Northern Alliance data demonstrates Highland Schools ‘closing the attainment gap'

5th March 2018

Across the Northern Alliance local authorities an exciting project has been rolled out to raise attainment in literacy, language and communication. The programme is being delivered in around 50% of primary schools across the Northern Alliance and is aimed at supporting practitioners to take a developmental approach to supporting early literacy development.

The interim report into the project was published on Friday 2nd March 2018 and highlights some significant data in relation to the success of the project to date. There is a difference in the percentage of young people achieving Early Level Literacy in schools which are engaging with the project compared to the schools which are not yet involved. The difference is most significant in relation to deprivation, with children from the most deprived areas being twice as likely to achieve Early Level Literacy across all organisers than those children in schools not involved in the project last year

This data has come from Highland Council schools and data will be gathered from other local authority areas ahead of reporting in the 2018/19 session. This data demonstrates that taking a developmental approach to early literacy works and is effective in closing the attainment gap.

Regional Improvement Lead for the Northern Alliance, Laurence Findlay said:"As a Regional Improvement Collaborative, the Northern Alliance has been committed to rolling out this literacy project and it is great to see the impact of such collaboration on learners with some very positive data being published. Teachers involved in the project have also responded very positively to the professional learning they have been given as part of the project and providing this level of development for teachers and other professionals including Educational Psychologists and Allied Health Professionals is central to the success of our work as a collaborative. Around 50% of primary schools across the Northern Alliance authorities are working on this project which we hope to expand in future."