Writing for Tes earlier this week, the new schools minister insisted that the development of the teaching workforce was “right at the top” of his priority list.

The comments were backed by a bold pledge to make the government’s newly-reformed set of national professional qualifications (NPQs) freely available to all teachers and leaders in state schools.

Funded by £184 million from the Department for Education, the scheme will deliver 150,000 NPQs across the next three years.

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And the suite of qualifications on offer is expanding, with two additional NPQs available from next autumn.

One of these is the national professional qualification for leading literacy (NPQLL), for teachers who “have, or are aspiring to have, responsibilities for leading literacy across a school, year group, key stage or phase”.

The accompanying leading literacy framework has been largely well-received. On social media, school staff said it looked “brilliant” and “interesting”, and that they were “thoroughly overjoyed” by it. One teacher even said: “I might have to move back to England for this!”.

I might have to move back to England for this! ?

- Roisin Ray (@RoisinRay1) October 12, 2021

There are one or two points, such as on the merits of joined-up handwriting, and permission (or lack thereof) for leaders to be creative, that may prove to be less favourable, however.

Here’s everything teachers and leaders need to know about the new framework...

1. Encourage joined-up handwriting

The teaching of cursive handwriting - in which letters are joined up - is famously divisive in the education world.

Many schools have placed a strong emphasis on the style, teaching lead-in and exit strokes in Reception and expecting teachers to adopt it in their own writing, too. Others have ditched cursive altogether.

While the national curriculum is clear that pupils in Year 2 “should be taught to write with a joined style as soon as they can form letters securely with the correct orientation” - and that “joined handwriting should be the norm” by Years 3 and 4 - the DfE’s new reading framework, published back in July, seemed to introduce some breathing space for teachers.

“Learning to form letters and spell words requires considerable effort and attention,” it said.

“Schools, therefore, should consider the advantages to children of delaying the teaching of joined handwriting.”

It is therefore significant that the new leading literacy framework appears to double down on the need to teach cursive.

It says that participants should learn how to “support colleagues to develop pupils’ fluent written transcription and sentence construction skills” by “promoting the effective and careful teaching of letter formation and joined-up handwriting and ensuring pupils are taught incrementally and systematically”.

No mention is made of the potential advantages of delaying the teaching of joined handwriting, which may lead to confusion among teachers and leaders.

2. Don’t replace ‘well-designed frameworks’

Elsewhere, the leading literacy framework discourages leaders from “creating new resources” to replace existing frameworks.

It says that participants in the NPQ should learn how to “contribute to effective professional development linked to teaching, curriculum and assessment across the school” by “making use of well-designed frameworks and resources instead of creating new resources”.

It lists examples of such “well-designed frameworks” as “sources of subject knowledge, the early career framework and associated core induction programme for early career teachers, ITT [initial teacher training] core content framework, suite of national professional qualifications”.

While the early career framework and ITT core content framework are both statutory - and should therefore not be replaced in any case - the statement implies that the government expects those taking the NPQ to encourage the use of existing resources where possible.

3. Teach phonics with ‘fidelity’

Championed by the former schools minister Nick Gibb, phonics is the government’s preferred method for teaching early reading - and is assessed in all state schools in key stage 1.

It is therefore not surprising that the NPQ endorses the teaching of phonics. But it also goes one step further - arguing that the method must be taught with “fidelity”.

This echoes the sentiment written into the ITT core content framework, which states that “trainees should not be taught to use competing approaches to SSP [systematic synthetic phonics] when teaching reading”.

The NPQ states that participants should learn how to “support colleagues to develop all pupils’ word reading” by “ensuring that the school uses systematic synthetic phonics taught with fidelity, when teaching early reading or when older pupils are struggling with decoding”.

4. Promote reading for pleasure

The leading literacy framework explores in depth the mechanics of how pupils should be taught to read. But it also makes clear that participants should promote “reading for pleasure”.

Leaders should build a “reading culture” that encourages the use of challenging texts at school and home, the framework says.

And they should ensure “the availability of appropriate and subject-specific texts” including a range of genres, and high-quality fiction that reflects “the diversity of pupils’ lives”, it adds.