12. Mapper Success: Innovative Strategies at St. Thomas More Catholic Academy

In this episode, Sarah and Megan from St. Thomas More Catholic Academy discuss their experiences with implementing Bedrock Mapper, our subject specific tier 3 vocabulary solution, across the school. They share how Mapper is making strides in addressing literacy gaps and increasing learner engagement, highlighting both the successes and obstacles encountered in incorporating the platform into everyday school activities. Our guests focus on how Mapper is helping to overcome the educational challenges exacerbated by the pandemic, particularly in closing attainment gaps.

The conversation includes an in-depth look at the Mapper's role in fostering learner success, especially for learners from underprivileged areas, and its broader impact on the school's approach to education. Sarah and Megan outline future plans for staff development and strategies for easing learners' transitions between primary and secondary. Their stories underscore St. Thomas More's dedication to not only education but also to empowering learners, aiming to create lasting educational improvement that reaches beyond the school environment. This episode offers a deep dive into how St. Thomas More Academy is setting a precedent for educational advancement with Bedrock Mapper.

Transcript

Andy: 0:19

Hi again, everyone and thank you for downloading slash streaming the Bedrock learning literacy works podcast, where we're trying to bring you the very best interesting voices from around the world of education. Today we have two colleagues from a school, a Bedrock school actually, who I've met since coming to work at Bedrock and it's just astounding what they've achieved with Mapper and what they've achieved with it in their partnership with us. And I think, as well as having people outside Bedrock, which is really important, it's also really important to speak to Bedrock aren't schools and ask them what they're finding, ask them their learnings and share to share that the kind of best practice and insights. So both of you, thank you so much for coming on. It's, it's brilliant. I know, I know for a fact that there's lots of schools who have asked for this podcast to happen. They want to hear about what the best schools are doing, what the most effective schools are doing. So if you wouldn't mind both of you just introducing yourselves and a bit about the school, that would be really helpful, just to kick us off.

Sarah: 1:23

So I'm Sarah and one of the associate assistant heads here in St Thomas More and Stoke on Trends and we our school is in an area of high deprivation. We've got an increasing number of pupil premium students. So typically we have around a third of our students who are pupil premium, but for our current year seven that's risen to 45 percent. It's a dramatic increase. So it became apparent to us that in an area of word poverty, particularly post the pandemic, that we needed to do something to support students. Really, when we've got students with reading ages in every single year group that range from five years to 17 years, so we've got such a disparity with our reading ages and for us we, and obviously all of the evidence, all of the research indicates that the language gap is the attainment gap.

Sarah: 2:17

So we had a secure success rate with Bedrock as a program in which we actually dedicate curriculum time for students in year seven and year eight to work with Bedrock and we've moved from other programs and we were really happy with the success that students were making with Bedrock.

Sarah: 2:37

So therefore, when we looked at Mapper, it was really appealing to us the idea of disciplinary literacy and supporting students to enable them to access more challenging texts. So initially we looked at Mapper and what we liked about Mapper was that it was very much an evidence informed program and that was in line with our school vision for literacy. So Megan is our Key Stage 3 lead for RE and we initially piloted Mapper with just year seven across our core subjects. We were a Catholic school so RE is one of our core subjects and so Megan and I have been involved in the pilot and we were so successful with the pilot that we've actually extended Mapper from initially year seven in the core subjects to all subjects for all of Key Stage 3 students and Megan, when you first heard of MAPPA and when it was kind of broached to you, what were your thoughts and how did you take to that?

Andy: 3:44

What's been your experience of this?

Megan: 3:46

I think from my perspective, I was really quite excited to roll this out across the department for RE, specifically RE. One of our strengths in our department is consistency in terms of our planning, our implementation and delivery of the curriculum. The way that we approached homework we thought could have been strengthened and I was quite excited that the prospect of MAPPA being used in that way. So initially when we implemented MAPPA, as Sarah said, we did just do it across the course subjects and luckily for me, with being a Catholic school, re was one of those. So we initially implemented on a fortnightly basis, so the homework ran alongside the curriculum really. So the keywords that we were picking out from MAPPA really underpin and support the curriculum that's already in place. And, as Sarah was saying, we have seen such amazing success rates. We've got an 88% retainment rate at the moment with our current cohorts, which I think is something that we're really proud of. I think really would be lovely for us to use this opportunity to promote that in other schools as well.

