Why did Laidlaw Schools Trust put literacy at the centre of its transition programme?
For Laidlaw Schools Trust, the decision is grounded in a clear conviction: reading is, in Talia Caralambos's own words, "the biggest and most important barrier to academic success, and actually the biggest barrier to all success." Because literacy underpins every subject and every opportunity a pupil will encounter, intervening early — at the point of transition from primary to secondary school — is not a programme choice but a moral imperative.
The urgency is amplified by the specific communities Laidlaw Schools Trust serves. Pupils arrive with varied linguistic, emotional, and educational histories. In some of the Trust's schools, over 60 languages are spoken, and a significant proportion of the cohort is EAL or bilingual. For these students, fluency in academic English is not a given, and a literacy gap that goes unaddressed at transition can compound rapidly across subjects. The COVID pandemic deepened this challenge further, widening gaps that already existed and reinforcing the need to act at the earliest possible moment rather than waiting for failure to become visible.
This is why Caralambos and her team position early diagnostic reading assessment — using tools such as the NGRT (New Group Reading Test), explored in depth in this episode of Education: Joining the Dots — as foundational to the transition model, not as an add-on. The data gathered before pupils even arrive in September gives schools the information they need to meet every child where they actually are.
"Don't wait until a child is failing to act. You need to diagnose on entry, involve staff from the start, and if you're fortunate enough to have digital tools that you can access, align that to your transition work, because it can be transformational."
— Talia Caralambos, Director of English, Laidlaw Schools TrustAbout Talia Caralambos
Talia Caralambos's commitment to literacy and language equity has its roots in personal experience. Growing up in a bilingual household, she developed an early understanding of what it means to navigate academic life in more than one language. At 17, she taught English in India — an experience she describes as the spark for her lifelong dedication to education through literacy. She went on to train and teach English and Media at Ritchie Diver Secondary School in London, where she worked with students still finding their voice in English, sharpening her belief in the power of language as a tool for social mobility.
She relocated to the North East in April to take up her current role as Director of English within the School Improvement team at Laidlaw Schools Trust. In this position, she leads curriculum development and literacy improvement across 11 schools — communities defined by high mobility, economic disadvantage, and extraordinary linguistic diversity, with some settings where over 60 languages are spoken. This on-the-ground experience, combined with her personal bilingual background, gives Caralambos both the professional authority and the lived understanding to speak with real weight on why literacy intervention at transition is not optional but essential.
See also
Laidlaw Schools Trust uses the NGRT (New Group Reading Test) as an early diagnostic within its year six to year seven transition programme. The NGRT reading assessment gives schools detailed literacy data on incoming pupils before the September start, enabling teachers to identify need and plan targeted support from the very first weeks of secondary school.