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This year marks the 25th anniversary of the literacy hour – and its impact is still felt in primary schools, says Michael Tidd

For teachers concerned about the effect that lockdown has had on children’s oral language development, a simple but effective intervention is to pick up a book, says Megan Dixon

When the government first announced that functional skills in English would include phonics, it sparked concerns about infantilising FE students. But the truth is that the method was already being used to teach reading in colleges and, with adaptations, it appears to have been successful with older learners, finds Chris Parr

Speech technology has had an ‘astounding’ effect on students who find writing difficult, says Blair Minchin

With learning mostly taking place on computers during lockdown, many pupils are out of practice with their handwriting

Getting specialists in subjects other than English to work on boosting students’ literacy can be an uphill struggle, yet Sarah Eggleton managed to introduce a whole-school approach to vocab learning that not only works for teachers but has seen pupils make use of more sophisticated language across the curriculum

As well as introducing students to new words, we should be demonstrating how they can use them in their speaking and writing, says Jon Severs

‘Less traditional’ English Language GCSE will see students writing application letters to focus more on ‘real-world’ skills

When teaching moved online, oracy skills may have taken a back seat, but Nicky Pear and Nicole Gurvidi formed a partnership to maintain an already strong focus on spoken communication

Forget dressing up for World Book Day on 4 March, argues this English teacher, and try some of these reading-focused ideas instead

Rote learning an isolated list of words in preparation for a weekly test had not led to spelling improvements in her pupils’ independent writing, so Ann Jago decided to abolish the practice and adopt a more integrated approach

91¶¶Òõts to measure children’s reading ability in relation to their age have been used for decades. But are they actually any use? And should teachers be making decisions about their students’ needs based on the results? Jessica Powell finds out