Improving Teaching and Learning and the Pupil Premium

The best way to help children have a successful time at school is to make sure they get great quality teaching.

That is why we use the largest part of our pupil premium funding on improving teaching and learning.

This should help all our children do better at school but especially make success easier for those children entitled to pupil premium.

A big part of learning is transferring information to memory. We want children to remember more as well as knowing more. A fundamental part of teaching needs to support and promote this.

You may have seen these pictures in our class rooms this year. 

They act as a clear guide to the focus and order that teaching and learning happen in a lesson to help all children to:

• understand how learning builds on what they already know
• have new learning carefully introduced
• have their understanding checked so that stay on track through questions and being offered guidance
• have the chance to show whether they are ready to try on their own or do they need a little more support
• have a chance to try new learning on their own
• have lots of opportunities to show how well they have learnt something

Children may need support at all stages of this sequence to make sure that they can move from the teacher doing something, all practicing with support to trying on their own and remembering to do this over time.

Teachers give careful thought to anticiapting any difficulties and adapting their teaching as needed to maximise learning. Teachers have a particular focus on prioritising the needs of children entitled to pupil premium as part of these considerations. 

• careful thought about seating arrangements to maximise children's ability to give learning their full attention
• breaking or chunking information into easy to digest pieces
• consideration of not overloading short term memory so that children can manage information 
• constantly checking in so that learning is kept manageable and on track
• lots of opportunities to practice with support and on your own
• lots of feedback to let children know how they are doing and how they can do more or do better

We are coming up to a significant review point in making decisions about what we are targeting with our funding. Please watch this space for links to further information.

 building carefully on previous learning

• helping children remember by remembering
• supporting children to make those links to previous learning
• presenting new material in ways children can understand
• breaking up new material so that it can be learnt easily
• modelling the learning in lots of different ways so that children see what to do
• carefully checking in on how well children are understanding new learning
• quickly giving extra help so that children can understand
• giving lots of feedback so children know exactly how they are doing
• only moving on if children have secured the previous step
• making sure all learners are successful

All children entitled to the pupil premium also receive our universal offer of:

• Careful thought about maximising seating arrangements 
• Priority attention for pre-teaching, post-teaching and feedback 
• First books to be marked 
• Priority re-teaching and follow up learning 
• Priority tracking to monitor urgent closing of gaps 
• Close attendance tracking and urgent follow up of any absence 

If you are interested in the Schools Pupil Premium Strategy, please click here.