Sharing literacy resources and ideas throughout a city

Our friends at Dundee Council explain how they use National Literacy Trust membership for every state school in their local authority.

Up here in sunny Dundee (that is a fact by the way — we are the sunniest city in Scotland!), all of the state schools in our authority are members of the National Literacy Trust.

I’ve found National Literacy Trust membership immensely useful for working with schools — I use it all the time. Today I directed a primary school headteacher to the wonderful annotated book lists, only available to members, to help her select a wide range of appropriate new resources for her school library. Last week I used it to suggest there might be National Literacy Trust courses a secondary school could consider buying with their literacy budget. I’ve also highlighted the charity’s Words for Life website to our Parental Engagement Officer to share with parents.

In short, I am always popping in and out of the members’ section of the website. I see it as a first port of call for my own literacy questions, or those I am being asked. With regard to how the membership is being used more widely by schools and settings in Dundee, however, until recently I was pretty much in the dark.

When we became members, information was emailed to all of our schools and the secondary school librarians. At this time, each school could have a maximum of five logins so we assigned the initial ones to the headteacher and the school librarian.

Emily Best, the National Literacy Trust’s Professional Development Manager then came to Dundee and delivered a fantastic presentation at our first membership meeting. During her talk she told us schools were no longer limited to five logins and each member could invite other staff in their school to join. A good proportion of our schools were represented at the meeting and having a chance to be shown what National Literacy Trust membership had to offer, by an expert, along with the unlocking of the logins, had a huge impact. After the meeting I was inundated with people wanting to be reminded how they could gain access. I am still getting enquiries and Emily’s visit was in November!

I also know that our Education Support Officers for Literacy are sharing ideas and resources throughout the city and have commented on how pleased their secondary school colleagues are to find so many resources aimed at their sector. The following are just a few examples of popular secondary resources:

• Reading in subject areas in secondary school — has been used to develop professional learning for secondary teachers on making texts accessible for all
• Developing listening skills in secondary school, Top five tips for encouraging talk, and Understanding the teaching of “talk” in the secondary classroom — are being used to develop professional learning for teachers in oracy
• Dictogloss — improving non-fiction writing — has been shared with secondary school literacy leaders
• Vocabulary in subject areas in secondary schools — has also been used to update professional learning for teachers in teaching vocabulary

So, if you want to get the best out of your membership, and have a handle on how it is being used, make sure you:

• Organise a National Literacy Trust membership meeting
• Remember to let parents know about the National Literacy Trust’s parent-facing website, Words for Life
• Ask teaching staff what National Literacy Trust resources they are using and recommend them to others
• Mooch around the site on a regular basis (I’ve popped a fortnightly reminder in my diary)
• Read the bi-weekly membership updates, these are a great way to gain a quick overview of what’s going on around the country and find out about new resources on offer

Moira Foster is an Education Support Officer at Dundee Council.