As publishers bring out ever glossier schemes and packages to support the literacy hour, the most exciting and up-to-date materials often turn out to be those emerging directly from classrooms and literacy centres.

This photocopied booklet from the London borough of Redbridge is a perfect example. Now Curriculum 2000 is in place, teachers are looking for ways to link work in the literacy hour to what happens in the rest of the school day. A team of subject specialists in Redbridge, led by its literacy co-ordinator, has produced a scheme for doing this. It consists of a term-by-term grid, from foundation stage to end of Year 6, taking National Literacy Stratgy objectives (mainly text level) and matching them up to national curriculum objectives in science, geography, history, design and technology, art and music.

If you are a Year 5 teacher, for instance, wanting your class to read and write a range of instructional texts, there are suggestions for linking to various science or Damp;T topics, killing two educational objectives with one stone. Year 1 teachers are directed to music resources that will link work on rhyme and patterned language to what they do in music.

The literacy hour is where children learn the skills of reading and writing. But the point of learning those skills is to use them across the whole curriculum. This publication should be a great help to teachers in planning how to ensure this transfer.

Sue Palmer is a teacher and INSET trainer