ST THOMAS OF CANTERBURY SCHOOL

Learning Community – St Thomas Learner

Children are taught skills and attitudes for learning; they learn how to reflect on progress in these skills and attitudes, as well as subject specific learning. These skills and attitudes are displayed in all areas of learning via the Secrets of Success posters; achievements are celebrated in children’s individual Secrets of Success learning logs, plus learning postcards (posted home to pupils) and celebration assemblies.

Questioning

A key learning skill is questioning which is a focus for all learners in the school: adults and children. Children are explicitly taught how to question; children and adults take responsibility for developing their own questioning skills; children and adults learn about different types of questions.

Reflection

Reflection is another key learning skill. Valued opportunities for reflection are prioritised in all learning experiences for adults and children. This is a key phase in the Inquiry approach (phase 2) and the skills should permeate all aspects of learning as reflection becomes embedded. Reflection should link closely to learning and may focus on:

• Skills, knowledge and understanding (linked to assessment for learning)
• Learning behaviours and skills (linked to Secrets of Success)
• Mini plenaries 

Emotional Intelligence (Please also refer to Behaviour Policy)

 In order for all adults and children to maximise their learning potential, we learn within an emotionally safe environment. Staff have a good understanding of reticular hijack and minimise factors which can contribute to this state. Rituals and routines implemented by staff enable pupils to manage transitions at the start and end of sessions. Children will enter to calm music at the start of the day. At the end of the day children will gather together to reflect on the day, including learning, any (un)resolved problems; this could lead into collective worship.

To ensure that children have sufficient time to engage properly in learning and are not under pressure during transitional times, duration of playtimes is adhered to closely; we are punctual regarding playtime length. Children are sent in from the playground at the end of playtimes and lunchtime by the two adults on duty. This also minimises the number of incidents which occur towards the ends of playtimes.

We recognise that every individual has basic human rights:

• The right to be treated with respect
• The right to make mistakes & be responsible for them
• The right to refuse requests
• The right to ask for what you want (realising that others have the right to say no)
• The right to be listened to & taken seriously
• The right to say ‘I don’t understand’
• The right to ask for information

There are three response styles:

• PASSIVE – behaving as if the rights of others matter more than your rights
• AGRRESSIVE – behaving as if your rights matter more than the rights of others
• ASSERTIVE – behaving as if your rights are equal to others

At St Thomas of Canterbury School we believe that all members of the community have a right to be treated with respect at all times; as such we behave in an assertive manner, recognising that our rights are equal to those of others. We explicitly teach skills which develop assertiveness and emotional intelligence, setting all learning and school based experiences within an emotionally intelligent setting. The PSHE curriculum is underpinned by the SEAL programme and Chris Quigley materials, in which children develop skills to enable them to communicate appropriately, cope effectively with change, develop resilience whilst recognising the strengths they have and the challenges they face as individuals and groups. The vast majority of learning takes place within an inquiry approach, which encourages children to solve problems, challenge and question, and reflect. Equipping children with the language and skills necessary to learn and interact in this manner will enable them to become assertive learners who recognise that their rights are equal to the rights of others

Pupil Voice

Staff and pupils co-create learning and construct the curriculum collaboratively. Pupil voice is recognised at every level:

• Co-construction of the curriculum may lead to wider projects and initiatives, for individuals, groups, across and between year groups or throughout the whole school.
• Reflection – within an inquiry model, children will reflect on learning (explicitly at phase 2) – effective questioning will focus children’s learning to ensure that they engage effectively and progress; however, pupils will undoubtedly raise ideas which may feed into the rest of the learning. Class and school councils, eco-group, equalities group, and mission lunchtime are groups in which pupils raise and discuss issues and act as spokespeople for the pupils of the school.

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Our Curriculum

 At St Thomas of Canterbury School, we are really passionate about learning for children and adults and we see ourselves as a learning community. The team of dedicated staff are constantly exploring new ways to present the learning experience for our children.

As a Catholic School, a minimum of 10% of the teaching timetable across the school is dedicated to RE. However, in reality, the RE Curriculum and the development of Christian values underpin every aspect of learning in school and are being developed at all times. Throughout the school week, children are involved in daily collective worship and there are many opportunities for focussed reflection.

We offer a balanced curriculum which offers the full National Curriculum in a very exciting way and ensures that all children acquire the key skills in reading, writing, mathematics and ICT and develop these in a range of contexts. The ‘St Thomas Curriculum’ is based on a whole school approach where each half term our learning is based around a specific theme and the majority of the learning takes place within this context. In practice, this means that for some of the week, children are learning key skills through discrete sessions such as maths or phonics and they use and apply these skills through the work they do around the theme. With this approach, our children have the opportunity to follow some of their own interests and choose how they are going to learn.

