Observed in Practice. English in the National Literacy Strategy: some reflections

This paper arises from survey work in 32 primary schools during the academic year 1999–2000. The first part celebrates good practice, whose roots it finds in effective whole‐school strategies for literacy, and in confident approaches to the NLS. The second part features schools where achievements in literacy, and particularly in writing, are less secure. It suggests that these schools often share a conscientious, but anxious and closely literal interpretation of the NLS framework, and that this hinders the progress of their pupils.