“To be part of place-based change was really important. I wanted my colleagues to be invested and to see the whole-town picture. Historically, the school might have been an underdog, but we could make meaningful changes.”
Bernadette Kaye, Assistant Headteacher at South Shore School in, ‘Words of Encouragement: Reading resilience during the pandemic’
The positive impact of the Key Stage 3 Literacy Programme is being felt and seen in Blackpool. The community literacy project initiative, which is managed by Right to Succeed, aims to improve literacy across seven secondary schools and one pupil referral unit (PRU) in Blackpool, thereby addressing the low reading abilities of many 11- to 14-year-olds in one of the most deprived towns in the country. Launched only two-and-a-half years ago, the programme, which takes a collective approach to sharing data and best practice across the town, has already seen strong results.
This success has been recognised in GL Assessment’s recently published report: ‘Words of Encouragement: Reading resilience during the pandemic’ which highlights some of the beneficial interventions that have taken place in children and young people’s education over the period of lockdown in 2020 and 2021. The report offers particular insight into how reading ability has been impacted during the Covid-19 pandemic and the strategies implemented to tackle the challenges that have arisen.
We are delighted to be able to share the positive experiences of teachers involved in the KS3 Literacy programme and the benefits of the community-wide, collective approach it exemplifies, as detailed in the report.
“When we first started off on the journey there were an abundance of transactional interventions aimed at supporting targeted cohorts of pupils…. what we’re really seeing now is a cultural shift across all the schools where every child in Key Stage 3 is receiving a high quality literacy offer.”
Paul O’Neill, Chief Programmes Officer, Right to Succeed in, Words of Encouragement: Reading resilience during the pandemic
You can read the full report here and to find out more about GL Assessment and the work they do, please visit their website.
