St Philip Neri RC Primary School
Teaching and Learning Policy
ST PHILIP NERI RC PRIMARY SCHOOL
TEACHING AND LEARNING POLICY
Vision, Values and Ethos
At St Philip Neri we aim to promote a learning community based upon the Gospel values of love, trust and respect, where the achievements of everyone are recognised and celebrated.
‘Living and Learning Together with a Joyous Heart.
Amen
Aims of the policy
This policy will guide and support staff in order to….
Improve the quality of teaching and learning
Focus learning and improve progress and attainment
Raise the professional status of teaching and the teachers
This will be achieved by providing ….
Whole staff targets for teaching
A common vocabulary
A tool for appraisal
An outline of relevant skills from which to focus staff development.
By providing this outline of teaching and learning philosophies, the staff can work as a team to improve the quality of teaching and learning at St Philips.
St Philip’s teaching and learning philosophy
We are a learning school and we value this as an experience for both adults and children. At St Philips, we have key notions on the development of children’s learning. We believe that:
Teaching and learning is a cycle:
Teaching facilitates learning, learning invites higher order teaching, and teaching promotes more complex learning. In this way teacher and pupil strive to achieve a deeper understanding.
We learn together:
At St Philips, we try to maximise the potential of all pupils by increasing the probability that learning will take place.
We believe that….
All pupils have the capacity to learn
Where teacher-pupil contact takes place there are gains in learning
Pupils are not empty cells waiting to be filled with knowledge but require experiences and situations which allow social and intellectual development
Understanding is not the same as knowing
Understanding requires performance
The performance of understanding is best achieved through activity
Part of our learning as staff revolves around certain practices.
As teachers we….
Are aware of our own strengths and weaknesses and show a concern to develop them further
Work as a member of a team, planning co-operatively, sharing information, ideas and expertise
Are aware and make use of the expertise of other members of staff
Are open to new ideas
Consult and plan with appropriate learning support staff
Understand the school’s organisation and management
Are confident in the support network of the school
Meet with parents to discuss the progress of individual pupils
Ensure that short and long term evaluations take place as part of the planning process
Are willing to be involved in further professional development
Teachers will ……
- plan carefully for all pupils
- deliver purposeful lessons linking them to real-life situations and problems
- build on links with other subjects
- include open-ended questions and challenges in our lessons
- check on what pupils already know and help tem to learn more
- deliver lessons with pace and challenge
- share the next steps for learning with pupils
- share with you what you are going to learn and how you will know if you’re successful
- expect you to work hard and do your best
- assess your learning every day and use this to help you move on to the next stage
- make sure that in lessons use different methods to help pupils to learn
- work closely with other adults to help pupils in their learning
- try to make lessons interesting and exciting
Other considerations for effective planning
Planning should:
Focus on pupil learning & assessments
Promote continuity and progression
Provide a variety of tasks to support pupils’ learning
Ensure that differentiation is accounted for in learning and resource requirements
Clearly identify learning outcomes. Success criteria and related assessment opportunities
Make clear organisation required in order to meet planned outcomes
Show how homework is used to extend understanding
Planned learning experiences should ensure that children have appropriately balanced opportunities to develop knowledge, skills and understanding through:
Social interaction and autonomy –thinking
negotiation
role-play
discussion
investigation
presenting
Research and presentation - reading
writing
explaining
hypothesising
handling artefacts
ICT
Self-assessment reflection
evaluation
target-setting
Assessment including self-assessment should be an integral part of the planning process – it should inform future planning and build on pupils’ experiences.
