Reading

Using an Assessment Decision Tree to align Students’ Reading Needs to Support by @ricketts_lara

Over the period from September 2018 to August 2022, Blackpool secondary schools engaged in a major whole school project to improve the reading ability of pupils in Key Stage 3.  The project was a collaborative effort involving: senior leaders, teachers & support staff; Right to Succeed and critical friends including Alex Quigley and Professor Jessie Ricketts.  The academic paper below explores part of that collaboration.

Improving Pupils’ Access to the Curriculum

Giving pupils access to a full time education is a good thing but to really benefit from the opportunity so much more is required.  Amongst others, one key element is a pupil’s ability to read.  As the curriculum has substantially increased in content and challenge poor reading ability is significantly hampering too many pupils’ access in a whole range of subjects. Continue reading →

The 3Rs of Working with Disadvantaged Pupils

Statistically, working in a school with a large number of disadvantaged pupils of white ethnic origin isn’t likely to lead to many accolades or much acknowledgement. Blackpool is one such town; fortunately there is no all boys’ school; the hardest of the hard school improvement miles is raising attainment and showing good progress for white disadvantaged boys.

Continue reading →