Sustaining Highly Effective Teaching & Learning

Learning experiences at LPS aim to include the following key elements to ensure excellent progress for all learners and that nearly all staff demonstrate highly effective practice throughout the whole school.

Teacher Expectations:

Teaching staff at LPS ensure that they set high expectations of themselves, the staff they work with and all pupils by:

• Passionately demonstrating a belief to all pupils and staff that everyone can achieve well.

• Reinforcing consistently through a very well-structured progression of learning.

• Providing precise and timely intervention that supports all learners, working exceptionally hard to engage with vulnerable learners.

• Removing barriers to learning through innovative practices.

• Pupils receiving the correct balance of praise and positive feedback.

Teacher Knowledge:

We expect all Teaching staff either have or are able to obtain:

• An excellent range and understanding of teaching strategies to develop learners.

• Excellent in-depth knowledge of the subjects and themes taught.

• Expertise in the use of innovative resources to enhance pupil-led enquiry.

• Strategies that anticipates potential gaps or difficulties for groups of learners and apply approaches to close this.

• Knowledge that enables pupils to make connections between different concepts in order to deepen learners’ understanding.

Lesson Objectives and Criteria:

Learning objectives are skills based and not connected to the context of the lesson. All pupils understand how they will achieve the learning objectives through clear and co-constructed success criteria. Learning objectives are the same for all children. We want all our children to access the same learning and it is through the use of resources or differentiated success criteria.  Teachers involve pupils fully in understanding learning outcomes by ensuring:

• Precise objectives which are set and link clearly to the expected success criteria.

• Success criteria which are differentiated, derived appropriately by the learners.

• Skills are consistently referenced in planning, marking, feedback and dialogue.

• Pupils are motivated to select relevant skills to apply across the curriculum that enhance enquiry based learning.

• Skills are linked to application through consistent use of innovative and engaging approaches across the curriculum.

Teaching Approaches:

Teaching staff provide effective learning contexts by deploying a variety of teaching approaches.  These are selected through careful planning of learning experiences, derived from robust assessments of previous learning.  In order to provide excellent learning experiences, teachers will:

• Motivate learners to self-direct their enquiry driven learning.

• Enable pupils to understand and become confident in selecting effective strategies suited to task.

• Adopt a ‘coaching role’ as pupils increasingly lead their own learning.

• Provide precision coaching is always accurate and undertaken at key times for all ability levels.

• Enable pupils to make connections with previous learning independently.

• Enable pupils to identify skills in a wide range of contexts independently.

Learning Approaches:

In order to provide excellent learning experiences, teachers will ensure that:

• Pupils are at the centre of learning.

• Collaborative activities are purposeful and effective across the curriculum.

• Pupils make choices as to how they will work using efficient methods.

• Pupils are motivated to learn independently.

• Pupils take control of their own learning and are engaged in challenging activities which are increasingly self-directed.

• Pupils demonstrate strong self-evaluative and reflection skills.

Leading Learning:

Leaders and teachers inspire pupils to be leaders of their own learning, adopting a Heutogogical approach to curriculum design, rather than a Pedagogical approach.  This is achieved by ensuring that:

• Emotional stimuli are used to capture pupils’ interests are used to review prior learning or to set the scene.

• Learners are intrigued, excited and engaged.

• Reviews throughout the lesson engage all pupils in evaluating the impact of their learning.

• Information gleaned from this is used to inform next learning steps.

• Plenary sessions bring the whole session together in an innovative or exciting way and is partly or fully led by pupils.

Learner Progress:

Learner attainment and achievement is challenged and celebrated to demonstrate true learner progress.  Teachers ensure that:

• Achievement of pupils is consistently high in relation to ability.

• Within all learning experiences, suitable support and challenge meet the needs of all pupils.

• Pupils are encouraged to select their own methods to influence their progress and learning.     

Differentiation:

Teachers plan all learning experiences carefully which matches the different learning needs of all children.  Teachers may differentiate the curriculum by: task, pace, outcome, time, teacher/adult support and will make it clear in the planning.  Teachers ensure that:

• All learners are challenged and supported with differentiated approaches.

• Pupils make good, and in many cases, excellent progress, including learners who have difficulties.

