Several speakers at the launch in Noble Primary, Bellshill, of North Lanarkshire’s new literacy strategy, mentioned how perspective allows one to see similar educational initiatives at different times in different places.

“It’s a bit like standing at a bus-stop,” said the authority’s head of quality Dan Sweeney, “and every 15 years the same bus comes by. You’re tempted to get on it but you think ‘I was on that one before, and it didn’t take me anywhere’.”

So a major challenge for the authority, he admits, is how to ensure that this literacy strategy has an enduring impact.

Much groundwork has already been done, because the new strategy has grown from those programmes that already have been so successful.

Teachers’ enthusiasm for these programmes is reflected in comments made at the launch: “For a long time teachers weren’t learning how to pass on specific skills in reading and writing to the pupils,” said Helen McLaughlin, headteacher at St Aloysius Primary. “Now we are. The children are reading more, writing more and understanding more, and the teachers are happy because they know what they are doing,” said Pat Ashworth, headteacher at Newarthill Primary.

Teacher confidence and competence, says Mr Sweeney, is the key to making the literacy strategy stick: “In my experience teachers will tackle almost anything you ask of them, provided you give them the tools and resources.

“Most of the confusion in Scottish education in the past 20 years has been as a result of policies and initiatives that were launched without sufficient infrastructure. So we are investing a large amount of time and resources in staff development.”

Language adviser Tricia Wilson, the prime mover behind much of North Lanarkshire’s literacy materials and courses in recent years, says continuing professional development needs to be “continuing” in two distinct ways.

It is not just a matter of regularly updating skills: “Like regular MoT tests for your car - even if major repairs aren’t needed, the thing seems to run better afterwards because you have gained confidence in it.”

There is also the small matter of ensuring the continuing relevance of what is provided.

Bringing all the components together, both in terms of in-service training and classroom practice, is one focus of current efforts.

“At first the teachers needed very structured programmes to tackle the different stages and functions of language,” says Ms Wilson. “But now we’re looking at a more holistic approach, bringing reading, writing, talking and listening together into an effective language web.”

An outstanding challenge is to persuade secondary schools and teachers that literacy is as much their responsibility as that of the primary schools. In a few years, when many North Lanarkshire pupils will have benefited from the literacy strategy throughout their primary and pre-five education, there should be less of a problem in secondary schools. But right now many youngsters are failing to achieve their potential because they have gained fewer skills than their peers.

The English departments are beginning to come on board, says secondary language adviser Ellen Doherty, but much work remains to be done. Every subject teacher needs to be given the skills to ensure that pupils’ lack of mastery of the medium does not prevent reception of the message.

Those skills range from early-years techniques such as phonics, for which secondary teachers have already identified a need and in-service sessions are planned, through the innovative programmes that have revitalised the teaching of reading and writing in the middle and upper primary school, to models developed specifically for young adults that can be applied up to Secondary 6.

“We are beginning to make progress with subjects other than English,” says Ms Doherty, “such as science, history - where imaginative as well as functional writing is relevant - and home economics. I gave a talk recently to a group of technology teachers, and although I wasn’t sure at the time if it’d had any impact, I heard later that some of them had set up word walls (a recommended technique) in their workshops. That gave me a lot of satisfaction.”

Contacts: Tricia Wilson, 01236 812232, Ellen Doherty, 01236 812227.