Gunthorpe C of E Primary School

‘Feeding Minds, Touching Hearts’

GUNTHORPE C OF E PRIMARY SCHOOL

TEACHING AND LEARNING POLICY

Our over-arching mission at Gunthorpe is to bring to every child in school the best possible chance for development and learning.

SCHOOL AIMS

1. Children will come to value truth, justice, trust, honesty and duty in the light of our Christian values of endurance, wisdom, teamwork, friendship, service, trust and forgiveness.

1. For our children to develop respect for the views, opinions, property and space of others. They will learn self-respect through developing a healthy life style. They will show respect for the environment including the school building. Children will become increasingly independent but equally be able to work together with a range of people.

1. For our children to grow in confidence and self-esteem; developing an open minded and optimistic attitude and the confidence to try new things.

1. For our children to feel safe and secure in a learning environment, which encourages fun, enjoyment and is a safe place to make mistakes and learn from them.

1. They will develop a sense of achievement through success in a range of differentiated situations.

PRINCIPLES FOR LEARNING

1. Gunthorpe School is a school where everyone provides a positive role model, communicating clear aims and expectations, giving constructive feedback and positive praise. There will be consistent approach to teaching good behaviour, through role play, circle time, PHSE lessons and general classroom practice.

1. We will encourage children through valuing effort, achievement and progression. We will motivate children by making learning fun and inclusive. We will promote a can do culture, by helping children to understand the progression of their own learning through self assessment and target setting, listening to their views and opinions and creating opportunities for success.

1. We will develop routines to promote a sense of security, giving clear expectations/boundaries, providing a welcoming environment and caring attitude. We hope to give the children a sense of belonging by valuing their opinions, giving them ownership through mechanisms such as the school council.

1. We will set high expectations and give every learner confidence they can succeed by demonstrating a commitment to every learner’s success, engaging, the active support of parents. We will set clear and appropriate learning goals, making them relevant to the learner’s needs.

1. We will promote a culture of learning to learn through developing the children’s ability to ask questions, think systematically, manage information, learn from others and help others learn, be reflective and take responsibility for their learning.

CENTRAL CONCEPT

Learning is the personal development of knowledge, skills, attitudes and understanding.

Learning should be enjoyable and effective and based on co-operation and respect.

Learning is achieved through a wide range of teaching routines.

POLICY AIMS

The aim of this policy is to

• Demonstrate a commitment to quality teaching and a sensitivity to children’s needs.

• Underpin all other policies, both curriculum and supplementary.

• Provide a comprehensive guide to teaching and learning strategies.

• Promote high standards of achievement through effective and enjoyable teaching and learning.

THE ROLE OF THE TEACHING STAFF

We acknowledge that the teaching staff must employ a range of strategies in an effort to match the teaching with the learning. There are times when the teaching staff will

• train and inform

• provide or promote

• guide or facilitate

There are times when the teaching staff need to stand back and allow development to take place and times when intervention is necessary.

Praise, reward, review and consolidation are also a very important aspect of learning.

The teaching staff must demonstrate a caring attitude toward children, look at the children as individuals, value their efforts, listen to them and show sensitivity to their needs.

The teaching staff shouldbe inspirational, enthusiastic, challenging, motivating and not afraid to make mistakes.

The teaching staff can be formal, interactive or open-minded, depending on the learning situation.

Above all the teaching staff are role models and must show all the characteristics and attitudes that we would hope to develop in the child.

THE ROLE OF THE PARENTS

We aim to create a partnership with parents that begins before the child starts school. Parents are encouraged to be fully involved in their child’s education and this involvement will differ depending on individual circumstances and the needs of the child. Parents must make sure that their child attends school every day (health permitting). They should take opportunities, which are provided, to familiarise themselves with school procedures. They should provide substantial opportunity for reading development and other homework tasks as outlined in the schools homework strategy. They should take a general interest in their child’s progress and make arrangements to see the class teacher at least twice a year. Interest in school is not always welcomed by the child, but parents should not be daunted. It is important that the parents have a positive view of school, which is transmitted to the child, and they should contact the school immediately there is a problem with any aspect of their child’s care or education.

HOMEWORK

Homework is an increasingly important facet of a child’s development. Tasks provided for home study should be lively and interesting enough to engage the child’s attention easily. There is a place for revision type practice tasks and also learning tasks. Tasks at home are valuable to the child in so far as home may offer opportunities for individual study or prolonged periods of quiet, home also often allows for one to one support. Homework is seen as a valuable part of hoe-school dialogue and a means by which parents might develop an understanding of what their child is doing in school.

THE LEARNING PROCESS

Learning is planned in the long, medium and short term. Long term planning ensures coverage, medium term planning ensures progression and short term planning ensures that learning is purposeful and that the learning can be evaluated and assessed. Shared planning is often used particularly when introducing new ideas or developing medium term plans. The advantages of sharing planning are numerous; it can be supportive where staff are unsure of the content in a particular curriculum area, it can expand the teachers understanding of what is happening elsewhere in school and it can also provide co-ordinators with valuable information on the way their subject is being delivered elsewhere. It is important that all relevant planning is shared with all those involved with individuals and groups.

Each policy determines how subjects are organised and taught and what the specific aims of the subject and its development are with regard to the achievement of the children.

We understand that individual children have preferred learning styles and we take steps to make sure that teaching provides a mixture of visual, auditory and kinaesthetic stimuli. We also recognise that children have strengths and weaknesses in a range of intelligences. We promote the understanding of multiple intelligences and the development of self-esteem. We also try to ensure that the conditions for learning are met through such steps as making the learning environment comfortable, providing water and regular breaks.

