Teaching and Learning

All staff make an important contribution to the quality of teaching and learning, and ultimately student achievement. Roles and responsibilities are clearly set out in individual job descriptions, however, some key expectations around teaching and learning are set out below:

Achievement Team Leaders - have oversight of student achievement, including attendance andbehaviour. They are responsible for the effective delivery of elements of the PSHCE programme and other aspects of the curriculum. They are the first point of contact for parents/carers.

Classroom teachers - have responsibility for rates of progress and behaviour for learning in their  classroom. All teachers are expected to be prompt and well prepared for each lesson, to teach well and provide timely feedback to students.

Additionally, Welling’s routines for learning should also be followed to aid a productive learning environment and to ensure consistency across all faculties:

The Welling Learning Cycle and Routines for Learning

The Welling Learning Cycle:

This is not a lesson model / cycle. However, we expect that lessons are planned and delivered to a high standard, using the following six principles:

  • Prior Knowledge - Prior knowledge plays an important role in how pupils learn; committing some key facts to their long-term memory is likely to help pupils learn more complex ideas.
  • Explicit Instruction - Effective teachers introduce new material in steps, explicitly linking new ideas to what has been previously studied and learned.
  • Scaffolding - To scaffold effectively, teachers have to figure out the perfect gap between what learners can do on their own, and what learners need additional support to complete beyond the normal instruction given by the teacher.
  • Deliberate Practice - Deliberate practice is a method for improving performance, based on refining specific skills, constant feedback and working at the edge of your abilities.
  • Secure and Consolidate - Providing tasks that support pupils to learn key ideas securely.
  • Checking for Understanding - Throughout the lesson, structure tasks and questions to enable the identification of knowledge gaps and misconceptions. 

Teachers must ensure that there is a time balance between explicit instruction and deliberate practice, and so lessons should be planned with this in mind.

Principle 

What does this look like in the classroom? (‘know how’ statements)

Prior Knowledge

  • Anticipate the role that prior knowledge will play in a lesson or sequence of lessons.

  • Sequence lessons so that pupils secure foundational knowledge before encountering more complex content.

  • Ensure that the teaching includes retrieval and spaced practice to build automatic recall of key knowledge and interleaving of concrete and abstract examples, slowly withdrawing concrete examples, and drawing attention to the underlying structure of problems.

  • Take into account pupils’ prior knowledge when planning how much new information to introduce.

  • Revisit prior knowledge using a variety of strategies such as question & answer, multiple choice, mini whiteboards.

Explicit

Instruction

  • Take into account pupils’ prior knowledge when planning how much new information to introduce.

  • Link what pupils already know to what is being taught (e.g., explaining how new content builds on what is already known).

  • Start expositions at the point of current pupil understanding.

  • Use modelling, explanations, and scaffolds, acknowledging that novices need more structure early in a domain.

  • Narrate thought processes when modelling to make explicit how experts think (e.g., asking questions aloud that pupils should consider when working independently and drawing pupils’ attention to links with prior knowledge)

  • Expose potential pitfalls and explain how to avoid them and identify possible misconceptions.

  • Break complex material into smaller steps (e.g., using partially completed examples to focus pupils on the specific steps).

  • Combine a verbal explanation with a relevant graphical representation of the same concept or process, where appropriate.

  • Use concrete representation for abstract ideas.

  • Make the steps in a process memorable and ensure pupils can recall them (e.g., naming them, developing mnemonics, or linking to memorable stories).

  • Explain how misconceptions develop and share approaches to prevent them forming.

Scaffolding 

  • Break tasks down into constituent components when first setting up independent practice (e.g., using tasks that scaffold pupils through meta-cognitive and procedural processes) and deconstructing this approach.

  • Use modelling, explanations, and scaffolds to support learning.

  • Make the steps in a process memorable and ensure pupils can recall them (e.g., naming them, developing mnemonics, or linking to memorable stories).

  • Narrate thought processes when modelling to make explicit how experts think (e.g., asking questions aloud that pupils should consider when working independently and drawing pupils’ attention to links with prior knowledge).

  • Expose potential pitfalls and explain how to avoid them.

  • Provide scaffolds for pupil discussion to increase the focus and rigour of dialogue.