Where appropriate, we learn through ‘inquiry’ and children play an active role in their learning, taking responsibility for their own success and the success of their group. This approach leads to greater interdependence and what we like to call ‘deep’ learning, which basically means that the learning is more meaningful and powerful and this sort of learning stays with the learner forever. There is a clearly defined four part process for inquiry based learning and all of the staff in school are committed to this approach.

Marking and Feedback

Marking ensures that high expectations are met and referred to regularly and the comments on pupils work provide specific learning feedback and clearly identify what they need to do to improve. This is linked to their on-going APP teacher assessment. Where additional tasks / follow up work is identified, it is clear that pupils have had an opportunity to do this. Written comments are appropriate to pupils’ reading ability and a commentary may be more appropriate for some pupils who would be unable to access the written comments, e.g. “we talked about your good use of full stops in your work today and we agreed that you would try harder with your capital letters”. Where specific praise is given, it is clear which aspect of the work is being praised – e.g. some good complex sentences –these would be highlighted or underlined.

S will indicate work supported by an adult (and I will indicate independent work, for children for whom this is less common practice). 

Marking of extended writing will be based upon colour coding of relevant aspects of the writing. KS1: Tickled pink (aspects of writing which show progress and achievement) and Green for Growth (Aspects of writing which can be focussed on and developed in the future) 

In KS2 different aspects of writing will be colour coded within success criteria so that children can see their successes and can also target their areas for development/next steps.

The SLT monitors the quality of marking and feedback on a weekly basis, and this is linked to teacher appraisals. (See Appendix 2) 

Assessment

Staff carry out on-going assessment using classroom monitor and sometimes this will take place using a laptop during a lesson. The assessment process feeds directly into lesson planning and into the assessment for learning strategies used during lessons. E.g. regular mini-plenaries /reflection opportunities where pupils are supported in reflecting specifically on their learning.

The assessment on Classroom Monitor will be used on the penultimate Friday of each half term to measure progress over time. It is the class teacher’s responsibility to monitor progress in the class and take appropriate steps to ensure that all pupils are making good progress. (See Appendix 3) Maths assessments will now be carried out using PAM (Positive Assertive Mentoring) resources which take place six times throughout the school year and are moderated by the SLT.

Pupil and Progress Expectations

All pupils are expected to make at least ‘good’ progress as defined by current expectations. If a child is not making good progress, the class teacher takes appropriate steps to address this, including discussing the situation with the parents.

Target Setting

Targets will be set at least each term based on next steps for learning in Reading, Writing and Maths. Each pupil will have a Reading bookmark, with targets linked to their bookband reading level. Each pupil will also have a Maths and Writing target card, kept in their folder, to be accessed and reviewed regularly as part of on-going learning and reflection.

Homework Expectations

We provide homework to reinforce the learning that takes place in school, to involve parents more in their child's learning and to enable pupils to follow their own interests. Our approach to homework is to provide a balance of activities which are enjoyable, interesting and manageable with some more open-ended activities where pupils may wish to spend more time and others less to cater everyone.

Homework will be set on a Friday and will be completed by the following Friday.

Topic

Each half term, there will be a more open-ended activity related to the topic and often this will allow pupils to follow their own interests. Some pupils may wish to spend a long time on this and others may spend less time. This is very open ended to suit all pupils and families.

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The St Thomas AFL Menu of Possibilities

Regular and effective use of a range of AFL strategies within lessons enables children to cement their learning and deepen their understanding- it is a key factor of outstanding teaching, and contributes to outstanding progress, which is what our children deserve. Across our curriculum, these are the common AFL strategies that you will see used within classrooms:

• Checkpoints- Application questions, key questions, deepening understanding questions
• Learning partners- e.g. ‘Teach your partner what we have just learned’ (Timed), ‘In 1 minute I am going to ask you what your partner has just given as their answer- be ready to EXPLAIN’
• TTYP- Sentence stems to structure talk between partners to assess understanding
• Learning lines (physical and in books)
• Mind the gap- Kloze activity
• Expert badges- Go and teach somebody what you have just learned
• Sum it up succinctly- Limited number of words to sum up learning/key concepts
• 3-2-1 Summary
• Magpie cards

Symbols

When using AFL, teachers will use symbols alongside strategies to allow children to ‘tune in’ to the upcoming AFL strategy.

