Over the past few months, teachers from Royal High Bath have welcomed internationally recognised researchers into school, hosted education professionals from across the South West and shared their own classroom research at the University of Bath.

What made these events particularly significant was that many of the presenters were Royal High teachers themselves, sharing classroom-based research developed through two years of professional learning and collaboration.

Together, the events highlighted the school's growing whole-school approach to literacy, helping teachers make the language of learning more explicit across every subject.

Whether writing a scientific explanation, evaluating a philosophical argument or analysing a historical source, every subject has its own ways of thinking, communicating and constructing knowledge. By making these expectations more explicit, teachers are helping students engage more confidently with increasingly challenging ideas.

This work has grown through Royal High's partnership with the University of Bath as part of the British Academic Written English Secondary School (BAWESS) project. Led by Head of International Students Natalie Cheers, who is also a consultant on the project and an accredited trainer for Lexis Education's Teaching English in Mainstream Classrooms (TEMC) programme, teachers from across the school have completed extensive professional learning and undertaken action research within their own subjects. Each cohort completed 23 hours of professional learning, exploring how language can be taught more explicitly to improve learning across the curriculum.

The first event of a particularly busy fortnight came during the University's BAWESS research week, when Royal High hosted a research lunch bringing together visiting academics and researchers with teachers preparing to present their own action research. The opportunity to discuss projects with leading experts before presenting them publicly reflected the strength of the partnership between the school and the University and provided valuable feedback ahead of the following week's presentations.

Royal High then hosted the annual TEFLIS conference, welcoming 56 EAL leaders and practitioners from across the South West and beyond. Delegates heard an inspiring keynote from Professor Meg Gebhard before choosing from seven parallel workshops delivered by Royal High teachers.

The workshops showcased how colleagues have embedded their professional learning into subjects including Physics, Religion & Philosophy, SEND, library provision and whole-school teaching and learning. Having spent the year investigating new approaches through classroom-based research, teachers shared practical strategies, reflected on their findings and discussed the impact on students in their classrooms.

The day concluded with an expert panel featuring John Polias, Professor Gail Forey, Professor Meg Gebhard, Dr Rob Sharples and Helen Handford, exploring how schools can develop coherent approaches to literacy across the curriculum. The school is also grateful to Heddle Education for sponsoring the event.

Just two days later, Royal High colleagues contributed three presentations at the third BAWESS Disciplinary Literacy Symposium at the University of Bath.

Natalie Cheers, Deputy Head Academic Hadrian Briggs and SENDCo Ali Parr shared how the school's professional learning journey has developed into a whole-school approach to literacy, informing a new literacy policy, revisions to the teaching and learning framework and a shared language for discussing learning across departments.

Craig Devlin and Andy Leather presented how they have redesigned the Key Stage 3 Physics curriculum to make the language of scientific explanation more explicit, while Emma Bridgman and Anna Jenkin explored how appraisal theory is helping GCSE Religion & Philosophy students develop more sophisticated evaluative writing.

Royal High also contributed to a workshop led by Professor Helen Handford and Professor Gail Forey, exploring how the Teaching and Learning Cycle can strengthen learning across a range of educational contexts.

Reflecting on the school's contribution, Professor Gail Forey described Royal High as "fostering reflective, collegial, informed teachers who have a positive impact on learners and can demonstrate this through evidence they've collected in their classrooms."

Craig Devlin, Teacher of Physics, reflected on the impact of the work:

"This professional learning has completely changed how we think about language in Physics. We've embedded these ideas throughout our curriculum and our everyday teaching, and it's been incredibly rewarding to share that journey with colleagues from other schools and university researchers. Most importantly, we've seen students becoming much more confident in communicating their scientific thinking."

Head Heidi-Jane Boyes added:

"Hearing what has been shared over the past fortnight has been both inspiring and affirming. I am incredibly proud of our staff for the generosity with which they learn from one another, share their expertise and continue to grow as professionals. That culture of collaboration and continual learning is something special, and it makes a real difference for every student in our care."