Teaching & Learning Blog
Our Philosophy

Teaching & Learning Philosophy at the Academy

We aim to maximise every young person’s life chances through teaching and learning. This means:

  • Opening doors through outstanding qualifications.
  • Developing skills that we believe will see them through an uncertain future.
  • Helping young people develop into courageous learners, who are confident in their strengths and abilities and their sense of what is right.

Our CPD programme is designed to support these three points. We have divided the year into three sections:

Autumn Term: Becoming better teachers. Thinking about what we teach and how we teach it. Focusing on what works, sharing and developing good practice.

Spring and Early Summer: Raising achievement in the classroom. Developing strategies to support students in achieving their maximum performance.

May 31st – The end of the year: Looking at learning. Working with teachers and students and bringing in outside expertise to study learning within the Academy.

Our CPD programme recognises the range of skills and experience of our teachers. Our CPD programme supports and challenges all of our teachers and support staff by using a coaching model as the core. Around this core we have workshops, expert led presentations, student interviews and many other formats.

Our Lessons

From Lesson Plan to Delivery

By Ben Rogers and Nicky Salt

An analysis of the delivery of one plan by three teachers.

Context:

Three colleagues planned a single lesson for a department audit together. They were each observed delivering their lesson by an independent expert auditor. This analysis is based on the lesson plans by the teachers and the auditor’s written feedback.

Planning the lesson:

The 3 initially planned the learning objective of the lesson and then planned a basic lesson outline to allow students to achieve the objective.

Still together, each colleague adapted the basic plan to suit her class (sets 1,2 and 3). The outcomes were also differentiated, though the objective remained the same.

Finally, each colleague refined the plan individually, though this did not alter the its core structure.

A PowerPoint presentation was developed for the lesson. This was not altered substantially for the different groups.

Results:

The overall assessment of the three lessons by the auditor was one lesson was rated as “outstanding” and the other two were considered “satisfactory”.

Analysis of the lesson plans and resources:

TThere was very little difference between the planned activities, however there was evidence of planned differentiation through the distribution of graded worksheets for the “outstanding” lesson.

The PowerPoint presentation had also been adapted by the teacher of the “outstanding” lesson to support two visually impaired students.

Analysis of the lesson observation forms:

 

In the first lesson (set 2), the behaviour of the students affected the learning. The behaviour reduced the effectiveness of the planned formative assessment and reduced the pace of the lesson.

In the second “satisfactory” lesson (set 1), the students’ behaviour supported the learning, however the learning and progress was only rated as “satisfactory” because it was felt that groups of students could have made greater progress had the tasks been differentiated effectively.

The third lesson (set 3) was considered “outstanding”. The students made excellent progress throughout the lesson and were aware of their progress due to clear feedback, both written and verbal. The support given to specific groups within the class was very well managed and all students were able to access the differentiated work.

Conclusion:

 

This case study highlights some of the skills involved in successfully translating a lesson plan into practice within the classroom. From the evidence presented, the key difference appears to be the adaptation of the lesson based on the teacher’s knowledge of her students and the ability to communicate effectively.

The teacher of the “outstanding” lesson had made several small changes to the materials and plan to support the learning of every student in the group. This teacher was also able to communicate effectively to the whole class and with the students as individuals. Each student was aware of the task, the level they were working at and how to improve. The result was that each student in the class was able to make excellent progress.

May 2011

Our Feedback

By Ben Rogers, Director of Teaching & Learning

We’ve been developing a student observation programme at the Academy and wanted to show everyone how insightful and supportive the students are when asked for their thoughts and advice on T+L.

We asked two of the sixth-formers what they thought and they agreed to organise it for me. I asked for a mix of confident and quiet students, students from the full ability range, academic and vocational. Also some “naughty” students (who it turns out gave some of the most insightful advice).

We split the teachers into three groups and gave them a 20min slot each. We asked them to prepare some questions but then to “go with it”. Our VP had a whistle and told everyone to rotate every 3 minutes.

Post interview, groups of 10 colleagues spent 30-40 min discussing the feedback. There was a real buzz from students and staff.

Survey monkey feedback:

Ideas generated Next time improvements
More practical in science requested Lot of pupils with performing arts preference- more balanced cross section
Great opportunity to speak to students in an informal setting Feedback from the students. It would be nice to hear what the students got from the session.
More whole class work for lower ability pupils – with contributions from the pupils It was good in the post session discussion to hear from other subjects but it would also be good to discuss in your own department
I received useful advice which will enable me to think about strategies to overcome a particular problem. It worked fine. The students chosen were incredibly articulate and gave useful and appropriate responses to questions.
Starters that recap the previous lesson are more useful than starter which introduce new content. Students asking questions to staff too.
Teacher Development

Masters in Teaching and Learning

Several Academy teachers are studying for a Masters in Teaching and Learning with UEA. Some of their work will be published occasionally on this blog.