Improving reading comprehension by 20% for KS3 learners at Taverham High School

Taverham High School, in Norfolk, 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 Key Stage 3 learners.

We visited Taverham High 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 witnessed the impact of the coronavirus 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, but working with Bedrock has been instrumental in helping to combat that impact.

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.