[senco-forum] Literacy Support

When it comes to withdrawal for literacy development, we try to keep to the
minimum any adverse impact on the secondary school curriculum. After all,
one of the primary aims of that literacy development is to increase the
pupil's access to the curriculum and that can't be done if they are
effectively being disapplied from a subject because they aren't there to
learn it. Withdrawing a pupil from a foundation subject just once week can
mean that the pupil loses 50% of the teaching time in that subject.

The first thing we do is to make the best use of non-curriculum time. We
pull out most of our withdrawees first thing in the morning, between 8.30
and 9.00, before formal lessons start. We find that literacy support at this
time sets our pupils up for the day and doesn't encroach on lunch time, when
everybody is entitled to a break. 8.30-9.00 isn't a break time, it's
registration time and the "literacy tutors" register the withdrawees.

Personally, I agree with the use of English and Maths to withdraw pupils for
literacy and numeracy respectively if it proves impossible to withdraw them
first thing in the morning. Both English and Maths have more teaching time
than most and literacy and numeracy are closest in content to those
subjects. And when we have the pupils fill up questionnaires, we find that
English and Maths are often quoted as the subject they find most difficult.
So they are still being "included" in the subject when they are withdrawn
for literacy or numeracy interventions.

Equally, I agree with Richard in my opposition to withdrawal from MFL.
Twenty years ago, this may have been a convenient option. However, MFL has
changed dramatically in the meantime. It's no longer the élite subject it
was, its practitioners are (or should now be) wedded to the principle of MFL
for all. I've been teaching MFL since 1971 and I'm delighted to witness this
"democratisation" of the subject. A distinction needs to be made here
between MFL itself and methods of teaching it. When I started, the methods
used were only really appropriate for the ablest learner. I really enjoy
teaching French to my Year 7s with SEN this year and they seem to share the
enthusiasm. Richard is right to stress the values and benefits of MFL, which
are separate from those of English/literacy. We must get away from this old
notion that there is a hierachy in English/MFL and that only those with
perfect literacy skills should proceed to MFL. If nothing else, German and
Spanish offer the opportunity to experience a language with a much more
regular spelling system than English. Across the continent, children are
starting MFL earlier and studying another language in parallel with their
mother tongue, over more years than before. MFL nourishes English skills and
vice versa.

MFL and SpLD have been mentioned and there is an excellent book on the
subject:

Crombie, M. and Schneider, E. (2003) Dyslexia and Modern Foreign Languages:
Gaining Success in an Inclusive Context, London: David Fulton.

There are well over 400 other books on MFL/SpLD alone in the reading list at

http://www.specialeducationalneeds.com/mfl/biblio.doc

David Wilson
Harton Technology College, South Shields
http://www.specialeducationalneeds.com/