Andy: 5:02

And if I was to take a step back for a moment for the benefit of listeners how was Bedrock implemented throughout the entire school? So what's the relationship with core and grammar and MAPPA? When do they do what? Because lots of schools find that they love core. They love core and grammar, for example, vocabulary and grammar. They love it. But then they say, well, if we were to introduce MAPPA, that's another thing for the people to perhaps do for homework. And then you've got the teachers using insights from vocab and grammar and then MAPPA. How do you make sense of all of that for your staff? Because for lots of schools that's a big thing. They have to. You know a big hurdle they have to jump over. So how do you implement in your school?

Sarah: 5:44

So for us, mappa core is part of our curriculum time, so students have Bedrock core sorry is part of our curriculum time. So students have a weekly Bedrock lesson which alternates between vocabulary and grammar, and then they also have a weekly Bedrock homework for Bedrock core. And that's just in years seven and eight and students are very engaged with that. They're familiar with it, with Bedrock as a platform. That's very successful. That's the homework that we set in is for literacy.

Sarah: 6:13

So then when we introduced MAPPA, actually it was beneficial that the students were already familiar with Bedrock, because obviously the user names are the same, the passwords are the same, students are familiar with the platform. So it wasn't the case that we're introducing a new platform for the students. Actually, they quite liked that they were already familiar with Bedrock and I think what we've noticed really is an emphasis on the fact that students aren't seeing literacy now in isolation. It's not that it just belongs to the English department anymore, it's not just an English homework or part of the English curriculum. Mappa has really helped students and staff to really appreciate the fact that disciplining your literacy is important for every subject and every discipline and I think MAPPA for us has helped students to be aware of that and to be aware of the demands of different subjects, rather than seeing vocabulary as just an English requirement.

Andy: 7:12

That's really interesting. There's a common thread that I often find when one would speak to schools and I found myself saying this now is that it's not just about what the pupils do, but it's also about and I wonder if you could speak to this, meg, and I wonder if you're implementing is it facilitating, or has it facilitated, better and more interesting conversations for staff to have? And well, yeah, we've got hundreds of words we could serve to pupils and anyone could click a button and serve hundreds of words, but what sort of conversations has it facilitated in your department?

Megan: 7:50

I think within our department it's helped us to facilitate conversations about which keywords and which areas of disciplining your literacy we really are going in on. I think it's allowed us as a whole school to assess how consistent departments are across the school.

Megan: 8:08

So I think, disciplinary literacy is a real strength in some departments but not others.

Megan: 8:13

So it's allowed us to really tackle that and challenge that, which I think gives the students a better insight into the demands of disciplinary literacy and why it's important.

Megan: 8:26

It's also allowed us to, I think, have a little bit more of a holistic view of our curriculum and really working out why in year seven do they need to know X, y and Z words in preparation for the year eight curriculum and all the way through Interkey, stage Five.

Megan: 8:41

And I think that that's been really important, especially if within your department you haven't got subject specialists. For example, I think it's been brilliant for supporting staff and ECTs and trainee staff in understanding the demands of the curriculum and how the literacy links. So I think in terms of you know CPD, it's been brilliant for helping staff as well. I think. In terms of the planning, it's asked us, it's allowed us to ask questions about planning as well. So in RE that's something that we do collaboratively and we've had discussions about how we want this literacy to be embedded and within our talk curriculum as well as with MAFA. So it's allowed us to fine tune and really tie up those loose ends where we knew that we were strong in terms of collaborative planning and consistency, but it's allowed us to really tighten up the areas that I think we were perhaps lacking before.

Sarah: 9:37

I think, as well, just to add to that, what departments had highlighted key words previously. But this is provided as with an opportunity now to look at, to quality show those key words and to ensure that departments are identifying ambitious tier two and tier three vocabulary, not just key words that they've picked as they go in the lock, and also to make sure that that vocabulary acquisition is aligned with the curriculum development and there's opportunities for students to retrieve vocabulary. So for us, the approach that we've taken is that the vocabulary has to be taught within lessons. We've got explicit vocabulary instruction within lessons and then we use MAFA as a homework for the independent retrieval of that vocabulary. So for us it's sort of ensuring that students are having lots of opportunities to constantly retrieve that vocabulary that's explicitly taught in class and I think for staff it's enabling staff of all subjects to appreciate the literacy demands of their subject areas.

