Serious About Success

As I've pointed out the boy literacy crisis is a concern in most industrialized societies (as Sir Ken Robinson pointed out, because all of their methods are practically identical.

Australia has taken on the literacy issues of boys head on with the Success for Boys Professional Learning Programme

In 2005 James Cook University and Curriculum Corporation were engaged to design the Success for Boys Professional Learning Programme and supervise its implementation and quality in a wide range of schools across Australia on behalf of DEST.

The programme development team are led by Professor

Nola Alloway, whose internationally recognised credentials and expertise are in boys’ education, especially in literacy. Professor Alloway’s previous work includes the highly regarded publication Boys, Literacy and Schooling:

Expanding the

Repertoires of Practice

(available at www.dest.gov.au/boyseducation).

The Success for Boys Professional Learning Programme draws together a range of national and international research into boys’ education, including the Australian Government’s successful Boys’ Education Lighthouse Schools programme, and the large scale British Raising Boys’ Achievement initiative.

The programme can be tailored to local school contexts and will give schools a strong foundation for achieving successful outcomes for their boys. It consists of five modules which focus on key intervention areas highlighted by teachers and researchers as significant for boys:

· A Core Module that provides teachers with a theoretical framework for working with boys, and an action learning plan that underpins four additional modules;

· Boys and Literacy: a module that aims to promote effective literacy teaching and assessment for boys;

· Mentoring for Success: a module that focuses on giving boys opportunities to benefit from positive mentoring relationships and access to positive male role models from within and beyond the school;

· Boys and ICTs: a module that focuses on using information and communication technology (ICT) to improve boys’ engagement and learning outcomes;

· Indigenous Boys’ Transitions: a module that focuses on the important area of Indigenous boys’ transitions from primary to secondary school; and

· A Leaders’ Guide that provides assistance in how to deliver the programme within a school.