ABSTRACT
With the National Strategies in England scheduled to end in 2011, it is timely to take stock of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS), which ran for five years from 1998 before becoming part of the broader National Primary Strategy (NPS) (DfES, 2003). Taking stock can allow the impact of the NLS to be discussed in the context of its origins and, in particular, the research that has informed it, throughout its duration. Such a discussion may also illustrate the complex relationships between research, policy and practice. This kind of discussion may also indicate the implications of the NLS for programmes of educational change, not only in the UK but in other parts of the world. Soon after its launch, the NLS was described (together with the companion National Numeracy Strategy (NNS), which is not being discussed here) by a world authority on educational change as the most ambitious large-scale strategy of educational reform witnessed since the 1960s (Fullan, 2000, p. 1).
