“High standards in literacy are a particularly strong predictor of later success,” said the Government in last year’s primary strategy.
If this is the case, the Department for Education and Skills may face an uncertain future.
English teachers have DfES officials by the literals after discovering that the National Literacy Strategy’s website is peppered with spelling and grammatical mistakes.
An advice section for primary staff on what types of literature to offer pupils during key stage 2 contains at least six howlers.
One reads: “Suggested texts to support independent reading are included in and further materials is listed in a publication Texts to support reading at KS2 which has being developed by the Institute of Education working in partnership with the NLS.”
Teachers of pupils in Year 3 are advised to offer them “humorous portey that plays with language”.
Year 5 youngsters should be offered “concret poetry”, says the advice.
Meanwhile, Year 6 should feature “adaption of a classics on filmTV”, “longer established storeis” and “compairson of work by significant children’s authors and poets”.
The section is entitled: “Quality text to support the teaching of writing.”
Chris Warren, a council member of the National Association for the Teaching of English, who flagged up the mistakes in NATE’s newsletter, said: “Everyone makes mistakes.
“But this is akin to someone saying: ‘You must raise your standards’ and then misspelling the word standards. It’s bizarre that they’ve managed to collect so many mistakes in such a small space.
“But I’d like to thank the writers. A little chuckle is excellent medicine for stress.”
A DfES spokesman said: “Thanks for making us aware, these errors will now be corrected, and due to our successful literacy strategy more young people will also have been able to spot these mistakes.”
www.standards.dfes.gov.ukliteracyteaching_resourcesresources404155
