CovenantChristianSchool

Teaching and Learning Policy

Related policies – Assessment, Behaviour and Discipline

Introduction

Being a Christian school, we first review our teaching by looking at our role model, Jesus. During his time on Earth he was recognised as an exceptional teacher. In the gospels he is recognised as a Rabbi, the Jewish word for teacher, and we are told his listeners held him in awe because he taught with authority.

Jesus uses a wide variety of methods. Sometimes his message is delivered as a monologue but more often he uses dialogue. This ensures his listeners are engaged. He starts with what is familiar to his students. As Roy Pitcher has pointed out in his book, Jesus a Master Teacher, Jesus’ “use of everyday events, visual symbols and kinaesthetic experiences, typified his use of concrete evidence to lead people on to abstract ideas”. His strategy was to employ “frequent encouragement by word and action and a constant sense of acceptance” within a “secure and trusting relationship”. Throughout he had “clear goals and an appropriate long-term strategy” aiming to bring hope and aspiration to his students.

For training, Jesus “provided a broad range of activities in scope and content”. His disciples took on direct experiences in different settings and with different people”. They were made aware of progress and expected to reach certain standards.

Behind all this Jesus understood that it was only the spiritual that could integrate their learning and enable them to make sense of life.

We note that although Jesus sometimes spoke to large crowds, his normal class size was twelve. Except for events where it is appropriate to join classes, our maximum class size will be ten and normally the average size will be no more than six.

All these points are borne in mind in our teaching and learning policy.

Overall Aims

It is our intention that children should enjoy, appreciate and take responsibility for their experience of learning while they are at CovenantChristianSchool. At the same time their education must prepare them to be everything that God has called them to be.

This includes

  • their spiritual development; to love God with all their heart, mind, soul and spirit and to understand life from a biblical worldview
  • their moral development; to have a Godly character
  • their personal development; we want them to become confident, conscientious, diligent and resourceful people
  • their social development; we want them to be caring,respectful, friendly and sociable and able to work co-operatively and to understand those with views and values very different from their own
  • their academic development; we want them to be able to master the basic skills of language and number and to use the gifts God has given them to the full, to learn to think for themselves and to be able to solve problems
  • their physical development; we want our pupils to be fit and learn how to live healthy lives

In meeting these aims our students will be equipped to live and be good citizens in the world they find themselves.

Teaching

Being a parents’ cooperative we expect parents to take part in every aspect of the school, including teaching. For this they are supported by those who are experienced teachers or who have had specific teacher training.

In order to fulfil the aims of this policy and meet our aspirations for the pupils, teachers should

  • model Christ in their behaviour, living in a godly manner at all times, whether with other members of the school, pupils, teachers and parents or in their personal lives. See Staff Code of Conduct for more information.
  • establish and maintain excellent relations with their pupils by behaving ina considerate, caring and respectful attitude to them, encouraging them whenever possible. All teachers/adults working with children are expected to follow the guidelines set out in the Behaviour and Discipline policy.
  • manage their classes well, maintaining a calm and positive environment conducive to good behaviour but to implement the sanctions of the Behaviour and Discipline policy when appropriate
  • complete their medium term planning and weekly/individual lesson planning in conjunction with other staff thoroughly and creatively, using differentiation where necessary; giving students every opportunity to extend their knowledge, skills and understanding according to their individual gifting
  • construct all medium term planning with clear targets for the children that are both attainable and aspirational and have clear steps and success criteria to monitor how children are going to achieve those targets
  • deliver their lessons with enthusiasm and clarity making sure children understand lesson objectives and instructions
  • manage their classrooms so that they are attractive and informative and keep all displays up to date with relevant topics for children to actively use in the lessons
  • use formative and summative assessment to inform targets and lesson planning
  • understand how the biblical worldview impacts every area of the curriculum
  • maintain good communications and good relations with parents and make themselves available to parents regularly to meet and discuss children’s progress. Teachers should also complete coherent, written reports of the children’s progress twice a year.
  • ensure that pupil’s progress and assessment results are updated regularly onto the school’s online tracking system ‘Insight’ and make adjustments to planning accordingly
  • make effective use of technology within lessons, either to present new information or to make a record of children’s work. Technology should serve to enhance children’s learning and better inform assessment
  • prepare thoroughly for each lesson and ensure that all resources are collected before the lesson begins
  • adhere to the timetable of lessons, including adhering to timings of individual lessons, unless prior discussion has taken place to make alternative arrangements

Resources

The Management committee should

  • ensure the school site is safe and suitable for teaching and learning by completing weekly checks of the sight and filling in and signing the checklist
  • ensure that teachers have the necessary resources and training to be effective and give the children a wide experience
  • monitor the overall progress of the pupils and report on this to the parents
  • ensure the effectiveness of the teaching staff is monitored through termly classroom observations and reviews
  • review the effectiveness of the teachers and implement changes where necessary such as booking staff onto training courses or monitoring staff more closely through mentorship

Learning

While teachers at CovenantChristianSchool are expected to meet all of the above standards, pupils are also expected to engage in their lessons, complete all homework tasks set and show diligence and commitment to their own education. Children are encouraged to take pride in their work and complete all work to the best of their ability. They are challenged to apply themselves to all tasks, not simply the ones they find easier, and to work both independently and collaboratively.

To best support pupils in their learning, lessons at CovenantChristianSchool take a variety of formats and each lesson will aim to support a range of learning styles. Teachers are aware that each child will learn differently and at their own rate. However, the teacher can do many things to help support the learning of each child.

Within each lesson, the teacher will aim to have a starter activity that engages the children, often in a physical way (so as to engage the kinaesthetic learners), such as moving around the classroom to collect objects or to review previous work, and will involve an element of discussion (to engage auditory learners) such as discussing the previous lesson with talk partners. When explaining new concepts or a task, teachers will endeavour to include a visual demonstration (to engage visual learners) as well as continue to explain the task clearly (auditory learners).

The main task of the lesson will vary greatly from lesson to lesson and may involve anything from independent research of an academic topic to group collaboration to solve a practical problem. Teachers will aim, where appropriate, to include a written element to each core subject lesson (so as to engage reading/writing learners) both to engage those who learn best by reading and writing, but also to encourage children to have a written record of their findings that they can refer to in future lessons. Teachers will also make effective use of physical resources (kinaesthetic learners) where appropriate to reinforce concepts.

Teachers are expected to make use of the physical space surrounding the school and children are often taken out into the school grounds to explore concepts further. Due to the small class sizes and high adult ratios, children are also often taken on excursions to local sites where they are further challenged to engage in their learning and apply the concepts they are taught to everyday life situations.

Above all else, each lesson that the children engage in should emphasise that God is the creator of all things and that through education, we can explore His creation and know Him better. Children are taught that God is the master mathematician, scientist, creator, musician, artist, historian, geographer in all creation and the children should take pride in developing any one of the skills that God has given them.

October 2017