ABSTRACT
The National Literacy Strategy (NLS) was in fact a product of both New Labour and Conservative policy; in opposition New Labour had set up a Literacy Task Force, but in launching the NLS in 1998 the work of the National Literacy Project (NLP), set up by the Tory administration in 1996, was heavily drawn upon. In some ways the plans for the secondary English strategy mirrored the NLS; there would be a framework of objectives across the years of Key Stage 3, training material for English departments, and a veritable army of consultants employed by the Strategy and working through the local authorities to deliver training and offer support to schools. In reality, the only statutory regulation of what was taught in English was the National Curriculum. The best way to avoid problems with a new curriculum would be to involve the profession in the discussions.
