ABSTRACT
In the last fifteen or so years, and regardless of the secretary of state for education in office, we have witnessed in Britain an unprecedented focus of attention on literacy with wave after wave of initiatives from government agencies. In early 1999 the National Literacy Strategy1 decreed that for one hour each day-the Literacy Hour-every primary school up and down the land will teach reading and writing according to strict and detailed time and content guidelines. There is no legislation in place to make the National Literacy Strategy compulsory, but everyone concerned with the literacy of primary-school children knows that its directives must be followed. Margaret Meek2 told us many years ago that we teach what we think reading is. The autonomy of teachers in respect of what, when, where and how to teach reading has disappeared. Indeed, the Labour Government has to a significant extent staked its credibility on the success of this venture, promising to deliver markedly improved results in Reading and Writing SATs3 before the next election.
