Thinking

We need to ensure that children are engaged and motivated by their learning and that they are given opportunities to think about and reflect on their work outcomes and about the learning journey ahead of them.

Children will be provided with information about how they can reach goals, what that will look like when they have achieved it and how to exceed this goal through mastery.

They will have opportunities for truly independent learning which is supported and scaffolded by the teacher to help them think things through with increasing expectations on ownership of learning and independence.

All children, no matter what their starting point, will be shown ways to problem solve and will be given frequent opportunities to apply this skill.

Marking should help children think about what they have covered and how to improve. (Please refer to the Marking and Feedback Policy)

We think about the opportunities we provide for pupils which enhance their learning experience. This manifests itself with regular trips out of school and opportunities which involve using external expertise.

Caring

We demonstrate that we care for our pupils by taking an interest in them, their school/home lives and family; we model care to the children.

We model care and respect to each other so that we work and learn in an atmosphere of professional courtesy.

We take time to get to know our pupils and express our joy at their successes, and concern when things are difficult.

Through marking we can celebrate success with each child.

Getting to know our pupils’ families and constructing positive relations with them is essential. Allowing time for this is part of our school day.

Communication between school and home is facilitated/encouraged and mostly informal in its nature.

Caring is also about setting firm boundaries and supporting children who struggle within them. This is evidenced through a behaviour policy which supports staff, parents and pupils when challenges arise and has the interests of children at its heart. (See Behaviour Policy)

We help children understand ways that care can be communicated and practically demonstrated especially through links to the wider community and by study of global issues through the International Primary Curriculum.

Children are given opportunities to demonstrate caring for themselves, each other and the school and wider community.

We have systems in place which work effectively and practically to care for our pupils such as safeguarding and first aid training.

We support each other by making sure that we help each other pursue a work life balance e.g. by responding to requests for information promptly, by working on joint projects enthusiastically and participating positively and supportively in times of change.

Learning 

We will have high expectations for ourselves and for our pupil outcomes.

We will aim high for each child and then raise our expectations.

Teachers will ensure that Assessment for Learning Principles and methodologies are developed in their classrooms and that this creates a consistent practice and ethos across the school.

We will continue to develop an interesting and motivational curriculum.

We will reflect on our pedagogic style and repertoire in an effort to continually learn and improve ourselves.

Lessons will provide challenge and support so that children’s needs are met, enabling progress. Ways of meeting those needs will vary from lesson to lesson but will be based on assessing where the children are and planning ‘teaching and learning’ episodes to demonstrate that knowledge of the child.

Lessons in core subjects especially, should be matched to meet the needs of groups and should have a clear pathway for those groups which promotes and demonstrates progress.

We expect teachers and children to know what their next steps are.

We expect learning and deepening of understanding to be explicit in lessons.

Teachers will use IPC topics to enhance and support foundation subjects, engaging with and improving upon ideas whilst following the planning outlines devised by IPC.  Subject knowledge will be built on and gaps in curriculum coverage addressed through identification of additional opportunities in the IPC units.

Children will be taught in such a way, using the IPC units, so that they develop the personal qualities of: enquiry, adaptability, resilience, values, communication, thoughtfulness, cooperation, and respect.

Teachers are expected to use their professional skills to enhance what is offered emphasising the importance of mathematical thinking, talk in all maths work and the role of image in exposing mathematical structure, to both challenge and deepen understanding. Use of questions to deepen understanding, for example “How can you prove that this is always true?”  “Will this always work?” “What is the same and what is different? “ or “What is changing and what is staying the same” should be evident in planning as should context based teaching.

Teachers will use literacy ‘teaching sequences’ ensuring that the text is used to improve progress in spelling, punctuation, grammar and reading comprehension. This will be begun at year 1 and built upon in subsequent years.

The pen-pals handwriting scheme will be used across the school, modelled and practised in each classroom to improve fine motor skills and developing into a pride in the presentation of work throughout the school.

All staff recognise the need to support each other. This means that we are flexible in the deployment of support staff, and support staff understand that they may occasionally be re-deployed at short notice. The prime reason for this should always be centred around the learning needs of the children.

Teachers and support staff recognise the necessity to provide stimulating, clutter free, working environments that support learning and engage pupils’ interests.

It is recognised that teachers and support staff often work well above and beyond ‘office’ hours and that this work often takes place outside of the class, however, teachers are expected to be ready for the school day in a timely manner and should be in their classrooms by 08:45 and until 15:30 as a minimum, and in school by 8:30 for preparation and professional conversations.

Sharing

We explicitly teach the physical manifestation of sharing with resources but also the act of sharing information, skills and knowledge for the benefit of all.

There are many ways and forms we can now share which are electronic. We need to keep our skills up to date so that we are able communicators, enabling our pupils to be the same.

We need to take time to share with parents our understanding of their children.

Home and school learning should be shared via ‘homework’ so that understanding of expectations is consistent and so that the learning process is promoted jointly. (Please refer to the Home Learning Policy)

We share with parents information and knowledge which will help us, through their focussed and informed support of their child.

We will encourage parents into the school as often as possible so that we can share the learning experience with parents and help them see their child as a learner.

To promote the wider community we share our facilities and use the skills and knowledge outside of school to enhance what we offer within.

We will moderate termly across Maths and English with a focus on end year 2 to end year 6 and start of school FS to end of year 2, to ensure that we share the same expectations of outcome.

We work hard to ensure that transition between and within key stages is as seamless as possible for the children in our care. This includes from pre-school to the main school, between classes and phases within the school, and year 6 into secondary.

There are many policies which support the ethos as stated above. As we review each policy we will ensure that the values of Thinking Caring Learning Sharing are embedded within that policy.