Family Literacy

The highlights in this annual report was the establishment of a Literacy Implementation Group to develop a national implementation plan for adult literacy. It also contains updates on the development of a national reporting system, on our assessment framework for literacy, our ESOL policy, our advocacy work and the launch of our Health Literacy Strategy Report.

This is the first edition of NALA's new bi-annual magazine. It aims to keep you up to date with literacy news in Ireland and informing you of our work. In this issue we have articles on our new advertising campaign funded by An Post; a planned family literacy day, one student's journey about her literacy journey and much more.

This edition focuses on NALA's work in areas such as assessment, literacy as a barrier to health, English for Speakers of a Second Language and Models of Family Literacy. It also contains external reviews such as one from South Tipperary Riding Council of the Return to Learning Initiative for workplace basic education and another from Marie Dolan on the National Tutor's forum.

This journal, literacy review, contains a range of articles from an array of contributors each with their own unique view and experience of social practice to enrish our understanding of literacy theory, teaching and learning. Contributors included Pauline Hensey, Kathy Maclachlan, Liz McSkeane and Kerry Lawless and Tina Byrne. Some of the topics covered included: mapping literacy demands of vocational training programmes, what older students teach us and travellers and family literacy.

The lead articles in this edition are, 'TV series helps break down barriers', 'Low levels of literacy obstruct justice', 'Making literacy family-friendly' and 'Dealing with specific learning difficulties'. This edition also had a special pull-out on NALA's assessment framework.

This is the Agency's first strategic plan. The plan was based on consultation with our Executive, staff and members and was developed in a time when the adult literacy issue was very much to the forefront, following the International Adult Literacy Survey, 1997.

The highlights in our 2007 annual report were the expansion of our distance education service, the launch of our new strategic plan 2007-2010, the start of a major new promotional campaign with An Post (the Irish postal authority) and our work on quality assurance at national level for students, leading to awards at Level 2.

The highlight in our 2008 annual report was our publicity work to raise awareness of the opportunities available to motivate people to return to learning, in particular our campaign work. It also contains a summary of our work in TV distance education (capturing 14% of the viewing audience), training developments in integrating literacy, clients of our Plain English Service and much more besides...