  • Use concrete representation for abstract ideas.

  • Make effective use of teaching assistants.

  • Reframe questions to provide greater scaffolding or greater stretch.

Deliberate

Practice

  • Plan regular review and practice of key ideas and concepts over time (e.g., through carefully planned use of structured talk activities) and deconstructing this approach.

  • Break tasks down into constituent components when first setting up independent practice (e.g., using tasks that scaffold pupils through meta-cognitive and procedural processes) and deconstructing this approach.

  • Remove scaffolding only when pupils are achieving a high degree of success in applying previously taught material.

  • Provide sufficient opportunity for pupils to consolidate and practise applying new knowledge and skills.

  • Design practice, generation and retrieval tasks that provide just enough support so that pupils experience a high success rate when attempting challenging work.

  • Change groups regularly, avoiding the perception that groups are fixed.

Secure and

Consolidate

  • Plan regular review and practice of key ideas and concepts over time (e.g., through carefully planned use of structured talk activities).

  • Increase challenge with practice and retrieval as knowledge becomes more secure (e.g., by removing scaffolding, lengthening spacing or introducing interacting elements).

  • Provide sufficient opportunity for pupils to consolidate and practise applying new knowledge and skills.

  • Providing tasks that support pupils to learn key ideas securely (e.g., quizzing pupils)

  • Using retrieval and spaced practice to build automatic recall of key knowledge.

Checking for

Understanding

  • Structure tasks and questions to enable the identification of knowledge gaps and misconceptions.

  • Prioritise the highlighting of errors related to misunderstanding against success criteria.

  • Consider carefully whether intervening within lessons with individuals and small groups would be more efficient and effective than planning different lessons for different groups.

  • Draw conclusions about what pupils have learned by looking at patterns of performance over a number of assessments.

  • Prompt pupils to elaborate when responding to questioning to check that a correct answer stems from a secure understanding.

  • Monitor pupil work during lessons, including checking for misconceptions.
 

Routines for Learning:

The ‘Knowledge Retrieval’ activity is displayed/set out and materials for the lesson are on students’ desks.

Meet and Greet

The teacher meets students at the door to the classroom so the entry and space immediately outside the classroom can be managed. As students enter, their uniform is checked. Those wearing it well are praised. Any anomalies are picked up discreetly and if possible using non-verbal signals, for example, putting a tie back on that has been in their pocket.

  • All blazers should be on (unless a school decision has been made due to hot weather)
  • No trainers
  • Shirts tucked in
  • Coats off and bags on the floor not on desks.
  • Planners and equipment on the desks.

Developing relationships and supporting students to regulate are key to embedding our routines to learning. If students fail to comply with positive requests and instructions during the entry and meet and greet stages they should be given every chance to get it right i.e instructions repeated and/or asked to come in again with appropriate warnings.

Knowledge Retrieval Activity

This should be completed in silence while the teacher takes the register/deals with any matters that have arisen. The knowledge retrieval must reinforce prior learning/ introduce lesson topics or have a literacy focus appropriate to the learning objective i.e. key terminology that will be used. The Welling first slide must be used.

  • Self-starting/managed
  • Written or visible outcome
  • Suitably challenging – experience success immediately
  • Positive start

Lesson Closure

Students are instructed when to begin to pack away and then stand behind their chairs. At this point, the teacher should use the opportunity to do any of the following:

  • Publically celebrate any key achievements made by the class/ individuals
  • Do a high speed Q and A to reinforce learning or to address anything that has arisen during the plenary activities
  • Model and re-explain homework task
  • Check any misunderstandings have been rectified

The teacher moves to the doorway and invites students to leave in rows/groups. The dismissal should include a positive comment to students as they leave and uniform should be checked on exit. It is important to note that emails are unlikely to be seen whilst lessons are taking place. Teacher timetables can be checked on Arbor to see if a teacher has a non-contact period. 

CPD sessions across the year will outline the expectations for teaching and learning, assessment, marking and feedback. In addition, the observation cycle will be used to monitor, evaluate and support teachers across the academic year and support the PM cycle. Any CPD requests can be made through line managers. Outside training courses attended are expected to be evaluated and all relevant information disseminated to teams, and where appropriate across the school.

Marking Assessment Policy