The Sprowston Community Academy curriculum aims to enable students to become better learners and improve the outcomes they achieve through four key Learning Habits. The subjects offered and lessons provided have clear links to these habits which the school feels are crucial for students during their time at school and into the world of work.
Make Decisions
Make Links
Ask Questions
Imagine
Create
Memorise
Summarise
Be Logical
Reason
Apply
Practise
Organise
Monitor
Manage Time
Question
Refine
Develop
Improve
Reflect
Responsibility
Focus
Engagement
Perserverance
Proactivity
Concentration
Resilience
Involvement
Effort
Self-Discipline
Challenge
Co-operate
Feedback
Listen
Contribute
Share Ideas
Teamwork
Collaborate
Manage
Respond
Empathise
This habit directly links to the need for students to think. Being able to complete work and remember it is not often not enough, and therefore the need to practice applying new knowledge and skills, making links and thinking flexibly are crucial for students to maximise their achievement. Improving this area will be through activities such as mind maps, creative activities, starter activities in lessons, investigations and questioning for example.
As students move through the school, the academic demands increase and students need to have developed good habits in terms of work ethic, being disciplined in their studies and striving to improve and be the best they can be. Learning hard refers to the characteristics we want students to develop so that they are persistent, work on problems without giving up, overcoming problems and being resilient. The opportunities for this area include assessments, low stake quizzes, mock/end of year exams, using knowledge organisers and other home learning opportunities and the links to the Attitude to Learning scores that are reported on at tracking points and sent home.
This habit refers to the need for students to manage their learning and use each task and lesson activity as a chance to improve, but also reflect and learn from any setbacks. This habit looks to help students with skills in managing and talking responsibility themselves which are key to any career and becoming employable. The activities offered here include green pen editing work following feedback, the need to plan longer pieces of work or revision timetables, peer and self-assessment, and reflecting on our learning using Personal Learning Checklists for subjects.
The final learning habit refers to collaboration between students and their peers, as well as the teachers and other adults within our school. Being able to collaborate and be a team player is crucial and this may take the form of responding to feedback, offering feedback to peers or learning through others by listening to their ideas or being positively involved in discussions.
Our Teaching and Learning ethos is at the heart of our school, and underpins everything we do. We are dedicated to creating a culture which prepares students to achieve the best possible outcomes in examinations, as well as developing well-rounded individuals who are able to flourish in a rapidly changing world.
Our Teaching and Learning approach is based on the best research about what works. In September 2019, we introduced ‘The Teaching and Learning Cycle’ as a structure around which all lessons are built. It divides learning into the following four phases:
The Teaching and Learning Cycle then begins again. Throughout, its success is also dependent on two key factors:
Ultimately, we are endeavouring to cultivate young people who are capable, self-confident and resourceful, and who are well-equipped to face the challenges of the future beyond school.
The aim of
this calculations procedure is to ensure as far as possible that students’
experiences of calculations in different teachers’ classrooms are as consistent
as possible, to avoid any unnecessary confusion and to ensure that all teachers
are aware of what is and is not considered acceptable when modelling
mathematical calculations on the board.
When teachers model calculations on the whiteboard or in students’ books
they are setting an example with the method they use, and also, possibly more
importantly with the clarity of their layout, as many students lose marks and
make mistakes through bad use of space and poor layout of their work.
Over the past few years there has been a very significant change in the methods of calculation used by the Year 7 students joining the school, due to the change in the style of national assessments and the end of Key Stage 2. Pupils now use formal written algorithms much more readily, and pictorial representations such as number lines for addition and subtraction and grid method for multiplication are far less commonplace than in recent years. It is therefore necessary for our faculty to reflect on what the way we can best meet the needs of our students.
Finally, the aim of this procedure is not to force learners to change the way they calculate to the one we prefer; if they are able to obtain a correct answer reasonably efficiently they should be encouraged to continue to use the same method and become more fluent in that method and use it to solve problems in various, and increasingly challenging contexts.
SCA Teaching Calculations Procedure