ABSTRACT
The learning and teaching of English, language and literacy is a high priority for education in most of the world's nations. The role of language and literacy as fundamental to learning in all other areas; the argument that nations' economic futures are closely aligned with literacy skills; and the continued interest in the evidence base for policy and practice continue to stimulate debate. Within this international context the case of England is noteworthy. In 1997 England began implementation of National Literacy and Numeracy strategies which at the time represented internationally the largest scale reforms of teaching and learning in a nation state (Earl et al., 2003). Yet in 2009 the demise of the strategies was quietly announced in a government White Paper:
As we move to our new model of how improvement support is delivered to schools, we will not renew the current, central contract for the National Strategies when it comes to an end in 2011. We will delegate the funding for the Primary and Secondary National Strategies to schools, and expect them, with their SIPs [School Improvement Partners], to use it to continue their investment in improving their literacy, numeracy and other core business.
(Department for Children Schools and Families, 2009, p. 59)