Andy: 10:41

I think it's interesting that if we were to focus on the pupils just for a moment, have you, even anecdotally, have you noticed any shifts? Have you noticed any of this manifesting in class? In terms of what have you seen different in the pupils, do you think?

Sarah: 11:04

In the pandemic, we have noticed in our students a decline in their ability to have structured conversations. There was obviously was it was an issue for our school, I would say, and our circulation of learning as well. I think yeah that's key.

Sarah: 11:20

And we are now finding that when we're completing learning walks or as part of our MER process, let a formal formal lesson observations, students are able to articulate what they are learning. They are using the tier two and tier three vocabulary in their conversations and therefore that's then improving their writing, because obviously writing floats on. So you have talked to the fact that students can use the words in conversation with their taught partners. That's then. They're then using that in their writing and we have noticed a development only in students' RSE, in students' ability to read complex texts, but also in their writing as well.

Megan: 12:02

Can, I think as well. What's really key for our school context is that we've looked at the data around MAPA and the impact that it's had so far in the 18 months that we've got it rolled out, and what's really interesting is that within our school context, our priority groups are the ones that are benefiting the most. So we're seeing that 60% of our most engaged students are the PPE students, and that's a real priority for us. The next subgroup after that, 40% of the most engaged REAL students too. So we're seeing that it's having a real benefit in terms of our school priorities for those subgroups of students, which is a real positive for us and it's open to dialogue with parents as well.

Sarah: 12:45

So parents are having conversations with us regarding MAPA disciplinary literacy and we're using MAPA, for example, in our curriculum assessments. So we've adapted our key stage three curriculum assessments to include a section on vocabulary retrieval. So students are using MAPA now to prepare for those assessments. So having that regarding how vocabulary can support student's attainment.

Andy: 13:14

The EAL threads are really interesting. One because, as part of my role, one of my favorite bits of my job is to receive data from schools and then I triangulate against well, how much have they used it? What's the impact been? And in my previous school where I've worked, eal wasn't a particularly high number. But since doing this triangulation piece for a number of schools now, particularly with MAPA, the difference it makes in terms of their attainment and their reading ages is, I would say, in my time of doing this role, is almost the biggest jump.

Andy: 13:48

The EAL and I suppose it stands to reason, doesn't it, is that if you have a teacher and you've got a group of teachers that are choosing the highest, leveraging the highest, most powerful concepts in their subjects that they are then teaching them and doing something with, I suppose it stands to reason, doesn't it, that they're going to benefit the most because those items of knowledge, those words, are the silver bullets, aren't they? They're the things that are going to help them access the curriculum more, and I think that's a really interesting point you make there. And if we were to focus now on teachers even yourselves as well, you know how have you used MAPA in your planning? What does it look like for you? We've got a really clear implementation. You know kind of context from yourselves. But what does it look like for a teacher day in, day out? How are you using that?

Sarah: 14:40

To start with we were really keen to ensure a consistent approach across the whole school. So within each department we've got mapper leads and our mapper leads. So it may not necessarily be the head of department, but in Megan's case it's our key stage three lead. But we've got a member of staff who's responsible for mapping in that subject area and they've identified the disciplining illiteracy for the subject area and uploaded that vocabulary map onto bit mapping. So then every student has access to that high quality, ambitious vocabulary. For our CEN students and REAL students, our CEN department pre-teach that vocabulary using mapper so those students already are exposed to that vocabulary before it's explicitly taught within lessons.

Andy: 15:28

Wow, okay.

Sarah: 15:29

So they have that. We're already trying to address that in the language barrier there, in enabling our CEN students and REAL students so they come to the lesson the CEN students and REAL students with already secure understanding of foundation, of that disciplining illiteracy Within our schemes of learning. Class teachers then are using a range of models just to explicitly teach that vocabulary. So whether it be the Freya model or etymology or morphology examples, but it's very much in line with our schemes of learning and which links directly to mapper. So then the students within lessons will be explicitly taught that vocabulary and then every blue week because one is two week timetable students will retrieve that then for their homework independently and I'm in charge of mapper centrally, so I will provide staff with updates regarding students engagement with mapper.

