Aspire & Challenge

All students follow lessons which have an expected outcome (Challenge) and a more complex, demanding outcome (Aspire).  These are what students are going to learn in terms of a knowledge or a skill and they allow both staff and students the opportunity to assess how much progress they have made in the lesson.

Collaborative Learning

Classes, where appropriate, sit in groups of 4 of mixed abilities.  Lessons are designed and delivered using collaborative learning structures which enable all students to be actively involved in a variety of tasks that will challenge them.  Students are expected to work positively with each other, supporting their face or shoulder partners, to foster a climate for learning where everybody can achieve.  There are numerous collaborative learning structures that are specifically designed to extend learning so that students achieve above their potential and give them opportunities to lead on learning within each subject.

PROUD & SLANT

We have two expectations for how students should present themselves and their work.  PROUD is the acronym for high quality presentation of written work.  It stands for:

  • Pen – using an appropriate pen for writing
  • Ruler – Underlining titles or using for drawings
  • Oops – looking for mistakes
  • Underline – underlining titles
  • Draw – using a pencil for drawing

SLANT is the acronym for high quality presentation of body language.  It stands for:

  • Sit up
  • Listen
  • Ask questions
  • Nod
  • Track the speaker

Questioning

Students are not expected to put their hands up to answer questions, in fact we have a rule that they shouldn’t do this.  Instead, the teacher will decide who answers questions by targeting a wide variety of students throughout the lesson.  This ensures that students remain focused and that they know they could be asked at any point, it also helps to stop certain students from always answering the questions lesson after lesson.  We often use random name generators which select students for us, therefore students won’t feel like staff are specifically picking on them to answer questions.

Hands Up

Whilst students don’t raise their hands to answer questions, they will raise their hands when they are expected to be silent and focused on the teacher.  When teachers require silence and focus from the whole class they will raise their arm.  All students should follow the teacher and copy them.  Once everybody has followed this the lesson will then resume.