A Brief History of Timing: the impact of the National Literacy Strategy on the marketing and publishing of resources to support literacy teaching

Since the announcement of the National Literacy Project in April 1996, publishers of children’s books and teaching materials have been keen to provide appropriate materials for use in the literacy hour. With the new government in 1997 came generous funding for books and publishers were quick to respond in terms of marketing and new publications. Lack of time and training to assimilate the new approaches caused many teachers to rely on materials to show them how to teach. While this reliance on materials underlines the ongoing need for teachers to be updated about resources, time to become more knowledgeable and confident about practice remains paramount.