The present enthusiasm for a daily literacy hour may have applications in other areas of the school curriculum. For instance, why not start the morning with a daily “walking hour” when children stroll around the playground talking to each other, their teachers and their parents too, if they have the time?
This would diminish growing concerns about children’s physical health (given the way many are now brought to school in cars) and probably do much for home-school relations as teachers and parents would have time to get to know each other better.
However, perhaps more significantly for literacy standards, it would help children take advantage of the literacy hour because, as any writer will tell us, there is a close and productive relationship between exercise and cognition.
ROGER HANCOCK
PACT (Parents and Children and Teachers Working Together) co-ordinator Hackney Education Authority London E8