Learning takes place in a range of settings matched to their eventual outcome

• Children work in groups on similar tasks
• Thematic approach - small groups working independently to contribute to the whole
• Groups rotating around prescribed tasks or activities
• Teacher intensive group - the rest of the class works on other activities
• Individual or paired work using explanatory work cards or text books with accessible materials and resources
• Whole class teaching
• Individual study and development
• Focused or open-ended play
• Indoor and outdoor classroom
• Guides groups
• One to one
• Teacher modelling

Children are often given opportunities to develop their own ideas, particularly as this is where the best learning takes place. Such things as class newsletters, competitions and projects, together with involvement in the day to day running of school, libraries, shops, banks, etc., can often give unpredictable and unplanned learning opportunities beyond the boundary of the National Curriculum. The school council acts as a representative body and in addition to raising issues of interest to the pupil body, also acts as a model of democracy.

Parents and other adults are regularly used in school for a range of learning situations. Where the adults are teaching using their own expertise learning can often be enhanced, such as the involvement of parents in Science or Technology weeks where they might have a specific scientific skill. Enhancement through visitors providing dramatic or other stimuli will also extend the children’s learning, often beyond the range of the teacher.

Children with specific talents or flair may be useful as peer tutors. This benefits both the tutor and the learner as children always understand something better when they teach it to someone else. This can be especially helpful in developing skills in PE, Art or IT or indeed any area of the curriculum.

CLASSROOM ORGANISATION

Classrooms are organised to maximise space and access to resources. The furniture is all reasonably mobile and classrooms can be rearranged to suit the needs of the teaching and/or learning. The learning may differ in accordance with the settings outlined in the previous section and children are grouped accordingly: sometimes in year groups, sometimes in ability groups and sometimes in groups with shared targets. Resources in the classroom are easily accessible in order to develop greater independence. Specialist resources applicable to the current teaching are brought from their storage area into the classroom. The advantages of an open plan system are maximised and children can work in other areas if it is expedient to do so.

ASSESSMENT AND EVALUATION

The assessment of children’s ability is of paramount importance if children are to be moved on from where they are rather than where they should be. Short term planning provides an opportunity for individuals and groups to be assessed by their teacher against achievement in specific and very small steps forward. By virtue of their professional skill teachers are able to make diagnostic assessments of pupils in the broadest range of situations. Where they cannot they will seek assistance from colleagues or from recognised standardised diagnostic assessments.

The process is ongoing and pupil performance is monitored using a very wide range of strategies. The chosen assessment method should, in all cases, match the learning method that it is associated with.

• A child’s knowledge may be judged initially by their capacity for recollection.

• Skills can be assessed by a child’s use of them in a given context.

• Understanding , however, may only be judged by their application of knowledge and skills in a range of new situations.

Assessment is usually directed at the specific learning objectives related to the teaching, but where a broad range of achievement is being assessed levels of achievement are pre-determined according to National Curriculum level descriptors.

Individual assessment will often give rise to the need for individual targets, which can be discussed with the children themselves. Generally children work to specified curriculum targets related to their ability and group needs within the class.

e.g. In order to improve your story writing you need to learn to do this....

Children are encouraged to make judgements about their ability and define the targets needed to move them on. This is done with guidance, but it is important that children are aware of their own learning goals and how to achieve them.

Peer assessment is used widely to develop evaluation and cooperation skills. Such strategies as ‘pairs’ or ‘talk partners’ are used alongside teacher feedback to aid children in improving.

Through discussion children can often give clear indicators as to why their learning is slow or not taking place. Notice is taken of these and steps taken to neutralise the problems. It may sometimes be the fault of the teacher or even other children or simply a physical constraint in the classroom.

Above all the learning process and the environment in which it takes place must be versatile and flexible. Children’s individual and group needs may differ on a day to day basis and the school must be ready to adapt its practices, resources and even its physical environment to benefit the learning of the children within.

It is important that children and parents are made aware of how best they can develop their children’s learning and why certain strategies are used, such as actions in phonics; LOOK, SAY, COVER, WRITE, CHECK in spelling and that children are aware of how they learn best, e.g. through physical participation. Parents are periodically given opportunities to learn about strategies through after school briefings and information evenings.

TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

We recognise the need for continuous training of staff as well as pupils. Education never stands still and new initiatives have to be appraised and assimilated all the time. Development needs are flagged up by individuals through self-reflection, appraisal or as a result of monitoring feedback. They are also introduced by outside agencies There is an appreciation that training is on-going to keep abreast of recent initiatives or even to reaffirm age old practices. The teacher need not always be seen as the expert and often some of the best learning takes place when the teacher is learning with the class.

We can provide staff development in a number of ways:

• internal support from colleagues.

• use of expert outside providers.

• Links with other schools.

• Use of training and support materials.

• attendance of meetings or training courses.

The crucial element to all forms of training must be the provision of time.

QUALITY ASSURANCE AND EVALUATION

The whole process of teaching and learning is a living process, ever-changing making an infinite number of demands on the staff and children. Evaluation of the process comes through a wide spectrum of means, and innumerable informal opportunities. Formal opportunities for monitoring and evaluation include:

• School self-evaluation

• Termly pupil progress meetings with staff to discuss professional development and set targets.

• Appraisal information.

• Governors committee meetings and governors visits.

• Analysis of assessment data.

• Co-ordinator monitoring.

• Internal and external moderation and work analysis.

• Review of policies and planning.

• Target setting and review.

• LA monitoring

• School inspection

Last reviewed March 2013 by all teaching staff.

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