Research School Network: OneCornwall – Secondary Literacy Programme A Partnership between OneCornwall, The EEF and Kingsbridge Research School

What is the EEF Secondary Literacy programme?
Literacy is fundamental for success in school and later life. Students who cannot read, write and communicate effectively are highly unlikely to access the challenging academic curriculum in secondary school and are more likely to have poor educational outcomes across all subjects. This lack of access can create a !literacy gap”, meaning that many students making the transition from primary struggle to access the secondary school curriculum. 

The EEF Secondary Literacy programme is an approach to improving literacy across the curriculum. It recognises that literacy skills are both general and subject specific, emphasising the value of supporting teachers of every subject to teach students how to read, write and communicate effectively. The programme draws on the EEF’sImproving Literacy in Secondary Schools guidance report and takes a disciplinary literacy approach, looking at how we might best develop students’ vocabulary, reading and writing not just in English, but in all subjects.

The role of implementation
EEF programme evaluations suggest that effective partnerships rely not only on the programme content, but on good implementation as well. To give this work the best chance of success, we are supporting the programme with Implementation Support webinars.
The aim of these is to help schools implement the programme with fidelity to the seven recommendations from the Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools guidance report. Crucially, these webinars will support leaders and their implementation
teams to help bring about the intended changes in practice.