Bedrock Talks from Bedrock Learning
Welcome to Bedrock Talks, a podcast from the team at Bedrock Learning that delves deep into the heart of literacy in education. Hosted by the insightful and experienced educator Andy Sammons, this podcast stands as a beacon for anyone passionate about enhancing literacy skills and understanding its pivotal role in education.
Each episode is a journey into the world of literacy education. Andy brings together a diverse array of voices from across the education sector, from seasoned teachers to renowned academics, policy makers to literacy advocates. All of our guests share a common goal: to explore and expand the horizons of literacy education.
We go beyond surface-level conversations. Our discussions are in-depth, nuanced, and filled with insights that only years of experience and expertise can bring. We tackle a wide range of topics, from innovative teaching methods to the latest research in literacy, the impact of technology on reading and writing, to strategies for engaging diverse learners. Our aim is to provide a platform where the complexities of literacy are unpacked and understood in a way that is both accessible and enlightening.
Join Andy and his guests as they illuminate the multifaceted world of literacy. Subscribe to Bedrock Talks and be part of a community that believes in the transformative power of literacy. Together, let's shape a more literate, informed, and connected world.
Bedrock Talks from Bedrock Learning
20. Literacy in the library: innovative reading strategies with Val Dewhurst
Discover how to ignite a passion for reading and learning in your students with insights from Val Dewhurst, the dynamic Head of Library and joint Bedrock Learning lead at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School (Quags).
In our latest episode, Val speak to us about the library as the centrepiece of literacy in a school, as well as a place of safety and celebration for young people to come and enjoy reading.
Hi everyone and welcome to Bedrock Talks, our new kind of revamped podcast, if you like, we're now having. We've got a couple of different avenues really. Now we have our 30-minute talks with really interesting people from around the education and Bedrock community, but we've also got our 10 minute micropods where we've got where we're going to be having subject experts speaking in kind of bike-sized chunks about really interesting um, very mini cpd um type thing. You know subject specific we're thinking and that they'll be coming very soon.
Speaker 1:Um, today we have val juhurst, who is, I have to say, a bit of a rock star in my eyes. Um, her name cropped up very early, uh, very early days in my um, in my time at bedrock, as someone who's just a really big advocate for everything that we stand for. And when I dug a little bit deeper and I heard her name being mentioned by people as far as samui um, in terms of you know people who she worked with and and colleagues around the world, if I may enough, it was just really clear to see that it wasn't just that val was a um an advocate for bedrock, but what was really clear to me is that her implementation and her ideas around what bedrock represents, but how that translates for the people experience was really, really something that we needed to share across the community. Um, so thank you so much for coming, val, today, and again for the four millionth time today.
Speaker 1:We've had a number of re-records this morning and full starts. I feel like we're on to a winner now. So thank you so much for coming on, val. I massively appreciate it. Could you, could we just start by getting a sense of your current role in school and just give us a sense of of who you are and and, uh, you know, and the context you're working in?
Speaker 2:Hi Andy, thanks again for having me. Yeah, so I'm the school librarian here at Queen Elizabeth Grammar School, also known as Quags, blackburn. I've got a nice title of Head of Library 2 and also a joint lead for Bedrock Learning. So quite a few titles there, pretty impressive school, quite a popular school, always subscribed. We have a sixth form, we have our primary connected also and, yeah, so lots of things going on here at Queggs in Blackburn.
Speaker 1:And you know, you're obviously the librarian You've mentioned. You're the co-Bedrock lead. I don't think Bedrock works in a library if it's just a place for pupils to just come and do bedrock and then that's it. You know, um, what is it that you see as the as the role, as your role in the school, to support reading. You know, what is it that you do as a librarian? How do you make that so such a successful role?
Speaker 2:I think with bedrock learning, um, making it exciting. So when pupils are coming along to do their um, the little tasks on the computer, they know there's going to be something at the end. There's going to be a reward, usually a credit, and there's going to be lots of praise. And also it's just making time available for the pupils. So you know, opening up every lunchtime, after school, early morning, each break time, there's always lots of opportunities for them to come up and complete the bedrock learning so it's.
Speaker 1:I suppose it's about the culture around access to to the machines as well. And, and how do you find the pupils respond to that in terms of are they respectful of the machines? Do you have to kind of monitor them in that time? You know what, what, what goes on in that period of time to make it successful for the pupils to come and do it. Do you think Is there anything that you do that makes that particularly successful?
Speaker 2:Well, we are lucky, we're fortunate enough to have timetabled library lessons with year seven, eight and nine, so every two weeks they do come up and they're doing some quiet reading and they're also taking part in bedrock. But also as well, it's having that link with their english teacher, um, and together homework set to bedrock.
