Case studies

Key Stage Strategy 3 and other initiatives

How the KS3 National Pilot links intothe school's own priorities

Julia Morrison, senior inspector for Gateshead LEA and Key Stage 3 strategy manager, describes how Lord Lawson of Beamish School is taking a whole-school holistic view of the Pilot and how it works with other initiatives.

Lord Lawson of Beamish School is a mixed 11-18 comprehensive with specialist Arts College status, with 1,436 pupils currently on roll. It is a high-performing school at Key Stage 4, but is less consistent at Key Stage 3.

The school has a long tradition of excellent liaison across Key Stages 2 and 3. For instance, a number of joint Inset days have taken place with the school's feeder primaries. The staff had already embarked on a whole-school literacy project, and had taken part in a series of whole-staff training sessions. These helped identify cross-curricular literacy for departmental action plans.

The senior management team welcomed the Key Stage 3 Pilot, seeing it as an opportunity to address the variations at Key Stage 3, and looking forward to subsequent further improvement at Key Stage 4 and post-16.