Developing the learning environment
Improving the range, quality and number of learning opportunities
Through linked units – including
relating work to real life
enhancing inter-subject understanding
providing stimulating and inspiring projects
At home with parents – including
setting and marking high quality homework
updating of new curricular targets
two parents’ evenings with information about targets and levels
literacy and numeracy workshops
family learning sessions
spelling booklets & multiplication challenges
Through our displays – including
Literacy, Numeracy and science boards in each classroom
interactive displays on corridors
Through learning first hand (visits and visitors) - including
all year groups to have a termly visit and or visitor related to a linked unit
emphasis on investigation and experiment
bringing in artefacts and examples from home
experiencing a residential visit in Key Stage 2
Through paired and group work – including
paired reading between year 6 and reception
emphasis on investigation and experiment
bringing in artefacts and examples from home
Through planning and assessing for learning opportunities – including
learning opportunities and success criteria clearly identified on planning
evidence of continuous assessment taking place in lessons and informing planning: use of whiteboards, informal checks on learning, discussions with pupils
setting of individual targets – reviewed regularly
identification of ‘next steps’ for learning and discussion with children
marking for learning – comments indicating what children need to do next
opportunities for children to respond to teacher’s comments
time for reflection and discussion of learning strategies
‘talking learning’ on a regular basis
Through problem – solving and real-life examples including
giving relevant real-life examples during unit introductions
explaining the purpose and reason for learning
problem-solving in lessons – using real-life examples where possible children bringing their own examples
Through creativity, drama and self-expression including
role play and improvisation to stimulate discussion and empathise with individuals and circumstances
visual and expressive arts to represent events in different ways
using different mediums for representing learning and valuing these
Through extra – curricular opportunities including
real-life scenarios
those that enrich the curriculum
those that reflect the children’s interests
those that engage children in a range of healthy activities that will encourage a healthy life style for the future
an emphasis on enjoyment
Developing the teaching environment
Improving the quality of and opportunities for teaching through:
Providing support for teachers to meet their performance management objectives
INSET course
resources
advice from colleagues
non-contact time
Providing professional development opportunities
in-house
LA and externally provided
Ensuring the necessary resources are readily available to:
support subjects/topics/units
support classroom management
support independent learning
support preparation and planning
support preparation and planning
support the assessment process
Protecting the work-life balance for teachers by:
monitoring of number and duration of meetings
use of IT to reduce workload
creative use of INSET
monitoring the number of observations
careful timing of events across the year
Ensuring that PPA time takes place
carefully considered plans in place to enable best value and quality
ensuring reliability
agreed methods of planning, recording and reporting
Ensuring that there are a minimum number of interruptions to classes during the school day
agree less disruptive methods of passing on information
agree ground rules for when it is reasonable to interrupt and when not
Providing an exciting and stimulating curriculum map
have established a considered approach to the curriculum which makes teaching interesting and fulfilling
develop the curriculum in consultation with staff to consider what is best for this particular context
have established ways of sharing expertise between staff and cutting down on overlap
Requesting only necessary planning
have agreed approaches to sharing planning enabling those needing access to it to see it without duplication
have opportunities established for sharing and co-operating in the production of planning
have advice available from subject leaders to support planning
Ensuring that additional adult support is available when necessary
through the effective deployment of TAs
through the use of volunteers
through team-teaching and paired teaching.
Target – setting
Teacher and pupil should work together to:
Set clear and achievable targets
Set short and long term targets
Consider current achievements and levels and how they can be built upon
The role of pupils in effective lessons
Pupils should:
Keep on task
Know what they are doing and why
Organise themselves and take responsibility for their behaviour and learning
Think, talk, listen, make decisions, enquire/investigate, ask questions, hypothesise
Interact with the teacher and other pupils
Work in a range of groupings (individual, pairs, groups, classes)
Evaluate their own work and that of other pupils, using the given success criteria
Set themselves targets for future learning
Enjoy themselves
As learners pupils will:
- participate in paired talk
- stay on task
- follow agreed classrooms rules, rewards and sanctions
- complete homework on time
- read and reply to teachers’ comments
- take responsibility for their own work e.g. editing
- be ready to answer
- feel comfortable and confident in asking for help
- help others if needed
Teacher – pupil relations
Teacher and pupil should work together and learn together
Pupils should learn in a safe and caring environment.
At St Philips, we will employ a range of strategies to help us understand the needs of individual pupils and the factors which affect their learning.
We will try in our teaching to develop positive relationships with our pupils, based on mutual respect and a genuine interest in them as individuals.
Date for next review April 2016