Our Curriculum Intention
At Brudenell School, we believe in the concept of lifelong learning, and in the idea that both adults and children learn new things every day. We maintain that learning should be a rewarding and enjoyable experience for everyone; in short, it should be fun. Through our teaching, we equip children with the skills, knowledge and understanding necessary to be able to make informed choices about the important things in their lives. We believe that appropriate teaching and learning experiences help children to lead happy and rewarding lives.
Aims and objectives
We believe that people learn best in different ways. At our school, we provide a rich and varied learning environment that allows all children to develop their skills and abilities to their full potential.
Through our teaching, we aim to:
- enable children to become confident, resourceful, enquiring and independent learners;
- foster children's self-esteem, and help them to build positive relationships with other people;
- develop children's self-respect, encourage them to understand the ideas, attitudes and values of others, and teach them to respect other people's feelings, whilst recognising their own identity;
- show respect for a diverse range of cultures and, in so doing, to promote positive attitudes towards other people;
- enable children to understand their community, and help them feel valued as part of it;
- plan creative opportunities which engage all learners and encourage them to learn;
- Help children grow into reliable, independent and positive citizens with high aspirations.
As teachers, we believe we are all lead practitioners of learning in the classroom and in the school as a whole. This incorporates:
• Shared understanding of and commitment to learning
• A learning environment that includes everyone and is a stimulus for all
All staff are encouraged and supported in taking time out to develop action research and attend training. This supports their professional development, increases their skills as learners themselves and acts as a role model to others. We regularly offer release time from teaching so that staff can research particular aspects of education and can evaluate this within their own setting. This newly acquired knowledge is shared with their colleagues and mini research groups often develop.
We take into account the different forms of intelligence, life experiences and pupil interests when planning our teaching.
We ensure the best possible environment for learning by developing a positive atmosphere in which pupils feel safe and feel they belong, in which they enjoy being challenged, but in which they enjoy learning. Lessons are developed by using stimulus, playing music to accompany learning, using Kagan strategies to increase collaboration and shared thinking, and making sure that the children have access to drinking water.
We believe that teaching thinking is vital in developing well rounded and reasonable (able to
Reason) individuals. Our rationale for teaching thinking is;
- Learning how to learn is the key to lifelong learning.
- Thinking is needed for a healthy society – being reasonable – able to reason!
- Thinking helps all other aspects
We ensure that all our pupils are taught why it is important to think and are taught strategies
To help them with their thinking. We use Philosophy for Children (P4C) to develop thinking. It is well documented that P4C has a positive impact on children’s cognitive, social and emotional development. P4C is about getting children to think and communicate well; to think better for themselves.
We base a lot of our school improvement work on developing Growth Mind-sets. This theory is central to Prof Carol Dweck’s research and has found that people, children included, who believe that intelligence can grow and that achievement and attainment is not static, are more successful happier members of society.
Our school and everyone in it uses the ASK model, which creates a balance between Attitudes, Skills and Knowledge and tries to ensure that all these aspects are taught and evaluated. We believe that attitudes and skills are most important as they create confident, resilient learners, who are equipped to deal with life’s ever-changing future.
All teaching will be structured to maximise learning opportunities, and lessons will be planned
In accordance with the following principles:
- the teaching should build on previous learning ;
- it should give pupils the 'big picture' of the lesson;
- the teacher should explain the learning objectives, and why the lesson is important;
- the lesson should be presented in a range of styles;
- it should allow opportunities for the pupils to build up their own understanding through various activities;
- it should allow opportunities for the children to review what has been learnt and what progress has been made;
- it should have built-in opportunities for feedback to the children, celebrating success and reviewing learning strategies;
- All lessons should have a main objective, but split screen objectives are commonly used to develop learning attitudes and skills.
- Teaching should indicate what the next step in the learning will be.
We offer opportunities for children to learn in different ways. These include:
- investigation and problem-solving;
- research and discovery;
- group work;
- pair work;
- independent work;
- whole-class work;
- asking and answering questions;
- use of ICT;
- fieldwork and visits to places of educational interest;
- creative activities;
- watching television and responding to musical or tape-recorded material;
- debates, role-plays and oral presentations;
- designing and making things;
- Participation in athletic or physical activity.
We encourage children to take responsibility for their own learning, to be involved as far as possible in reviewing the way in which they learn, and to reflect on how they learn – what helps them learn, and what makes it difficult for them to learn. (See Assessment for learning policy – displayed in all classrooms.)
We recognise that parental input is invaluable in ensuring maximum achievement and run regular workshops to share ideas on helping at home.
Effective teaching and learning
When we are teaching, we focus on motivating all the children, and building on their skills, knowledge and understanding of the curriculum, so that they reach the highest level of personal achievement. We use the school curriculum plan to guide our teaching. This sets out the aims, objectives and values of the school, and details what is to be taught to each year group. Planning formats are attached to this policy and should include all the mentioned aspects. Planning should always include and be shared with other classroom staff.
Teachers make on-going assessments of each child's progress, and they use this information when planning their lessons. It enables them to take into account the abilities of all their children. Our prime focus is to further develop the knowledge and skills of all our children. We strive to ensure that all tasks set are appropriate to each child's level of ability. When planning work for children with special educational needs, we give due regard to information and targets contained in the children's Individual Education Plans (IEPs). Teachers modify teaching and learning as appropriate for children with disabilities. We value each child as a unique individual, and teachers are familiar with the relevant equal opportunities legislation covering race, gender and disability. We will strive to meet the needs of all our children, and to ensure that we meet all statutory requirements related to matters of inclusion.
We review the progress of each child at termly pupil progress meetings and at the end of the academic year, and create intervention groups to those children who require extra support.
We plan our lessons with clear learning objectives. We take these objectives from the National Curriculum or the national literacy or numeracy strategies. Our lesson plans contain information about the tasks to be set, the resources needed, higher order questions to ask and how we will assess the children's work. We evaluate all lessons, so that we can modify and improve our future teaching.
Each of our teachers makes a special effort to establish good working relationships with all the children in the class. We treat the children with kindness and respect. We recognise that they are all individuals with different needs, but we treat them fairly, and give them equal opportunity to take part in class activities. All of our teachers follow the school policy with regard to behaviour. We set and agree with children the class rules and mission statement, and we expect all children to comply with the rules to promote the best learning opportunities for all. We praise children for their efforts and, by so doing, we help to build positive attitudes towards school and learning in general. We insist on good order and behaviour at all times. When children misbehave, we follow the guidelines for sanctions as outlined in our policy on behaviour. We conduct all our teaching in an atmosphere of trust and respect for all.
We try to ensure that all tasks and activities that the children perform are safe. When we plan to take children out of school, we follow a strict set of procedures to ensure safety: the venue is visited, risk assessments are completed, and various permissions are obtained. We inform parents or carers, and obtain their permission, before the visit takes place.
We deploy learning assistants and other adult helpers as effectively as possible. Sometimes, they work with individual children, and sometimes they work with small groups. Our adult helpers also assist with the preparation and storage of classroom equipment.
Our classrooms are attractive learning environments. We change displays regularly, so that the classroom reflects the topics studied by the children. Working walls are used in Literacy and Mathematics as a daily teaching tool. We try to ensure that all children have the opportunity to display their best work at some time during the year. We believe that a stimulating environment sets the climate for learning, and that an exciting classroom promotes independent use of resources, which results in high-quality work by the children.
All of our teachers reflect on their strengths and weaknesses, and plan their professional development accordingly. We do all we can to support our teachers in developing their skills, so that they can continually improve their practice.
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