[senco-forum] literacy

Eddie,

I'm not clear as to what aspect of literacy you want to discuss in a separate forum.  I'd certainly join one if it started up, but I'd stay with the Senco list too.  

My job deals exclusively with improving literacy (basic reading & spelling skills) at KS3, but the children I work with have most of the range of 'labels' that Amanda mentions (some of them, I firmly believe,as a result of their literacy diffficulties) so I want to be as fully informed as possible about other peoples' practice/experience/advice in respect of these difficulties.  And try to understand why their views/opinions/beliefs might be different from mine.

I might respond to some of the points Martin makes in his post, but would I have even known about them, or would he have made them, if  'Senco literacy' was a separate forum?

Maggie

Amanda <amandavh at btinternet.com> wrote: Hi Eddie and Richard

  Richard - I couldn't agree more.  I, too, spend most of my time working with pupils who have all sorts of issues to do with learning, and literacy is just one part of what we focus on.  
  As I said in a previous posting - if pupils do learn to read because they have been better taught, that's great.  But that won't do me out of a job.
  I have pupils currently in my school with ADHD, ASD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, hearing loss, eyesight problems, physical disabilites, behaviour issues, speech and language disorders,  moderate learning difficulties, severe learning difficulties and learning disabilities, stammers, serious life-limiting medical conditions, depression, panic attacks and so on.  That's why I value this Forum.  I can get advice about all of these.
  I do read most of the postings about literacy.  I do value them.
  But my job as SENCO is to make the system work for those pupils I have in it now.  I have to do the paperwork to get them the support they need.  I have to get advice for myself and my staff from people who know more than me.  And I have to have the time to do the job.  If that's seen as trivial, I plead guilty.  

  Amanda
  Secondary SENCO
  Cornwall

Richard Cook  wrote:
  But Eddie my job as SENCO isn't just literacy.

My role is wide ranging - I have to deal with issues around speech and
language, behaviour, statementing, maintaining endless lists, data
generation and analysis, ADHD, ASD; teacher training & INSET on a wide range
of SEN topics; dealing with parents, SLT and governors; recruiting,
supporting, training and discipline; and writing policies for behaviour, SEN
TAs etc, all of which requires time that is increasingly at risk and has to
be fought for.

Yes literacy is important, it is a key responsibility but my guess is that
most of feel that it is an area we do have some knowledge of where as some
of the other areas we feel less knowledgable of - and therefore appeal for
support from the collective senco-forum mind.

That isn't to say we know everything (or even very much) regarding literacy
and can't learn from some lively debate.

Richard

-----Original Message-----
From: senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk
[mailto:senco-forum-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk]On Behalf Of eddiecarron
Sent: 11 December 2006 18:24
To: senco-forum at lists.becta.org.uk
Subject: [senco-forum] literacy

The point of my suggestion was simply that it was self-evidently the case
that literacy promotion was not a topic of significant interest to forum
members. I took the view that such a literacy forum would attract back many
of the dissatisfied deserters who were unhappy with the status quo. I must
however accept the reality that those whose professional responsibility is
to resolve our abysmal national levels of illiteracy are more concerned
with such weighty matters as non-contact time, policies for T.A.,
statementing etc. I wonder why it is that I always think of Nero fiddling
when I look at the SENCo forum topics?

Many people cannot understand why illiteracy is so high in the UK when
countries in Scandanavia, Japan, Korea and Romania routinely achieve 98%
literacy. They would surely have no difficulty in understanding why this is
the case if they just perused the discussion topics favoured by the main
group of teachers in the UK with the principle responsibility for resolving
this problem!

I did receive an email from someone who managed a forum for literacy and
reading in particular, but the invitation came with a warning that
contributors have to be 'respectful and polite'. Needless to say, I won't
be subscribing. I do know that teachers prefer a 'nice' debate where
'nice' people can correspond with other 'nice' people, essentially telling
each other how 'nice' they are. I do not believe that a debating forum is a
place for the faint-hearted - it is a place where professional beliefs and
practices are challenged and subjected to the most rigorous scrutiny and
where appropriate, changed. I don't see much of that on the forum nor do I
detect any significant level of interest in a forum for literacy so I will
return to my sarcophagus before the first rays of the morning sun reduce me
to a pile of ashes.

Eddie Carron

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15:41

Amanda
Secondary SENCO
Cornwall

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