Learning Walks Term 1: September to October 2012

Thank you to everyone that took part in last term's learning walks.  They are an essential part of our practice and really help in 

• enabling students to see teachers supporting each other
• sharing best practice 
• giving us all a feel for what is going on around our school.  

Just to reassure you we are not grading learning walks.

Last term has been an excellent start to the learning year.  There are a lot of excellent things going on and the quality of learning and teaching is continuing to improve.  Thank you for all of your hard work and your commitment to developing best practice.

Our evidence shows that behaviour around the school and particularly in lessons is very good and we have seen high levels of engagement among students.  Incidences of poor behaviour affecting lessons have been rare.  We have to continue to be consistent in our approaches to managing classroom behaviours and would encourage all staff to use the 'hands up' signal when gaining the attention of groups in years 7 and 8.  Please continue to be rigorous with ensuring that uniform is correct and insist on students wearing their jackets.  It is this attention to detail that helps reinforce our high expectations and aspirations for our students. All colleagues made a tremendous effort with this at the beginning of the year and I am sure this attention to detail contributed in better student attitudes.

The strongest lessons have been characterized by really effective planning.  In many lessons learning objectives have been clear and shared with students helping them know what they are trying to learn and clarifying how they are going to learn.   We have seen prompt starts to lesson and good use of 'do now activities' or DNAs.  These have helped settle classes and get lessons off to a purposeful start.  However, as with many things consistency is key to ensuring that students meet our expectations and we do need to continue to embed DNAs, learning objectives and success criteria in our practice.

During lessons students are often active and engaged and there have been lessons where learning has been personalized and independent with students being stretched and challenged.  Good use has been made of AfL techniques such as no hands questioning and using mini whiteboards and traffic light cards to check understanding.  Also tools such as the online stop watch has been used to good effect to ensure that tasks are time bound ensuring good pace within the lesson.

Departments are making strong inroads in addressing literacy and are supporting learning by focusing on key terminology and are supporting this with wall displays and desk mats.  However, as with all things we are on a journey with this initiative. We need to continue to develop our approach by looking beyond spelling and key words by developing strategies to extend writing and by challenging students to answer questions using formal language.

Finally, thank you for all your hard work and for all the support that you give to our students.