ABSTRACT
To step through the front door of Hempshill Hall Primary School in Nottingham, England is to take a step inside of a book. You are surrounded, bombarded, and immersed in print. There is print on the walls, on the ceilings, on the doors, on the windows, and on the furniture. You seek to orient yourself by focusing on just a small space and quickly realize that the print is not random and plastered but thoughtfully designed. The wall you see as you enter the school is a model of space (three dimensional at that) with all kinds of information and detail on planets and the solar system. As you attend even more carefully, you note that this is not a commercially prepared or packaged display. The work of students is clearly evident in the writing and the crafting of the display elements. Having found a point of reference, you can turn your attention back to the larger context and you begin to suspect that there is a fundamental plan at work here in this school regarding learning and teaching and literacy,
As with the print, students and teachers are working everywhere in the school, individually, in pairs, and in small groups. And all are engaged with reading and writing. You not only sense, you see the connection between the texts they are directly engaged with and the print that surrounds them. They are the ones who have created it, who use it, who sustain it, and who keep it alive. You realize this is not a book you have walked into but a language creation that is constantly unfolding.