Sarah: 16:28

We have had, we've run competitions across the school where our most engaged year seven student won a Kindle. We're looking at inter-form competitions, competitions amongst the departments, but also it's enabling us to quality assure our curriculum. So, for example, we saw that students were making the most progress in year eight but actually for us we didn't want. We're using mapper to retrieve, so students shouldn't be making more progress, it should be retrieval. So we went back to our year eight curriculum to ensure that we've got that explicit vocabulary instruction within lessons, and it was an area of concern for us year eight in particular. So it's been part of our quality assurance of our curriculum as well.

Megan: 17:11

I think a staged approach, though, has been the thing that's allowed us to be successful. I think having initially only four members of staff and five with Sarah Leading has allowed us to become experts in mapper and help to disseminate that across the school as well, and I think it gave us time to assess the impact before we rolled it out whole school, and I think that was very much appreciated by staff across the school as well, that this wasn't just another thing for us to ask them to do. So. I think that a very much a slow and staged approach with, as Sarah said before, one person per department leading on it, has allowed for the consistency to be really well embedded, I think.

Sarah: 17:54

And I think as well is what Megan's highlighted. Obviously, with the change in approach towards literacy, mapper for us has empowered all staff. So I think we are quite vocal actually that different departments have on different points of their journeys with disciplining literacy. So, for example, in our school History RE our English departments were quite secure with disciplining literacy, whereas all the departments wouldn't have evaluated themselves as being insecure. And we've been able, both within school and then also through Bedrock, to offer staff CPD to support not only with mapper but also with disciplining literacy and vocabulary acquisition.

Andy: 18:36

I think what's really interesting is that it's really funny that you have other platforms where there might be videos and there might be other things going on in the platform and then people's answer questions and all that sort of stuff and there's more going on. Almost what mapper does is it strips everything back and it enables you to select the core pieces of information. But then what's almost been an unanticipated benefit in your setting is it sounds like the CPD and the development around. Well, what's the data saying around? Which departments are implementing and which aren't, who's flying with it, who's not, and what other staff needs that are kind of that we need to meet. You can't just give an ed tech solution to a teacher and then walk off. It's about what you've done there, the staged approach, carefully, methodically, understanding where the pinch points are, where the pain points are for teachers, and that's what sounds like when I looked at your data. It's so strong in terms of implementation.

Andy: 19:41

This is a case study in itself of how you implement something like this. I tried it and we weren't successful when I tried it, because I needed to do what you did. I needed to take that step. Where it was one subject, you have one strong member of staff who's really keen on it and who's able to see the bigger picture, and then you roll out. I just think that it's commendable. It truly is. In terms of the future, what are you looking to in the next six months? What are your thoughts in the next six months?

Sarah: 20:18

I feel in to sort of consolidate any inconsistencies across the department. So even now we've got more secure departments, I would say. Obviously we've got some change within staff within school. So it's about initially we had training for MAPA, for the MAPA leads, and then I disseminated that training as we expanded MAPA out across the school. But I think moving forward in mediness for next year is about ensuring that all members of staff receive training regarding MAPA as a class teacher. So rather than just that the MAPA leads or the heads of departments, about all members of staff so that they can look at what it looks like from a student's point of view and, I think, also the activities on MAPA, so looking at the Ameage or looking at synonyms or atonyms, actually that can also empower staff within the classroom when they're explicitly teaching both capital areas well in subject areas where that might not be perhaps an area that they feel particularly confident with.

Megan: 21:21

Yeah, and I certainly think that there's room for us to work more closely with our feeder primary schools as well, and, you know, I think the strength of the working relationships that we have is something that we're proud of already, but I think there's more to be done in terms of transition and securing a better transition between Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 when it comes to MAPA, and I think that we can use that as our basis and our platform for a little bit.

Andy: 21:46

I think, once again, we'll probably provide a really good basis for that conversation If you'd be able to go to your new knowledge and then begin the dialogue. It would be a really useful piece of work, I think, and if I was to kind of just change direction slightly and ask you about vocabulary and grammar and you know, just to check in a little bit with how that's been going, how is that implemented and what are teachers doing with that at the moment.