Speaker 1:so it's, it's a very big thing here really, um, but it's just having a nice place, a nice setting for them to to be able to come and complete that work well, it's funny as an adult sometimes when, when my kids are climbing the walls at home and I just need some peace and quiet, I need to get out on my own. Um, sometimes I deliberately take myself over to costa or to starbucks to to read the paper, and it's just a nice environment within which to enjoy that media, with which to enjoy that reading. And I think that sounds a little bit like what you're doing in the library as well, making it a nice place for reading for bedrock. And you mentioned something before about you kind of went past it quite quickly about the link with the teacher. Um, what does that look like? How do you liaise and support your teachers with this? You know, I think that's a really important thing to ask as well.
Speaker 2:So the connection, the link, it's a very strong link actually. The link with our English faculty means that when the timetabled lessons happen, the English teacher does come up to support. So there's lots of links, lots of good, strong links. I attend the faculty meetings for English, so anything that needs to be discussed about bedrock learning, that's a great opportunity to get that in as well. But I just think, because the English teachers see what I do and I see what they do, we join together. We're very, very strong at promoting bedrock and they know that if the children come up here they've got that nice quiet space to get on with it. The children know that I will feed that back to their English teacher. So it just works. It just works. It's probably the best thing that we've ever brought in. Actually.
Speaker 1:Again. I was in a school this week and I said a number of times you know I was laughing at myself but culture, each strategy for breakfast, and I know that's quite a big lot. You know a well-known saying, but it certainly sounds that the pupils are now used to getting that positive reinforcement between you and the teacher coming into the library and being able to have a space to complete it. And I think we often talk to schools and I know people listening. I know that not every school will have the structure to be able to you know, book bedrock time in a might not have computers in their library, for example, they might not be able to bake it into their curriculum like that. But I think, even so, creating a space in the school where they can go and and someone can can watch them or oversee access to bedrock, so it doesn't just become you've not done your bedrock and it might not be that they have. They may not have a computer at home, they might not have access to technology, and I think it's about the school creating those opportunities where possible. I think there's something, there's something else going on there which is which is great.
Speaker 1:Um, if we were before, before going any further about your kind of implementation. Um, your, your journey and your introduction to bedrock was a really interesting one. I thought, um, when I spoke to our mutual friend, vicky dodd, who's up, who I'm a massive fan of as well. Um, what, what, what do you think Bedrock has done for your learners? I mean, you know, I know you've had other ed tech in the school before, but what do you think Bedrock has done and what's made you such a big advocate for Bedrock?
Speaker 2:do you think yeah, I think personally for our students it's pushed them that little bit more into wanting to read the books that we've got in the library. So obviously they're doing lots of reading when they're completing Bedrock and I think I personally think that's given them a lot more confidence to go out there and actually look around what we've got in the library and start borrowing, and I really do think that's bedrock that's really interesting.
Speaker 1:So you feel like it's feeding into the reading culture in your school. It's, I definitely do, yes. Finally, wow, have you got any examples of that? Is there any particular pupils that you can think of that have done that, then?
Speaker 2:quite a few in year seven because they're excited by bedrock. When they start to use it anyway, it's a whole new program for them and just these short snippets that they're reading when they're completing the exercises on bedrock. You know they're coming to me saying we read this on bedrock. Is there a book to accompany this? Is there, is there something else I could read around this subject?
Speaker 1:um, but mainly with year seven and some year eights, I must admit as well that's really interesting and and that and I and I'll openly admit that when I bought Bedrock initially into my setting, I wanted it as a homework solution for us. That's what I wanted it as, and something that was going to give my pupils access to really rich fiction and non-fiction. But something that I started to see in my learners was that they were starting to use, you know, more ambitious vocabulary. But one thing we never quite tapped and I wish we had was what you've just said there about, you know, having those conversations. But we've just read this and, you know, is there more, more of this genre that we can pick up on? Is there more that we do?
Speaker 1:Because that's the thing with Bedrock, I feel, is that it's a range of really enriching fiction and non-fiction material, and I think that's what makes it special is that even if you don't enjoy something inside the platform which can happen of course people might not enjoy what they've read. You know that's it's not. They're not going to stay inside that topic for a lot, you know, for too long. They're going to read something else that is going to be interesting. They're going to read something else which is, which which may pique their interest and things which are culturally enriching as well, I think. And when it comes to the vocabulary side and kind of looking at the knowledge trends, is there much? Have you done much of that in this in the school in terms of looking at the words that they're learning and bringing those into lessons, for example?
