Literacy and Numeracy for Learning and Life was introduced in 2011 as the national strategy to improve literacy and numeracy standards across the Irish education system, to enable students to develop their skills in these areas to the best of their ability. The literacy targets aim to develop the skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing through traditional print and broadcast media as well as digital media. The numeracy targets aim to enable students to use their “mathematical understanding and skills to solve problems and meet the demands of day-to-day living in complex social setting” (p8), through the development of their reasoning, communicating and problem solving skills, spatial awareness, data handling skills and their understanding of patterns and sequences.
Following the revision of the Junior Certificate, a reformed junior cycle was introduced. The junior cycle uses a learning outcomes approach that outlines what students will be expected to achieve and connects with the learning outcomes in the primary curriculum.
The revised English syllabus caters for the development of literacy across a wide range of texts and media, including digital media.
The senior cycle curriculum revision builds on junior cycle learning and also uses a learning outcomes approach.
All teachers should be teachers of literacy and numeracy. Teachers should seek to embed literacy and numeracy into the fabric of each lesson and assess these skills accordingly.
The specifications for all subjects provide guidance on how teachers can develop literacy and numeracy skills across the curriculum.
Students should experience enjoyable and motivating learning experiences, and a variety of learning approaches such as active learning, cooperative learning and problem solving activities.
Teachers should use a variety of evidence (conversations, observations, student self-assessment, teacher designed tasks, work samples etc.) to determine the progress made by students and to plan future steps in teaching and learning.
This information should be documented and reported to parents, teachers and other professionals as necessary .
Teachers should engage in Assessment for Learning (AfL) and Assessment Of Learning (AoL) to plan for and monitor student progress and achievement in literacy and numeracy.
Standardised tests in English reading and Mathematics should be administered to students at the end of second year.
Schools should analyse and use the results from standardised tests to inform the targets set as part of School Self-Evaluation.
Principals are obliged to report aggregated assessment data from standardised tests to Boards of Management.
Schools should seek to engage parents in developing student literacy and numeracy skills and can involve parents in family literacy programmes.
Schools are required to report students’ progress to parents, discussing their child’s progress compared to national norms.
Reports to parents should take place through written school reports and parent-teacher interviews.
