Drive literacy improvement across a Multi-Academy Trust

We sat down with Daisy and Mike from South Lincolnshire Academy Trust (SLAT) to find out more about how they’ve implemented Bedrock Learning across their schools and why having a coherent literacy strategy is so important to them.

Why do you have such a focus on literacy at the Academy?

At SLAT we see literacy as a cornerstone, fundamental to success in areas of life that expand far beyond academia. Our aim is to support students to improve their literacy, to encourage them to apply literacy standards across a range of disciplines and to enjoy the benefits of a well-rounded approach to education.

How have you implemented Bedrock across your schools?

Bedrock is implemented as a weekly home-learning task in years 7 and 8 at all SLAT schools with a point target that is in place and monitored by teachers. Form tutors, as well as English teachers, see this data so that students can be praised across the school and not just necessarily in their English classrooms. Their Bedrock performance/engagement is tracked within their home-learning booklets and can also be monitored by parents.

What impact are you seeing on your students?

Students engage really well with Bedrock across the entire school. The system is clear and so staff are able to very easily track and support students who may be struggling. Our most recent set of reading data showed improvements in reading levels at all four of our schools, across all year groups. This includes marked improvements across target groups such as Pupil Premium, SEN and EAL students. We do use other reading programmes and strategies at the school, but Bedrock is clearly part of a picture of great progress across all our schools.

What would be your top tip for other schools looking to enhance literacy?

In terms of embedding good literacy practice the key seems to be ensuring that the students can “literally see literacy everywhere.” If students can see the benefit of good literacy in all aspects of their life it can help them to see its value. Additionally, supporting students in all aspects of their literacy, including oral, and how this can apply to whatever career they may be pursuing can be a great motivator.

What is your favourite feature of the Bedrock platform?

Bedrock is extremely user friendly. The data is concise and helpful and the students enjoy using the platform. From our point of view some favourite features include the weekly list of words provided to evidence what the students have been learning (these can be helpful when compiling vocabulary lists for schemes of work) and even the smiley face indication on the reports page – a nice and easy way to immediately see areas of struggle. The wording of the reports is positive with students being labelled as “requiring support” rather than being targeted for a sanction. When we’re talking about literacy and the importance of words, the use of such positive and encouraging language is helpful for us and the students.

Thanks again to Daisy, Mike and everyone at SLAT. It's exciting to see the improvement across years 7 and 8.