Speaker 2:Yeah so this is ongoing really, but we are getting there. I think I've helped by having a word wall in the library but also a word wall on the English corridor.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So all the new words that they discover weekly they've been displayed and that causes conversation, that raises lots of conversations in their english lessons. Um, you know, people might walk past the display on the english corridor and see one of the new words, bring it back into their english lesson and it's. You know, there's lots of discussions going on there and I think that's helped a lot. But it is a slow process that part, but I think we'll get there we really will.
Speaker 1:I think it is a slow process that part, and it was always something that I wished we'd gone further with in my school. Could you just unpick for me what that word wall looks like and and and where, where you go to source the words and what? What words you pick? Because I'm imagining, if you do the knowledge trends for a whole year group, that's huge. So how, how do you go about selecting the words on that word wall?
Speaker 2:So the words which appear on the social media for Bedrock. So, yeah, I fell in love with that. The word of the week and that would be, yes, that would weekly. That would be sent to the English faculty. So weekly I send some updates and there's always lots of bedrock learning updates and I would always include that, um, the new word, and I would then print that off because they're lovely, colorful images from bedrock learning themselves and they would be displayed on the word wall and because the definitions there with the word as well, um, you, you would, at break time you'd see quite a few again. You know lots of you seven and eight would be crowded around that display looking at the new words. Some would be waiting for it to arrive and then, you know, helping themselves to the definition. Yeah, so just lots of little chatters going on there.
Speaker 1:That's really interesting. So something I did when I was at my school is I came up with kind of 30 really high, high yield, if you like, tier two words that would be used across all of our literature texts and we would have them displayed around. We would have them displayed around and I would also make sure that they they became part of the fabric of all of our lessons, cause I knew there would be something that the pupils could actually take from the walls and then use, and I think that's that there's a big, there's, I mean, I know there's a wide, there's a lot, there's a. You know, displays are a hotly debated topic, aren't they? For me, should be that they need to be useful. Yeah, it needs to serve a purpose, you know, not curled up at the edges, rotting in the corner somewhere, but it needs to be something that appears. What you've just said, they're a live word but where the pupils can go into their lesson feeling a bit more confident, or and and, by the way, I include, sometimes pupils work up on the wall that that's got a function of, of pride and praise and things like that. So that's.
Speaker 1:But I think something that you're doing and maybe, maybe, I hope you don't underestimate is is putting the time aside to make that wall and and to be able to to update it and keep it front and center, because that's what implementation is, isn't it?
Speaker 1:It's about sustaining what you're doing and keeping it front and center. I do wonder as well well, if we were to go into um, the knowledge trends, whether there'll be other other ways of putting words up as well that were kind of linked to what your learners were struggling with or had just learned in the system platform as well, that might be quite a nice way to do it. Actually, I think as well. I really wanted to, as part of this, really dig into because there will be lots of librarians, there'll be lots of colleagues listening to this, who, who will be attracted to listen to this because they're just like you and they're running with it from from from a library and they need something to help them, you know, get on their way with this. So you mentioned before about competitions and things that you've done to incentivize, and not just for prizes, for awarding what you want to see, but more embedding that culture of celebration around reading and language learning. What do those competitions look like for your school?
Speaker 2:So at the end of each term we always award the pupil who's made the most progress. They receive lots of little treats and the certificate and we have an end of term assembly, so the head teacher hands out those awards, so they're recognised right across the school and I just think that's really important because they're going up to receive an award and they've worked really hard to get there. So that's Turnly and. And then something new which I'm hoping well it is going through.
Speaker 2:So at the end of this year, which is only a few weeks off for us, and I'm going to be doing a word of the week, word hunt. So it's a kind of treasure hunt in the library and it's just for year seven, and I'm going to be using all the words of the week which I've had displayed on the boards and I'm going to be using all the words of the week which I've had displayed on the boards and they're going to be dotted around the library, not with the definition this time, just the word, and the pupils have to find the words and then find the definition by using our reference books, would you believe it? So we won't be going on to Google, so to Googling words, we're going to be using the print copies of the books.
Speaker 1:This is more evidence of kind of using Bedrock to dovetail with other aspects of what's going on in the library and what pupils will need to reference, because I think that's a really important part is that Bedrock doesn't replace books.
Speaker 1:It was never intended for that.
Speaker 1:It's intended to, you know, increase access to books and increase familiarity with those, the sort of mechanism that you're talking about there. And I think the other thing you touched on that I don't I'm not sure if you realize how rare this is that I think to to really be clear on the data and reporting that we have. So you can reward points, can't you? You can reward the number of points that someone has learned, gained, earned in the last week, but, as you say, you can also reward attainment who's who's, who's made the most progress in the last term, or whatever. You can reward time spent.
