Case studies

PRACTICES IN 1999

PRACTICES IN 2005

Lots of displays of children's work around the school.

Ground Rules displayed

Pupil/Teacher expectations displayed.

Walls around the school are awash with affirmation posters, which reinforce the children's perceptions of themselves as successful learners

The school's equation for success is displayed in prominent areas around the school along with the BASICS Model, which reminds children what they need to do and feel to be a successful learner.

There are displays which:

• Show the children explaining how they best learn and remember what they have learnt
• Demonstrate the children's higher order thinking skills
• Demonstrate the children's understanding of the school's Model for Learning
• Celebrate learning and children's successes.

Circle Time timetabled but not always done by every class each week.

Far greater emphasis on explicitly developing children's emotional intelligence, through Circle Time, whole school and key stage assemblies, and planned activities. Teachers are now more aware of developing emotional literacy when delivering the planned curriculum, especially in literacy, history and geography.

Prefects in Year 6 and a Head Boy and Head Girl chosen by their predecessors

Prefects in Year 6 and a Head Boy and Head Girl chosen by their predecessors.

Trained Mentors in Years 3-6

Buddies in Years 6 for targeted children.

A Learning Mentor .

Teacher/pupil expectations discussed and published at the beginning of each academic year

Teacher/pupil expectations discussed and published at the beginning of each academic year.

Children now stakeholders in their learning, as at the beginning of each academic year from Year 2 upwards children create their Goal Maps, identifying their main goal and the targets associated with it. These goal maps are referred to regularly and formally evaluated at the end of the academic year.

No definitive model for learning

The model for learning is displayed in every class so the children can see how their learning is organised and be able to see at any point in the lesson at what stage of the learning process they are.

Teacher's planning displayed outside of the class for parents and children to read.

At the end of each unit of work children are given a mind map to take home, which previews their learning for the next half term. This is highly visual so that our EAL parents can interpret what their children will be learning. It is also displayed outside of the classroom instead of the teacher's planning.

Children are also introduced to the Big Pictures for the following half term at the end of the current one, so that they know what they are going to learn about on their return to school.

The children told what they are going to be learning at the start of a new unit of work

The Big Pictures for literacy, numeracy, science and the foundation subjects are displayed as mind maps in every class and enable children to see what they are going to learn in that unit of work. At the beginning of every unit of work the teacher talks through the Big Picture and highlights the connections between different parts of the map. The maps are colourful and highly visual to aid access for all learners in the class.

At the start of every new unit of work the children discuss what they already know about it.

At the beginning of every lesson the children have the opportunity to recap on their previous learning in order to reinforce it and to enable the teacher to find out what they have remembered and understood.

The learning objective stated and written up on the board.

The key vocabulary written up when introduced

The learning objective is given to the children and connected to previous and future learning. We have explained to the children that the learning objective in each lesson is a piece of the jigsaw from the Big Picture, so the teacher visually shows where that learning objective is within the Big Picture and how it connects to the previous lessons.

The learning objective is written on the board and visualised for the children who cannot read it.

The key vocabulary is displayed with key visual cues to help children to understand the words.

Children told what the success criteria for the lesson are. This is written up on the board in some lessons.

Children are told why they are learning what they are learning at the start of every lesson and in some cases we get the children to think about ‘what's in it for them' and tell us. We have found this has increased children's motivation and enables children to attach a meaning to their learning.

The success criteria is made explicit in the first section of the lesson and, again, this is written up and visualised to allow all the learners access and is constantly referred to throughout the lesson.

If the children are going to achieve the learning objective they must know clearly what they will need to do and demonstrate in the lesson.

Children put their hands up to respond to a question asked by the teacher.

Questions targeted at individual children.

‘Hands up' is now an extinct practice at Melcombe. I say to the children I want ‘thinkers' not ‘hands up'

Children are given 14 seconds “thinking time” to process a question before they share the answer with a partner.

