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VIEWS FROM THE PEN OF… ALEX QUIGLEY The write stuff


In our regular series highlighting authors in education, we are delighted this month to hear from ALEX QUIGLEY, author of “Closing the Writing Gap”.


Our lives can be filled and fulfilled by writing. That story begins with our birth certificate and ends with our epitaph. In between, each day, we use writing to learn, to love, to remember, to console, to entertain, to imagine, to argue, and to simply be. These blots of ink you see


before you embody the greatest tool of our modern civilisation. They represent our urge to communicate and our means to do so. In a mere few thousand years, we have gone from a small number of people engraving notches on stone and bone to around five billion people being able to write and to communicate. The story of writing has rapidly accelerated, with writing quickly becoming an act of near- instant global connectedness. Though most of the world now enjoys the power and pleasure of


writing, there remains a gap between those who can write with fluency and skill and those who cannot. Around 7.1 million adults in England are functionally illiterate. Put simply, imagine lacking the confidence to email your boss or to write a job application. Too many adults and young people are unable to perform these seemingly simple acts of daily writing, or to enjoy the potential benefits they offer. That is the harsh truth of being functionally illiterate. No statistic, however big, nor school data, can capture the


frustration and daily losses suffered by those people, and pupils, who struggle to write. Sadly, most young people and adults who struggle to write do


not go on to write the story of their own lives and their voices go unheard. Instead, debates about writing get embroiled in narrow grumblings about grammar terminology or squabbles about style. Meanwhile, too many pupils suffer countless small losses and teachers lack training in the fundamentals of teaching writing, grammar, and more. The sound and fury of media headlines seldom translates into support for teachers to close this writing gap. The dubious lore that ‘we all have a novel within us’ belies a cold


truth. Few people write a novel. Even fewer still write daily with the confidence and fluency that those who have flourished at school can take for granted. We labour under the miscomprehension that writing is a natural gift and is not hard- earned. Too easily, we forget the thousands of hours of deliberate practice it takes to learn to write, from the mark making of young children with crayons, or similar, to pupils gripped by the pressure of writing extended essays in vast exam halls. It is argued that writing is the ‘neglected “R”’ in comparison to


reading and a(r)ithmetic. Given that writing ability will either unleash or circumscribe the talents of our pupils, we need to give writing the attention it deserves, in every classroom, at every stage of schooling.


Closing the Writing Gap by Alex Quigley is published by Routledge at £16.99. ET readers can save 20% at www.routledge.pub/Closing-the-Writing-Gap with code CWG20


July/August 2022 BRITISH EDUCATIONAL SUPPLIERS ASSOCIATION (BESA) Reflection on the


school year In her regular column for Education Today this month, JULIA GARVEY, Deputy Director General at school suppliers’ association BESA, takes stock as the school year draws to a close.


After a chaotic period for teachers and the wider sector over the past two years, it has been great to finally get back into the swing of the normal school year, meeting face-to-face. So as Education Today publishes its final issue before the summer term, I’d like to use this column as an opportunity to reflect on my highlights from the sector over the past year. Firstly, it was brilliant to see our strong educational supplier’s industry


back out in full force at Bett. The opportunity for teachers to try the latest and greatest in EdTech is always best done in person, as it gives teachers not just the opportunity to try out the product, but also to talk to people directly with the creators so as to learn and understand how best to implement the product. Throughout the rest of the year, many of the suppliers you saw (or missed!) at Bett will be joining the BESA team on our annual LearnED Roadshow, which brings EdTech suppliers to your area – visit the BESA website to find out when we’ll be near your school. Despite the return to normal, there has been no rest for educators


with plenty of major policy papers coming from our new Secretary of State, Nadhim Zahawi MP. The publication of the long-awaited SEND Green Paper has brought into sharp focus how out of date the current arrangements for SEND are, resulting in a complex and uncaring system that creates barriers to help for those who need it most. It is great to see this issue being taken seriously, and I know that carers, teachers, and suppliers who work with the SEND system will be glad to finally see this issue being taken seriously, and I am sure we all look forward to the outcome of the consultation. The department also published its first School’s White Paper in six


years, which sets out the ambition to dramatically raise standards in English and Maths over the next eight years. Whilst I am sure we would all agree that this is a noble ambition, how this will be implemented is another question. Those of you who have been following the progress of the School’s Bill will be all too keenly aware that the government’s proposals have been met with contention and it will be interesting to see how the bill finally looks when, or if, it is ascended into law later in the year. And finally, one sad reality which teachers have had to deal with this


year will be the War in Ukraine. This has created new challenges for educators as they explore not just how to explain the issue to children but also how to take on refugee children within their classes. It has been both heart-breaking and inspirational to hear stories from teachers across the continent who have faced the repercussions of this tragic war. At BESA we’ve been working across the industry and with our European partners, to raise awareness, money and critical educational supplies for children affected by the war. So as schools begin to close for the summer term, I would like to wish


you all a pleasant summer holiday and hope that next year will bring us a much more normal school year.


Julia Garvey Deputy Director General, BESA www.besa.org.uk


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