Manon Jones
Bangor University
CAL:ON Cymru: Building an Evidence-Informed Literacy System in a Bilingual Context
Bangor University
CAL:ON Cymru is a national, bilingual literacy initiative in Wales developed in response to concerns about reading and language outcomes among children and young people. Recent evidence has highlighted declining reading performance, alongside persistent inequalities, prompting the need for a coordinated, system-level approach to literacy improvement.
Funded by the Welsh Government and led by Bangor University, CAL:ON seeks to strengthen literacy outcomes across primary and secondary education through the integration of evidence-informed programmes, digital screening and assessment tools, and sustained professional learning for teachers, teaching assistants, and school leaders. A defining feature of the project is its operation within a bilingual and biliterate education system, where learners develop literacy in Welsh, English, or both, often across different school and community contexts.
This talk will outline the design and rationale of CAL:ON, situating it within the international research base commonly described as the science of reading, while addressing the additional conceptual and practical challenges of applying this evidence in bilingual settings. These include aligning structured literacy approaches across two languages, supporting transfer between languages, and designing assessment and intervention that are both linguistically and culturally appropriate.
CAL:ON is being evaluated through a programme of large-scale, real-world trials, including randomised controlled designs, embedded within everyday school practice. The talk will be relevant to researchers, teacher educators, and practitioners working in bilingual or multilingual contexts.