What	How?	When?	Why?	Image
1 Minute Magic	Give children 1 minute to skim read a piece of text, looking for heading, highlighted words, previews and summaries	Before beginning a new/extended piece of text	Gives children a quick overview of the text and draws their attention to key points and concepts
Concept Maps	Children are given a list of key words or images linked to a key topic, they then arrange them into a format which makes links between each key word/image (see example)	At the start of a topic/lesson, or within a lesson to gauge depth of understanding so far	Using at the start of a topic gives the teacher a clear idea of where the children are in their knowledge and understanding of the topic, and allows an opportunity to assess gaps/misconceptions. Within a topic it allows for assessment of learning and further areas to address in subsequent lessons.
Magpie Cards	The teacher holds up a magpie card and shouts ‘magpie’. This is the signal for envoys from each table to go to other tables around the room and ‘magpie’ ideas or concepts to take back to the table	During learning experiences when children are ‘in flow’	Promotes collaborative learning, and encourages children to consider perspectives and thoughts which may vary from their own
Learning Partners	Children find/turn to their learning partners and teach each other what they have just learned	After key chunks of learning have been discovered, or as mini-plenary to review progress	We remember 90% of what we teach to others
3-2-1 Summary	3 ideas that have captured your attention 2 questions you still have about the topic 1 thing that will stick with you after this learning experience	Can be done throughout	Meta-cognition strategy- challenges children to think in depth and carefully about their learning
2-1 peer/selfassessment	2 things you partner has done well linked to the steps to success 1 thing you partner could do better- linked to success criteria	Particularly useful after a task has been completed and when linked to ‘steps to success’	Develops children as ‘critical friends’, and makes them explicitly refer to steps to success
Sum it up succinctly/ swiftly	Children are given a set number of words to explain their learning/understanding of a concept. E.g. Improper fractions and mixed numbers in 20 words	At the end of a learning experience to summarise learning and understanding	Challenges children to think specifically about how they represent their knowledge within a constraint.
Mind the gap	Show a small piece of text linked to the lesson with key vocabulary missing, children use the knowledge gained in the lesson to fill the gaps	At the beginning of a topic to introduce key vocabulary. Throughout a topic to give children opportunity to remember and apply their new vocabulary	Provides an opportunity to assess children’s knowledge and recognition of key topic vocabulary in context.
Learning Lines	Display 3 traffic lights/faces (See image) in the classroom. Children are asked to move to the face/traffic light that best represents their understanding. *This activity can also be done in the children’s books. See appendix ______ for the template*	Beginning, middle, and end of learning experience	Provides a snapshot of understanding across the class at a variety of points.

Marking and Feedback

The Sutton Trust Toolkit indicates that effective marking and feedback can add 8 additional months of progress to a child over the course of a year. At St Thomas of Canterbury we recognise that high quality marking and feedback is not desired, it is essential. High quality marking and feedback at this school has the following characteristics:

• Positive comments make explicitly clear what the child has done well, linked to the learning focus and success criteria
• Colours coded ‘steps to success’ are used to make successes in the child’s work visual, and target areas that the child can develop next *(It should be noted here that steps to success and learning foci, particularly in maths, may be lesson to lesson, or as a focus for a week’s work)
• Questions/comments are scaffolded to challenge or extend the child to work at the next level which has been identified within learning foci and steps to success
• Children are always given opportunity to respond to comments and sometimes initiate discussion with the teacher in written form
• Teachers are innovative in the way that feedback is presented to children, including use of websites such as wittcomics.org to engage children
• Scaffolded questions and comments linked to Bloom’s Taxonomy which provide children with opportunities to work at a higher level within the taxonomy

Developing a 'Learning to Learn' Culture

Meta-Cognition

We encourage our children to learn how to learn, and meta-cognition and self-regulation plays fundamental role in establishing this throughout school. In our schools you will see the following strategies/techniques employed consistently to achieve this:

We endeavour to equip our children with the opportunities and skills to become brave, resilient, ambitious, independent, multi-skilled (B.R.A.I.M) learners. We will provide opportunities, challenge and support to allow children to be in their ‘learning zone’, and to be aware of how they get there. Furthermore, being in a ‘comfort zone’ or ‘anxiety zone’ should be used as an opportunity to question children about the steps needed to be in their ‘learning zone’. Image here:

Learning Keys

From Reception through to Year 6, children at St Thomas of Canterbury use keys to drive positive attitudes to learning. These will be referred to on a daily basis by teachers, including in planning ;contributing to a classroom and school culture which values and promotes the view that learning is a process as opposed to an outcome. The keys are:

• Failure leads to success (1)
• Speak with good purpose (2)
• Responsibility (3)
• We are not required to succeed, we are required to TRY TO SUCCEED (4)
• If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to KEEP GOING (5)
• Flexibility (6)
• Focus (7)
• Together Everyone Achieves More (T.E.A.M) (8)

Keys are displayed in class and are a key part of the learning environment. Teachers will use their professional judgement to decide when and how to introduce the keys to their children, and how they can adapt the language of a key to make it accessible for their children. E.g. Failure leads to success could be = Mistakes help us to learn.

Here is a suggested progression of keys and when they could be introduced for each year group

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Appendix 1.1 - The Quality of pupils' work

Appendix 2.1 - The Impact of marking and feedback

Appendix 3.1 - The learning environment

Appendix 4.1 - Individual Teacher Evaluations

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