Thought Leadership Roundtables

The recent event, Solutions to the Growing Crisis: How Do We Improve Literacy in the North?, highlighted the widening literacy gap across UK schools, with a particular focus on challenges and actionable strategies. With an urgent need to address reading fluency and comprehension, writing skills, and teacher engagement in the power of literacy, the discussions reflected a shared commitment to empowering students and educators alike.

Key challenges: why literacy gaps persist

Here are some of the challenges identified by the roundtable attendees - do they reflect what you’re seeing in your school?

Impact of COVID-19 on foundational learning - The aftermath of school closures during the pandemic has left a stark legacy. "These Year 7s are the first cohort who learned to read during COVID," one attendee noted, highlighting a clear trend: students in Year 7 lack the critical language comprehension expected at this stage. Secondary English teachers now often find themselves navigating the uncharted territory of becoming phonics experts, and this gap is only going to grow.

Masking and disenfranchisement - Disengagement and behavioural challenges are often a result of students ‘masking’ their inability to read fluently and access the curriculum. One educator explained that, when they crossed-referenced behavioural points with reading ability, the correlation between the two was irrefutable. However, it is important to note (with regards to the notion of disenfranchisement), that low reading age does not equal low intelligence.

Teacher resistance and fear of change - “Resistance often stems from fear,” one speaker shared. Many educators feel unprepared to address literacy gaps, particularly when asked to integrate reading and vocabulary teaching into non-English subjects.

Systemic issues in resources and policy - Literacy gaps are often exacerbated by limited funding, the high cost of specialist staff, and a short-term, transient approach to strategy driven by impatience for immediate results. Without proper assessment, cross-phase collaboration, and long-term strategising, many students’ needs go unidentified.

Stigma surrounding literacy interventions - Both students and parents might feel embarrassed or discouraged by the need for literacy support. As one educator put it, “When you can’t read by KS4, you’re trying to engage a student who has consistently been failed by their education,” making it even harder to engage them in meaningful intervention.

Bilingual students and underutilised potential - A deficit mindset persists in approaching bilingual learners, despite research showing these students often excel in executive functions. With high percentages of EAL (English as an Additional Language) students at some schools, tailored strategies are needed to harness their unique strengths. Schools should plug these very specific knowledge and skill gaps early on, to ensure students can quickly access the curriculum.

Limited communication with parents - As students transition from learning to read to reading to learn, schools find parents less and less receptive to active involvement. One primary teacher reflected that “parents feel confident helping with phonics in KS1, but many lose interest or feel out of their depth once decoding stops.” Rebuilding parental involvement is critical for continued progress.

10 key takeaways: improving literacy in Leeds

1. Adopt a whole-school, long-term strategy

Schools must have sustained, multi-year literacy plans. One participant described a seven-year strategy incorporating explicit reading instruction across all subjects. Pilot programs in English and Humanities demonstrated initial success, with plans to scale.

2. Invest in teacher buy-in

Literacy success begins with empowered educators. “Start where you are,” one attendee advised, encouraging teachers of all departments to engage with professional development and embrace their role as literacy leaders. Remember, your teachers are subject experts, so training and support should focus on how they can build their own disciplinary literacy strategy. Advice from one educator was to ask your team, “How does your unicorn read?” (whereby a unicorn represents the hypothetical ‘perfect’ student). When this was asked to their MFL department, they realised that their unicorn will always look for cognates - thus, a teaching strategy that they created and are empowered by emerges!

3. Don't just simplify texts

“Bring the child to the word,” was a recurring theme. Vocabulary is fundamental to reading comprehension, and so by focusing on explicitly teaching specific vocabulary instead of simplifying the text, you are upskilling your students, and constantly making ambitious and challenging texts accessible to all learners.

4. Never make assumptions about cultural capital

Schools found success in integrating real-world experiences, like trips to Whitby Abbey, to bring an abstract concept like ‘Abbey’ to life. One educator shared that a large proportion of their learners had never been to a beach, for example, so they make sure to take a trip there to make the concept of a ‘landscape’ more accessible.

5. Embed intervention in classrooms

Effective intervention shouldn’t occur solely outside lessons. Guided reading during extended form times, Bedrock sessions in lessons, and embedding reciprocal reading strategies across subjects, created impactful, classroom-based literacy support. When considering how best to diminish stigma around literacy interventions, providing age-appropriate phonics books for older students has proved helpful.

6. Foster oral composition before writing

Encouraging verbal sentence formation before written work was transformational for some schools. As one expert explained, “You shouldn’t write something until you can orally compose it,” so their school now differentiates the work expected of learners depending on where they are on their oracy and writing journey.

7. Create literacy-friendly resources to match your expectations

Simple changes, such as double-spacing texts, numbering lines, and ensuring room for annotations, can make a significant difference for struggling readers. In a more abstract way, one educator let us in on their ‘4 Ps’ strategy (Pitch, Position, Posture and Pace’. All staff will choose one for the half-term to ensure all their learners adhere to.

8. Prioritise consistency over complexity

A “multi-layered” approach ensures interventions are just one part of the literacy strategy. As one speaker succinctly put it: Schools that aligned teaching across departments and phased interventions early, such as at Year 7, reported marked improvements.

9. Consciously decouple English and reading

Despite the EEF’s number 1 recommendation for improving whole-school literacy in secondary schools benign Disciplinary Literacy, many English teachers shared that they still feel that they are expected to take on the teaching of reading alone. Schools that aligned teaching of reading across all departments reported marked improvements.

10. The importance of accurate data

Accurate, relevant data must always be the first step before making any changes. It can feel scary to pull back the lid and dive into what’s going on, but if you don’t, you won’t make progress, let alone be able to track it. Data is also a powerful tool when getting teacher buy into whole-school literacy, as so often we can make assumptions about our students' reading and vocabulary abilities.

Commit to the cause

We are facing an illiteracy crisis in the UK, and the Roundtable concluded that, if you really want to turn the dial on student outcomes, you’ve got to go all in. Whichever strategy you choose your SLT and your team must be fully invested in, and willing to commit time and resources to this approach. One educator discussed with the room the importance of giving yourself time to be successful once you have decided on your pedagogically aligned approach. “Whatever you do, do it really well and really consistently. The results will follow.’

By truly committing to the cause, schools across Yorkshire are already demonstrating that progress is possible. One Leeds school reduced its Year 7 illiteracy rate from 24% to just 4% in one year by implementing rigorous, whole-school literacy policies.

Perhaps the most resonant message was one of empowerment: “It is always you. You are the best-placed person to intervene, right now.” From English teachers doubling as phonics specialists, to expert non-specialist staff embracing disciplinary literacy, the responsibility and opportunity to close the literacy gap rests with every educator.

We dive deeper into these themes and many more in our best practice whitepaper, scheduled for release in February 2025.

Keen to be part of the community driving transformational educational outcomes through language? Join the Transforming Education Alliance today. We hope to see you at our next event.