School profile
Bristol Technology and Engineering (BTE) Academy is a 14−19 University Technical College (UTC). The Academy is a Centre of Excellence for teaching STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths. Students join the academy at the start of Year 10 from a very wide range of secondary schools in the west of England (currently more than 50), mainly from Bristol and South Gloucestershire.
The academy is sponsored by the University of the West of England and GKN Aerospace. It also receives significant support from Airbus, Rolls Royce and, more recently, the Royal Navy.
What did we do?
In December 2017, we visited the school to complete a diagnostic review. Prior to the diagnostic day we had analysed exam specifications used by the school and the requirements for these examinations in terms of written communication. On the day we completed a work scrutiny across Science, Technology, Engineering and English to compare attainment, teaching strategies and pupil progress in effective written communication. We also met with teachers from all of these subjects to discuss their confidence and experience in teaching the literacy requirements of their subjects and to outline what support would be the most useful for the staff involved. This diagnostic day allowed us to identify priority areas for development that would serve as success criteria for impact of the project.
- Pupils were not attempting longer 6-10 mark exam questions
- Pupils were able to write sustained, detailed, technical responses in English, this was not being replicated in other subjects
- Pupils were failing to evaluate their work effectively in Design Tech
- Staff reported pupils had good subject knowledge & oral communication
Day 2 was INSET for all staff. We provided a full day of training which showed staff which Literacy skills were required by their subject, what progress in those skills looked like, what teaching strategies to use to develop those skills and what it would look like when those skills were fully acquired by pupils. We also introduced staff to key research relevant to the development of written communication. Staff also had the opportunity to work as departments to identify and begin planning for some trials of the teaching strategies from the training, to be used with their pupils over the coming term.
In the Spring term, we returned to the Academy and completed 2 days of individual and small group coaching sessions with teachers from Science, Engineering and Design Tech. The purpose of these sessions was to discuss with staff how their trials had gone, how pupils had responded and what they might do next to improve progress. During these sessions, staff had the opportunity to bring and discuss pupil work including coursework and mock examination responses. Each session also included joint collaborative planning to build on the progress pupils were making in improving their written communication.