Sarah: 22:18

So with Bedrock Core, all of our Year 7 lessons. So within we have a weekly Bedrock lesson. They are delivered by our school librarian who oversees the programme. So that's, in short, consistency Within the Bedrock lesson. So it's an hours lesson. We have 30 minutes in which students work independently on Bedrock and then they read for pleasure for 30 minutes afterwards, but during that time they focus on the vocabulary that they've acquired. We have a Bedrock Brainiacs board, so in which we celebrate student success and engagement with Bedrock. We are in constant communication with parents, so parents are really eager to see how the students are achieving with Bedrock. But I think, as Megan said about the primary schools, we've actually introduced Bedrock to be a part of a Mac. We introduced Bedrock Core across our primary schools, so we've delivered training to our primary schools. So now that's supported with transition, because actually all of our Bedrock, all of our feeder schools use Bedrock. So students are coming and up to us having been familiar with Bedrock. So that's how the sports have implementation.

Andy: 23:32

That's really interesting, and I think one thing that I always would like to work with schools on increasingly is helping them to use the knowledge trends that the reports in Core and the grammar insights.

Andy: 23:44

So then, not just keep it inside English, but then and MAPP is quite straightforward to give that to other subjects, for obvious reasons, because that's literally what it is, whereas with Core, I'd really like to start thinking about how, particularly with vocabulary, as I say, with vocabulary where you can use those insights and actually, you know, there was a word yesterday I think it was something like, it was something like expose or something like that that I'd seen in the knowledge trends and I was thinking well, wouldn't that be brilliant to be able to use that across chemistry, geography, history that you know? These words are there to be used across the piece. Yes, tier two, vocabulary is like knelling fog to the wall. No-transcript, that's what Bedrock gives you. It gives you a footholding to be able to leverage that information across the curriculum, and I just wondered whether you thought that that would be something that could be of interest to you as well.

Sarah: 24:37

We as a school have a Word of the Week and it's celebrated and students are awarded for their usage of that word of the week, and we take our words of the week from the Bedrock so that we have a programme there which is shared. So we do try and use that, but I think that could be perhaps built on even further.

Andy: 24:55

Yeah, and what I loved as well just before, when I was asking you about the next six months, is that your first response was almost well, we need to make sure it's embedded and that staff continually have the CPD they need in order to keep going, because ultimately it's the staff.

Andy: 25:11

It lives and dies with the staff, doesn't it? It lives and dies with colleagues and the passion and understanding what this all means and represents. And, as you said before, you're in an area where there is a large work gap, where there's high deprivation, and the work you're doing for that community is just incredible and to be able to play just a small part in that as Bedrock is really inspirational. So thank you both so much for that, and obviously you can continue to reach out to us with anything you need, any projects, any areas of interest, and we'll support you. But I know for a fact, having spoken to a number of schools in recent weeks, that they will really really enjoy listening to what you've just said, because it will give them hope and confidence that they can do what you've done. They can take this blueprint and they can do what you've done as well, and I think that's really hopeful for schools.

Sarah: 26:02

We've been very supported by Bedrock from the very beginning, and I'm thinking now about that when we initially piloted it. We were in constant communication with Bedrock, even with regards to uploading our classes, how we assign words, and no question was sort of too small or was dismissed. We've been really, really supported, and that's enabled us then to work with our colleagues and ensure that they feel confident using the programme as well, whereas now our needs have perhaps changed. So initially it was sort of the actual function of mapping and how to upload our words, whereas now Bedrock are helping us to analyse the data, identify trends, look at our example and the boys that are engaging, females that are engaging, and to look at how that fits with our school improvement priorities. So we feel that even now we're still benefiting from the support of Bedrock as we move forward.

Andy: 26:58

I've only been at the company for a few months and that's something that's been expressed to me in no uncertain terms is that it's about a partnership with schools, and some schools will need what you just described around help with uploads, help with A, b and C, and that's where they're at and that's absolutely fine. Some schools will need something a little bit different, a little bit, you know, data insights. Some schools will need both and, yeah, that's one of the things I love about my job is that I get to do that and support schools with that. So, yeah, and thank you for making time on a Friday afternoon, when it can only be extremely busy for you before a weekend. So thank you both for coming on. I know that people will appreciate it. It's been amazing.

Megan: 27:39

Thank you very much for having us. Thank you.