Within the recently published Highland Council Pupil Equity Fund (PEF) guidance, one of the appendices included information on Highland Council’s up to date Literacy Strategy.

Highland aims to ensure that all children and young people make the appropriate progress in Literacy supported by developmentally appropriate learning and teaching.

Highland’s Literacy Strategy has been updated as of April 2017. You can access this by clicking the images below. It details the Authority’s aims, their current priorities and includes key contacts and links to further support. The blog continues to be a medium of ongoing support, and facilitated by further training opportunities available through the Highland CPD Calendar and local support arrangements.

The up to date Literacy Strategy highlights the strong collaborative partnership working between education, Allied Health Professionals (AHPs), High Life Highland (Adult Learning and Highland Libraries) and partner agencies to provide the best possible literacy outcomes for children, young people and their families.

CLICK HERE: The Highland Literacy Strategy – April 2017

As part of Critical Literacy we aim to develop a learner’s awareness of when they’re being persuaded, when a source is biased or when a source is misleading.

To support the teaching of Critical Literacy check out the websites below which can be used with learners to allow them to THINK about sources which are misleading.

Snow Covered Sphinx
Images of the ‘Snow Covered Sphinx in Egypt’.

Pacific Northwest Trea Octopus
A website which provides information on how you can save the ‘Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus’.

Burmese Mountain Dog
Learn about the ‘Burmese Mountain Dog’.

As part of the Emerging Literacy suite of resources a series of videos have been created to support practitioners in taking a developmental approach to Emerging Literacy. The videos will take you through each aspect of Emerging Literacy exploring the theory, rationale and resources.

There are six video resources which have been created. You can access each of the videos below. Under each video you will find links to the resources which are required within each of the videos. 

1. Emerging Literacy: Training Video 1 – Theory

• Highland Literacy Blog
• Bumps to Bairns Website

2. Emerging Literacy: Training Video 2 – Phonological Awareness

• Emerging Literacy – Phonological Awareness Page
• Phonological Awareness Continuum
• Phonological Awareness – English Screen
• Phonological Awareness – English Picture Book
• Phonological Awareness – Gaelic Screen
• Phonological Awareness – Gaelic Picture Book

3. Emerging Literacy: Training Video 3 – Oral Language

• Emerging Literacy – Oral Language Page
• Emerging Literacy – Words Up Key Messages
• Emerging Literacy – Words Up Key Messages Videos
• Pre-Teaching Vocabulary
• Introductory Task – Example Vocabulary
• PTV – Step 1 Poster – How we learn new words wheel
• PTV – Step 2 Poster – How we learn new words wheel
• PTV – Step 3 Poster – How we learn new words wheel

4. Emerging Literacy: Training Video 4 – Pre-Handwriting

• Emerging Literacy – Pre-Handwriting Page
• Pre-Handwriting Developmental Continuum
• Fine Motor Skills Handout
• Scissor Skills Handout
• Pre-Writing Handout

5. Emerging Literacy: Training Video 5 – Concepts of Print

• Emerging Literacy – Concepts of Print Page
• Read, Write, Count Website

6. Emerging Literacy: Training Video 6 – Family Learning

• Emerging Literacy – Family Learning Resource Page

For those schools who have taken part in the First Minister’s Reading Challenge this year, the Scottish Book Trust are looking for your responses to the challenge.

The deadline for this is Wednesday 3rd May 2017. You can do so by clicking the link below.

CLICK HERE – Submit Your Response

On Wednesday 14th June 2017, the Scottish Book Trust will be hosting a celebration event and awards ceremony for the Challenge. There will be the opportunity to browse information stalls from key organisations, stalls of schools from across the country that are showcasing their work over the past year and enjoy the award giving presentation.  Schools can apply to attend now by filling out the survey on the link below.

CLICK HERE – FMRC Celebration Event

If you missed it, CLICK HERE for the March 2017 Emerging Literacy Update

Please find below the April Update from the Highland Emerging Literacy Group. This update outlines the Highland support arrangements for the 2017/ 2018 session for Emerging Literacy which have now been finalised. The downloadable documents within the update can be downloaded on the links below:

CLICK HERE: Emerging Literacy Indepth Action Plan for Schools 2017_2018
CLICK HERE: Emerging Literacy – P1-P2 2017_2018

CLICK HERE to download the April 2017 Emerging Literacy update.

Scottish Film Education have made an exciting Career Long Professional Learning (CLPL) opportunity available for Highland teachers.

In addition to their free online Media Literacy support resources through Screening Shorts, Scottish Film Education have created a CLPL programme of support for Associated School Groups (ASGs) which involves training and follow-up classroom support visits to support the development of Film and Moving Image Education across the curriculum.

CLICK HERE to email lmglennon@eden-court.co.uk and book your space

A great opportunity to develop the literacy, digital literacy skills and social studies skills through this learning context.

2017 marks the 75th anniversary of The Famous Five, Enid Blyton’s best-loved book series. To celebrate this Microsoft and Enid Blyton’s publisher, Hachette Children’s Group, have partnered to bring you an exciting Literacy competition for Primary 5s using Microsoft Sway.

Enid Blyton wrote every Famous Five novel with a clear 5-step structure:

• Set up
• Journey
• Adventure
• Resolution
• Return home

Microsoft Education are inviting Primary 5 children across the country to submit a Sway using those five steps, based on a place of local interest (e.g. Five Go To ……).

CLICK HERE – Famous Five – Microsoft Sway

If you missed it, CLICK HERE for the February 2016 Emerging Literacy Update

The March 2017 Emerging Literacy update includes information on:

• Northern Alliance update
• Emerging Literacy – Blog Posts
• Emerging Literacy Network 5
• Book Lists – Scottish Book Trust

CLICK HERE to download the March 2017 Emerging Literacy update.

The Power of Pictures section of the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) website is a resource which can be used to support practitioners in exploring picture books through teaching approaches.

The teaching approaches section of Power of Pictures provides guidance on a number of aspects of using picture books in the classroom.

CLICK HERE – Power of Pictures – Teaching Approaches

There are also a selection of teaching sequences which can be used to support lesson planning around the picture books which are referenced to on the site.

Have you checked out Highland’s Digital Learning site?

Digital Learning Highland is a one stop shop for keeping up with Highland’s digital learning strategy. In addition to this there are a number of resources to support practitioners of developing ICT in learning.

Check out the Literacy Tools section for links to a number of resources which support digital learning through literacy.

CLICK HERE: Digital Learning Highland Literacy Tools