Media Release from Federal Education Minister, Julie Bishop (10 March 2006)

MOST STUDENTS HIT THE MARK FOR LITERACY AND NUMERACY

"The majority of Australian students in Years 3, 5 and 7 have met the national benchmarks for reading, writing and numeracy in 2004.  ...  The results show
                       93% of Year 3 students met the reading benchmark,
                       92.9% met the writing benchmark, and
                       93.7% met the numeracy benchmark."

Note: These results are even better than the results originally reported here. The earlier results were for indigenous students and were taken from Miister Bishop's press release. The percentages in the report are even better!
To read the report, go to www.dest.gov.au/Ministers/Media/Bishop/2006/03/B003100306.asp

Prof Geoff Masters, Chief Executive of the Australian Council for Educational Research, said in "The Australian" newspaper (22 Nov 05):

"The (PISA) results show that Australian 15-year-olds are among the best in the world when it comes to careful reading (and) logical thinking...  Australian students were significantly outperformed only by students in Finland in reading literacy."

What are we to make of claims that we have a literacy crisis?

Later in the newspaper article, Masters wrote,

"Whatever the motivations of those who claim that education standards are plunging, that our schools are failing and that efforts to specify desired learning outcomes have contributed to this supposed decline, there is no support for these claims in international evidence."  (our emphasis) 

In 2005 the teaching staff at Leumeah Public School in NSW focused on the teaching of writing. They began by exploring children's literature and asking themselves: what makes "good" writing? After listing many thoughts and ideas the teachers then began the process of writing themselves. It was decided that if they, the teachers, were to understand writing and the teaching of writing, they needed to "view writing from the inside" and write. The task was set: choose an animal and write about it. The purpose was to write a text in any genre using a particular animal as the focus for the audience of their peers. The final products were to be shared at a "Celebration of Writing" at the School Development day in the next term. The teachers formed "buddies" and for a whole school term they researched, wrote, shared, conferred with their buddy as they developed their writing drafts. Time was given at staff meetings for the buddies to share and refine their writing. There were times of reluctance and frustration. There was also anxiety about their writing. However, they all kept going with the support of their respective buddies.

Finally the day came for "A Celebration of Writing". An hour of the School Development day had been put aside for groups of four to come together and present their writing. The range and quality of writing was absolutely amazing. There were poems, a powerpoint presentation aimed at Grade 5 on specific information about spiders, humorous narratives, spoofs, narratives for young children, and many

more. Not only did the teachers write but their final products had illustrations, photos and some images from the web. We laughed, cried and marvelled at the many different types of writing and, above all, the quality of the writing. Teachers were so proud of their products as a staff community that they asked to hear everyone's writing so the groups became a large circle and we all shared. As teachers shared to the whole school, the question was asked: what did you learn about writing and the teaching of writing from this experience? The discussion that followed indicated that teachers had developed a deep understanding of writing and the skills involved in writing. They also readily made strong connections to the teaching of writing. It was a most powerful professional learning experience for us all.

Dr Jan Turbill
Critical friend to Leumeah PS.