “unconscious incompetence” that inflicts much of Welsh education. “Not invented here”, “wait your turn” and “don’t rock the boat” really is the problem.

School leaders really need to start making decisions in the best interests of the child; for example by making some room in the staff room for people with a demonstrable track record of delivery – esp as regards literacy.

This article provides a deeper analysis…
http://markdafyddbarry.posterous.com/education-in-walesthe-story-of-teacher-a-and

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“In 2011, Welsh first language is the highest performing core subject at level 5. However, at all National Curriculum levels, performance in English is lower than that in other core subjects.”

What it doesn’t say of course is that at every key stage English literacy levels in Welsh Medium schools are below the levels in comparably benchmarked English medium schools.

But what about Estyn’s confident assertion that at Key stage 3 Welsh first Language has the highest score (Those attaining level 5+) of all core subjects? Can we rest assured that at least the teaching of Welsh literacy in Welsh Medium schools is outstanding?

How naive Estyn is. At Key stage 3 the all schools average free school meals entitlement for those taking English, Maths and Science is 16.8% on average over the last 7 years. For Welsh first langauge the Free school meals average is 9.8%. Deprivation amongst pupils is such a clear handicap to literacy attainment that you would think that Estyn would have made some effort to acknowledge the difference in “challenge” faced when teaching English in Wales against teaching Welsh L1.

That isn’t the end of it of course. Pupils who enter Welsh Medium schools and study Welsh first langauge drop out of those schools or Welsh streams steadily as time goes on. It is the pupils who are failing in Welsh who drop out. Disproportionately it is pupils from deprived backgrounds so that although at KS1 there are 12.8% (average) of pupils on FSMs in Welsh L1 classes, by GCSE the FSM level amongst entrants taking Welsh L1 is just over 7%.

What other “core” subject can jettison its failing pupils the way Welsh can? How can Estyn be taken seriously when they fail to do even rudimentary research to establish where problems lie? As a proportion of the pupils taking Welsh L1 at KS1 Welsh has the WORST success rate at KS3!

Welsh Medium schools now have nearly 22% of pupils yet underachieve spectacularly against English Medium schools with the same levels of pupils on Free School meals. Do you think that Estyn might just warn parents of this un-palatable fact?

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But this is not new: as a very junior primary school teacher in a deprived area in Pembrokeshire in 1967/8 the highest IQ in my Year 6 class was 97, and 3 didn’t register at all – and there were no LSA’s then to help a form teacher trying to cope with 29 pupils who even within that scope had a wide range of personal abilities to foster and encourage. We were joined mid-term by a pupil from Birmingham – aged 10 – who couldn’t write her own name or read at all, and this after 5 or 6 years of full-time education. It wasn’t that she couldn’t, it was just that no teacher had bothered to notice, or to do anything about it. We made arrangements for me to give her one to one tuition during assembly and break times, and within two terms she was well on her way to catching up. Later, in the Army training as a platoon commander, it was equally sad to see the almost total lack of educational attainment amongst most of our 17 year old recruits, even though the intake was during a rare period of ‘full’ employment.

What can we do then? There must be more collaboration, partnership and support arranged on a local basis to identify and tackle early years attainment, and then partnership between primary and secondary schools for those who will need extra support as they progress, bringing in Colleges and the Local Authority as appropriate. There must be greater emphasis given to performance management in schools themselves, and by senior staff, and to the auditing of performance, attainment and quality by Governing Bodies (something I found wanting, and resisted by teachers as a Secondary School Governor) and staff/teachers too have to own the issue and accept that they have a role to play themselves: teaching quality and performance needs to be able to be regularly assessed and discussed openly in the spirit of seeking improvement across the board, and not resisted unreasonably – being professional means being able to accept constructive critisism, engage with personal assessment and review, and constantly seek to learn and improve. As a former Chief Executive I was constantly surprised by the lack of written skills in recruiting staff, sometimes for senior posts. None of us are perfect, and nobody has reached the stage when they can stop learning. At the College we have put in place arrangements to offer help for lecturers who might need support to improve their own key skills – how many schools can match that commitment?

Only by pulling together and recognising that everyone has a part to play and skills to learn and improve can we help to address slow development and poor core skills in those we have a duty to properly equip for adulthood and the challenges that they will have to face.

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