Learning to Achieve

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 Teaching & Learning Cycle

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:

1. Contextualising – This means that learning is put into a wider context, so that students can develop their knowledge. This is the part of the lesson where previous knowledge is revisited, where memory and understanding are checked, and where any new learning is carefully introduced and explained. This might be done through quizzing, mini whiteboard activities or key word recall. 
2. Modelling – This is the point in the lesson where the teacher will make explicit for students exactly what they are aiming to produce. This might involve talking through an example piece of writing, highlighting a thought process, or demonstrating a new skill. 
3. Scaffolding – During this phase of the lesson, there may be opportunities for collaborative learning, so that students can work together to build confidence when approaching unfamiliar tasks. Teachers may provide guidance, such sentence starters or a writing frame, to support and guide first attempts. There may also be frequent feedback to ensure clear progress towards the end goal. 
   
4. Independence – By the end of the lesson, the ideal scenario is that students have grasped the new learning and are able to apply it unaided. This part of the lesson will consist of independent practice to work towards the new skill becoming automatic, so that learning is in depth, rather than superficial. 
   

The Teaching and Learning Cycle then begins again. Throughout, its success is also dependent on two key factors:

• Academic Literacy is crucial. We believe that by giving our students the ability to read and decode language, to write coherently and professionally, and to speak articulately and confidently, we are giving them the best tools to function successfully, both in school and beyond.
• Behaviour supports learning, and we believe that having the right attitude will lead to greater success. We want our students to be resilient and self-disciplined, logical and proactive, empathetic and creative, focused and reflective.

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.

Teaching Calculations Procedure

Aims:

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