[VIDEO] Key Stage 3 success at Taverham High School

"Overall, we are seeing that reading comprehension across our Key Stage 3 learners has improved by 20%.”

Taverham High School, located in Norwich, has been partnering with Bedrock Learning for several years as a central strand of its literacy strategy. Bedrock is embedded across the school’s curriculum and features in regular timetabled lessons for all its Key Stage 3 learners.

We recently visited the school to see Bedrock in action and spoke with teachers and learners there to explore how they are using Bedrock in their lessons and the impact it has been having.

Taverham has a key focus on vocabulary and oracy, with teaching staff working to solidify this emphasis across the school’s schemes of work. In particular, the school is targeting improvements across both Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary by embedding Bedrock across its curricula.

Like all schools, Taverham has witnessed the impact of lockdown and the associated learning loss as students were unable to directly engage with teachers. In particular, Taverham have identified a negative impact on both general reading levels as well as oracy with their learners.

“At Taverham High School, we’ve recognised that literacy is key to improving outcomes for all of our students. We’ve taken it upon ourselves to engage with the Bedrock curriculum because we know that it will really improve their chances when they leave school.” - Dale Timbers, literacy lead at Taverham.

All Key Stage 3 learners at Taverham have a timetabled Bedrock lesson once a fortnight, as well as a catch-up club and additional Bedrock tasks for homework, facilitating multiple engagement points with the resource throughout the week.

“It’s the enthusiasm. [Students] get really excited… and that buzz is really nice to see, especially when we have had some of our students win Bedrock prizes. It makes us really proud as teaching staff.” - Holly Reding, teacher at Taverham.