Teaching & Learning

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At Thomas Walling Primary Academy we use the National Curriculum as the basis for all of our subjects, ensuring that our curriculum is robust, ambitious and in-line with national guidelines. We are constantly reshaping elements of each subject’s curriculum to meet the needs of the pupils and to keep up with current educational research. Reading is a key skill across the curriculum and children are given the opportunity to practise and apply a range of reading skills across the entire curriculum.

Concept development

Individual subjects are taught discretely at Thomas Walling, helping children to see the unique nature of each subject. However, we aim to make relevant, appropriate links between subjects and topics. We develop the children’s knowledge, understanding and skills progressively through their time at our school, constantly revisiting prior learning and ensuring that children are retaining information long-term.

‘Making it Stick’

As a school we have looked at a wide range of research around memory, learning and children’s cognitive development. In each subject, children are given multiple opportunities to use and apply their new learning to ‘Make it Stick’ (or ensure that there is a long-term change in memory). To do this, we: practise skills deliberately, focusing in on small elements of learning at a time; practise using a variety of task formats so that information is encoded in multiple ways; recap prior learning regularly.

Retrieval practice

Memory model diagram

Children at our school are taught about the importance of attending to the information they are learning, practising and applying their learning and recapping prior learning regularly to ensure that it does stick in the long-term memory.

Ensuring lessons are pitched correctly

At Thomas Walling we strive to ensure that we know all our children (and their needs) on an individual level. This helps us to design our lessons around what the children already know and how quickly they grasp new material. We ensure that scaffolded tasks and adult support is available for children who require a little help being successful in lessons; we also provide opportunities for children who are more confident in individual subjects to extend their learning beyond the basic requirements of each lesson.

Key concepts

Within each subject, key concepts are mapped out year-by-year to ensure progression and development. In Art, for example, we practise key skills such as sketching every year; and in Science, children look at an aspect of animals (including humans) every year.

Our lesson design

Quality-first teaching is the most important factor in ensuring impact for all learners. Although lessons in each subject will look different from one another, every lesson will contain opportunities for children to: receive feedback about what they’re doing well and how to improve; recap prior learning; practise important vocabulary for the topic; apply their knowledge and understanding. This lesson structure is supported by regular, research-based CPD for staff.