OUR TEACHING

Our students have three 90-minute lessons per day. This means that they have time to gain a deeper understanding of the most important knowledge. Teachers then have a range of opportunities to check students’ understanding and help students to address any mistakes. Using our assessment systems, we regularly adapt the curriculum so that we address students’ knowledge gaps.

To achieve our vision, our approach to teaching and learning is realised through our pillars of effective teaching.

We know that high quality teaching benefits our pupils with SEND and help to directly overcome the challenges of pupil learning which all learners grapple with.

Our ambition at Little Lever School is to enable every student to ‘achieve things they never thought they could’.Our students receive expert teaching every minute of every lesson of every day. Within lessons, that achievement is dependent on pupils ‘learning’. There is a relentless focus on the learning of our pupils with SEND and our disadvantaged students. The knowledge they learn is world class and provides the tools to access the very best life chances.

Our Habits:

In order for pupils to manage their attention the following habits are taught and practised by students, thus freeing up working memory for learning and remembering. 

• We are quiet and sensible when we are outside our classroom (Corridor Climate)
• We are ‘on time’ (punctual)
• We follow Perfect Climate in our classrooms
• When an adult raises their hand and counts down 3…2…1 we are silent on 1
• We track the teacher with our eyes and listen when they speak
• We always follow a reasonable request
• We have our equipment at all times
• We wear the correct uniform in the right way

To achieve our vision, our approach to teaching and learning is realised through our pillars of effective teaching.

We know that high quality teaching benefits our pupils with SEND and help to directly overcome the challenges of pupil learning which all learners grapple with.

Our core purpose is… to help every person achieve things they never thought they could.  We refer to every person because this applies to all our staff.  When it comes to teaching staff, we have created nationally recognised Professional Development programmes.  We deliver, facilitate and co-design Professional Development programmes for various leading training providers including Ambition and Teach First who we work very closely with.

We have a range of professional development opportunities for all teaching staff from NQT through to SLT.  We have created a collaborative and developmental culture at the school where teachers can be the best they can be!  We expect all our teachers to be self-reflective and work hard to improve their teaching no matter what level of expertise they have. We believe in personalised professional development and we have a range of opportunities for teaching staff to become exceptional practitioners!

We have developed a variety of ways to support and encourage collaboration and the sharing of best practice including:

• Weekly subject collaborative planning sessions – 2 hours of dedicated subject collaborative planning every week… this enables teachers to focus on their subject curriculum, reflect on the impact of their teaching strategies and share teaching practices that have a proven impact on students’ learning

• Learning walks and talks – one to one feedback and coaching for all teachers.

• Study Tours – teachers liaise with and visit other schools, to gather and share best practice.

“Every teacher needs to improve, not because they are not good enough, but because they can be even better” (Dylan Wiliam)

How do we assess and give feedback at Little Lever School? 

Our curriculum intent should minimise the need for onerous amounts of written feedback in the first place by ensuring all teachers deliver clear instruction, provide clear models and scaffolds, and teach misconceptions which have been identified in advance of teaching.

Formative Assessment

Used ‘in the moment’ to check pupil knowledge and understanding.  Methods will vary according to the circumstances of the lesson but may include: Q&A with mini-whiteboards, a variety of questioning techniques including Cold Call, low stakes quizzes,  patrol & position. There is no expectation that data is ‘collected’ off the back of this type of assessment; however you should may note down misconceptions if they can’t be addressed there and then in your messy markbook*.

Feedback based on formative assessment:

A range of strategies may be used to give feedback on misconceptions including (but not limited to):

– instant verbal feedback (individual or small group)

– Use of the visualiser to model or explain again to the whole class

– Re-teach the content again immediately – consider how changing pedagogy may support this.

– Address misconception(s) by providing knowledge organisers that will be re-tested.

– Peer teaching

– Interleave the misconceptions in future sequenced topics

Standard Assessments

Used to check that pupils know and remember component knowledge and can use this knowledge with elasticity when attempting a complex task. Subject leaders will design two summative standard assessments which reflect their curriculum intent. These will be sat at fixed points in the year, as detailed on the school calendar. We recognise that the form the assessed piece takes, and the method of feedback, will vary between subjects. This may also vary in practical subjects if a GCSE group is working towards completion of an externally assessed piece in lesson time.Subject leaders may also wish to schedule their own additional summative assessment points in addition to the standard assessments.