The Guide is a unique and comprehensive survey of all that is available on paper and in electronic format to assist teachers from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 3 to become aware of what resources are available to raise standards of literacy. Ray Barker, Director of BESA said, 'We are delighted to see even more BESA members putting forward ICT products for evaluation by literacy experts. Such software is designed to be mediated through teaching professionals who choose the content and the approach they want in order to increase teaching and learning opportunities. Magnus Magnusson, in launching the Guide commented, 'It is a great honour to be involved with the launch of the Guide to Literacy Resources because as far as I am concerned, literacy in all its forms is the bedrock of living a full and exciting life. Literacy is not merely about the ability to read and write correctly.
Literacy is more than just a spell check and getting the apostrophes in the right places.
Literacy is about the ability to be able to communicate with others, and that involves listening as well as speaking, and using e-mail and mobile text messages correctly and succinctly. The Guide will save teachers time and offer them an informed summary of the range and diversity of materials available for the classroom. Over 230 manufacturers and distributors are BESA members, all of whom sign up annually to abide by the BESA Code of Practice . BESA promotes, unites and informs member companies - seeking a competitive level playing field in education supply. It acts as a conduit between education and industry and industry and government - and is a focus for the committed and specialist companies and organisations serving the sector.