Speaker 1:There's lots of things that you can really choose to emphasize in your celebration of um, of reading, reading and Bedrock as part of your reading agenda, and that's really really important thing to say. If we could just go back a bit to when you first brought Bedrock into your setting, what, on reflection, would you give in terms of advice to other colleagues in a situation possibly over the next few months, moving into September as well, who are implementing Bedrock, you know. If you could, you know, share the lessons that you've learned around how you've made this work in your setting, particularly at the start, what would you say?
Speaker 2:I think, well, right from the very start, you want, you need to be involved, you need to be a joint lead of Bedrock. You are actually the librarian, actually is the one using it mostly, setting it up, introducing it to the students.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So you do definitely need to be a joint lead and you need to have at least half-term, mid-term meetings with whoever's working with you. It's usually the English faculty. You need to take it slowly, don't rush into it, but also make really good use of the support that Bedrock Learning offer, because they are absolutely amazing. A quick email, you know, and you've got an instant reply. There's no worries, there's nothing to worry about there. The support I've had is just unbelievable and I'm really, really grateful for that. Otherwise, I don't think if I'd have had that support, I might not be in the position that I am now well, just just to say there.
Speaker 1:But you said you mentioned earlier that you go into the English faculty meetings and I think that's a really important function for a librarian as well, so that you are part of the English faculty. I know literacy is every subject, but you are part of it could be the humanities or the history of the geography faculty that are delivering Bedrock, but I think for you to be part of that and be able to give updates on this really important thing that you're doing, keeps it as part of the agenda, right, that's really important. It you're doing. Keeps it as part of the agenda, right, that's really important it is um, but also as well.
Speaker 2:I think you need to make it fun for the children yeah you don't want to. You know you're using it yourself daily. I use it every single day. Um, you don't want it to become a chore. You want it to be fresh, alive. You want to be fun for the children. You want the children to be able to just think. Well, you know the library's open at break Dinner time. Today, I think I'll pop up and do some bedrock, and because it's so quick to do as well, it doesn't become a burden on them.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, keeping it exciting and keeping it fresh.
Speaker 1:So you mentioned as well about those meetings that you have with the co-lead. What do they look like? What are you discussing in those meetings?
Speaker 2:We're mainly discussing usage of it, because that's the only concern about having any kind of programme put in the school. You want to make sure that the children are still using it and it's coming from all angles. We're all telling them that they need to use it. It's been set as homework, but also it's also monitoring progress as well. Um and bedrock again. All the admin side of it is absolutely amazing. They've made it so easy to do. I don't feel it's any kind of chore just accessing all that data. It's really there in place instantly. So, yeah, so we do talk a lot about progress. You know who's sort of slacking off, who's not using it as much as they should be. We can look at the timings how much time they've spent on it when they've actually been using Bedrock in school out of school. So all that is. You know we really have some good discussions about that.
Speaker 1:I think one. I don't know about you, but one report that I always recommend to lead is the class engagement report, because that will give you that bird's eye view for every class that's in the system what percentage of pupils have got their 20, their 10 to 20 and they're under 10 and zero points. And you get a really quick bird's eye view of who's done what. And then you and again, it's it's.
Speaker 1:I always emphasize this it's not about blaming and saying you've not done this, you've not done that as a teacher, but it's about okay, which learners are struggling to access this. What can we do to support? Because we know that a teacher beyond you know make sure you do your bedrock or taking a child to the library or an it room to do it. They've got very limited control over what a child chooses to do in their own time. So I think it's about supporting the teacher to make that happen as well, isn't it? I think it's a really important thing to know that it's something you're in it together. I think that's a really important thing to to sort of stress as well that it's a really supportive culture that it sounds like you've got going on there as well.
Speaker 2:Definitely. I think as well for me when I run the library lessons. At the start of each library lesson I'm up there giving out little updates and my news and bedrock's always at the top of my list. I'm always reminding them to do it and how we do it and the times that we've got to do it, at times available, and it's just speaking about it daily. So it's just become really embedded in what we do that's, that's impressive and uh.
Speaker 1:So thank you so much for your time this morning. Uh, despite the technical issues that we've had to experience before, we've been able to get on and record this. Um but, val, thank you for on behalf of your pupils, on behalf behalf of Bedrock, thank you for everything you're doing and continue to do. We love you at Bedrock. You're known by everyone and we think you're fab. So, yeah, thank you for everything you're doing and hopefully we can have you on again next year, where we can maybe see where you take the implementation next and see what else you're doing. But on behalf of everyone, thank you so much and thank you for your time this morning. Thanks very much, andy, it's been a real pleasure. Thank you, thanks everyone and make sure you like subscribe and all that, all that jazz to the pod, because it really helps us continue this really successful adventure that we didn't think we were going to be doing this year, but it's been great, great adventure and we want to make sure we can keep doing it. Thanks everyone.