Throughout every lesson children are given plenty of opportunities to share their learning and respond to teacher-directed questions with their peers. We call this ‘chatterboxing'. Chatterboxing is used at the start of the lesson to activate prior learning, and to check understanding of the learning objective and associated vocabulary. It is used during the teaching input as one way of involving the children in this stage and allowing them to share their knowledge and understanding of what is being taught. It is also used at the end of the lesson as a way of children sharing their learning.

If we want a whole class response to a question instead of getting them to shout out, they used thumbs up or down for a ‘yes' or a ‘no' response and wave their thumbs if unsure. This approach has had a huge impact on behaviour, stopping certain children dominating the teaching input and engaging those who were previously passive at this stage.

…and it's fun to share your learning.

Children asked a range of questions, but not sufficient emphasis was placed on developing children's question skills. Children and staff were not always clear as to what type of questions they were asking.

The introduction of higher order thinking skills has had a huge impact on the level of questioning by the staff and the children. The Question Tree is displayed in every classroom and children have been introduced to Bloom's Taxonomy of Higher Order Thinking. Teachers are far more skilled at asking a range of questions which reflect the six levels of thinking, and children are now more confident at raising a range of questions and identifying what type of question is being asked.

Walk around the school now and there is far more evidence of question-driven displays.

Teaching inputs not always actively involving the children.

Visual cues used in some lessons.

First hand experiences provided where possible.

Teachers not aware of different learning styles of pupils.

Teaching inputs are now very VAK. Teachers know that in any lesson they have to engage visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learners and they are very conscious of ensuring that throughout the teaching input children are actively involved. To engage the range of learners throughout a lesson we use chatterboxing, a variety of visual cues and, wherever possible, we have some kind of kinaesthetic opportunity where children are doing something and are engaged emotionally in the experience. ‘Jumping into a picture', role play, hot seating, Story S are just some of the kinaesthetic ways we engage the children in their learning.

Work differentiated to reflect the different ability groups.

Range of resources to help children access the task.

A far greater range of frameworks/toolkits are now available to help children access the task and there are more opportunities for children to select which way they choose to demonstrate their learning.

Below are just some of the ways children access a task:

Mind Mapping

Double Bubble

Venn Diagrams

Story S

There is an even greater range of resources available for children to access a task and these are all colour coded and visualised so even our EAL children who are at the earliest stages of English fluency can successfully complete a task.

The Sentence Snake, which is introduced in Reception, has been one of our most successful tools for teaching sentence structure.

The Fiction Paint box, which is used in Years 5 and 6, has helped children improve the style of their story writing and is an effective resource in helping children see what they need to revise to improve their work.

Lessons taught in one-hour blocks with no breaks.

Brain breaks are used throughout the lesson to chunk their learning. They have one before and after the teaching input, during their task and before the plenary.

The brain breaks give the children time to process new information and also help re-focus and energise them. They are also used by the teacher to reinforce the learning objective and success criteria throughout the lesson.

The Key Teaching Point is made explicit in the lesson before the children go off and do the task and the children are reminded of this KTP during the task.

In some classes the teacher does something different to make the KTP more memorable and in others the KTP is written up and then placed in the KTP bag. We stress to the children the importance of remembering the KTP, as this is the vital learning in the lesson.

Plenaries used primarily in literacy and numeracy but the quality of them were variable.

Plenaries are now considered to be the most important part of any lesson and at least ten minutes is allocated for children to show what they have learnt. All plenaries start with the key question “What have you learnt and how do you know?” Further questions can include “How did you learn it?” and “What will you do with this learning?”

In Key Stage 2 we are now focussing on getting the children to think about how they will use this learning in other subject areas, so that we get transfer of skills.

Plenaries are also used to celebrate learning and sometimes to preview the learning in the next lesson.

Children sometimes review their learning orally at the end of the day and at the end of the week.

At the end of every day, children review with their teacher what they learnt and at the end of the week time is allocated on the timetable for children to formally review their learning in their Learning Logs, identifying what their key learning has been and how they know.

Discussions about how children learn best, but no definitive model used.

The Model for Learning is displayed in every classroom and is understood by teachers and pupils.

Parents have been given written information and talks about the school's model for learning and explanations of it written by Year 6 children are on display for parents and visitors to read.