• Insightful teacher awareness at both a planning and responsive stage enables pupils to experience high challenge and to which they respond with enthusiasm.

• Precision coaching is always accurate and undertaken at key times for all ability levels.

Bilingualism:

Leaders and teachers ensure that the Welsh language and dimension permeates all school life through promoting Welsh incidentally and directly through focused lessons.  Teachers ensure that:

• Pupils converse in Welsh within a variety of situations.

• Teachers use Welsh with great frequency in a wide range of contexts.

• Pupils’ responses are very accurate.

• Pupils initiate accurate conversations with adults and peers.

• Bilingualism within the learning environment is rich and embedded.

Learner Confidence & Positive Behaviour Management:

Leaders and teachers ensure that every child is provided with equal opportunities to access all aspects of school life within a safe, secure and enjoyable environment.  This is achieved by ensuring that:

• Teachers are well informed about all pupils’ context and uses specific information to understand their barriers to learning.

• Creative solutions are used to challenge issues and inspire pupils’ learning.

• Teachers act in a proactive way to ensure the pupils’ wellbeing is secure.

• Pupils thrive on a challenge and are confident in their teacher’s responses.

• Positive behaviour management policy is adhered to, ensuring consistency and approach across the whole school.

• Highly engaging inter-personal skills and strategies are employed to de-escalate potential issues.

Learning Environment:

Leaders and teachers ensure that the learning environment encourages learner independence:

• Classrooms and learning areas are highly stimulating and utilises all aspects to their potential.

• Resource and display content inspire and encourage learners to incorporate them into their learning purposefully.

• TA’s and teachers work collaboratively to coach learners in order to enhance independent learning.

• TA’s input through specific verbal and written feedback that detail successes and difficulties.

Questioning:

Effective questioning is at the centre of enabling true independent thinking and learning.  Leaders and teachers ensure that:

• Questioning techniques engage all pupils, and the teacher probes for fuller understanding.

• Teachers act on whole class and individual responses.

• Process time is used to ensure all leaners have equal opportunities to contribute.

• Pupils are encouraged to ask higher order questions of each other.

• Effective questioning underpins high levels of achievement for all.

• Pupils and teacher use higher order questioning to widen and deepen learning.

Pupil Reflection & Assessment for Learning (AfL):

Once children understand how to assess their current knowledge and the gaps in it, they will have a clearer idea of how they can help themselves (and their peers) to progress:

• Teachers & pupils select AfL systems that are innovative, insightful and engage all learners.  ICT may be used creatively to enhance this.

• Teacher uses this information to lead to very effective learning outcomes.

• Teacher modelling and coaching underpins highly skilled self and peer assessment.

• Success and accuracy of self and peer assessment enables nearly all learners to be confident and independent within all contexts of learning. 

• Teachers train pupils to independently select strategies for peer and self-assessment.

Feedback, Marking and Learner Responses:

Feedback and effective marking is embedded in everyday practice and is used to inform teaching and learning:

• Verbal feedback is timely and personalised, suggesting clear ways to improve.

• The teacher is careful in the ‘feed-forward’ provided and personalises it according to each child’s needs.

• Praise is deliberately separated from feedback.

• Personalised targets are skill specific and regularly refer to success criteria.

• Pupils have ownership of their own targets and improvements.

• Drafting is co-constructed by pupils and peers to make improvements to their writing through drafting process.

• Teachers and pupils use marking codes effectively to identify and improve through self and peer-assessment.

• Editing is co-constructed by the teacher to make improvements in their writing through editing process.

• Pupils are given quality time to reflect on feedback. 

• Through peer discussion, pupils independently act on feedback given.

• Learners are encouraged to identify improvements required and act on them independently.

We have designed a bespoke professional development system using this policy’s principles and criteria for excellent teaching and learning. The LPS Teaching and Learning Booklet is used termly during Performance Management reviews, lesson observation feedback sessions, workbook scrutiny and general professional discussions. New and visiting teachers to our school will receive thorough training and induction to enable them to embed these strategies in their everyday practice.

The LPS Teaching & Learning Booklet refers to, and links in with, to the Welsh Government Professional Teaching Standards document, providing clear descriptors and expectations of how to sustain highly effective practice:

https://hwb.gov.wales/professional-development/professional-standards