T&L Digests have moved onto this blog - all the past issues can be found on the website here 

COMMUNICATION FOCUSES Key word walls Look at your classroom… Do you have a reference wall that you refer to in lessons? A wall filled with useful words (tier 2 and tier 3). If not, consider displaying a word wall for September…

INCLUSION FOR ALL Use mini-whiteboards to challenge. Think - Ask ALL students to answer ever question that you ask on the whiteboards. Pair – ask students to check and add to one another’s answers Share -  ask one student to share what their partner changed on their board and to consider WHY they may have changed/amended it.

 

KEY FOCUSES: behaviour for learning, use of mini-whiteboards, expectations

 

 

This week:

• The thought for the week this week is ‘Mother Earth’.  The PPT considers the global plastic problem and uses an article from before McDonalds changed to plastic straws.  Please consider with your forms.  
• Consistency – please ensure that you spend some time going through the classroom routines circulated by PHO a few weeks ago.  All students need to know our minimum standards so that we support one another when enforcing them.
• Trios – thanks for those who have returned literacy audits and amended T&L Toolkits.  Please ensure that any remaining documents are emailed to LG by Tuesday.
• NQTs – assessment meetings this week. Tues 4 AW; Thurs 1 JS; Thurs 2 CJ.
• Reminders:
  • Please use some of the ideas that you fed back last week following the CPD sessions.
  • Study Group feedback celebration will be next Monday, 15^th July. This year, it will be in the dining room.  Details below.

Our T&L Targets:

• Brilliant teaching and learning
  • Literacy – book looks will look at how well the literacy marking policy is implemented (i.e. sp, u, p, np, etc).                     
  • Challenge for all
  • Progress for students with low starting points
  • OM CLIPs – cross-curricular

Think about this…

As we raise our expectations and enforce our Classroom Basics, we expect our students to rise to the challenges that we present.  We are moving them outside their comfort zones in terms of effort. So, with this in mind:

• How many questions do you ask in a lesson?
• How many students actually answer your questions?
• How many students do you want to answer your questions?

The answers to the above questions may be something like, ‘lots, a few and all’.   If we can ensure that ALL students are answering questions (the high quality questions that make their brains hurt), then we are surely onto a winner in terms of challenge.

 

One way of doing this, as it is already a clear whole-school focus, is to ensure that ALL students answer ALL of the questions asked ALL of the time.  Use the mini-whiteboards for this.  Then utilise the ‘show me’ section to determine misconceptions and WAGOLLs to be shared and scrutinised.

Talk-Talk!  Three Structures

Please use these (or other) structures when doing anything other than teacher-led instruction:

• Think-Pair-Share OR Timed-Pair-Share
• Rally Robin
• All write round robin

The PowerPoint for this Top Tip is stored in the ‘WLD Teachers’ Team under ‘Teaching and Learning’.

 

Kagan Three Structures

Top Tips in Two this Half-Term    

 

Please could you check the attached schedule for the coming year.  It contains a rota for:

• Top Tips in Two Minutes
• Words of the week – to be learnt and tested in forms (information to follow)
• WOW work displays – departments will need to pass 10 pieces of WOW work to LG at the start of a half-term, with a handwritten note/email of why it is good work.  This will then be displayed in reception and will remain there for a half-term. 

SUMMER 2
	W/C
	3/06/19	WEDS	Technology	Sh – revision idea
	10/6/19	MON	MFL	Classroom Keys
	17/06/19	FRI	Science	AY
	24/06/19	MON	LG
		WEDS	Pastries and Progress	ALL – discuss effective revision strategies for teaching skills and content. How have you used mini-whiteboards in the revision process?
	1/07/19	FRI	TU	Internet Safety
	8/07/19	MON	NQTs	JS, CJ, AW
	15/07/19	WEDS	LG

 

CPD Cascade

Study Group Feedback – next Monday, 15^th July, 3:15-4:15 in the dining room

 

Please ensure that you have added your slides to the general feedback PowerPoint saved in Teams here. You should also have uploaded your ‘time logs’ to your folder or email to LG.  The master sheet is saved here (please don’t modify this document).  There are currently about seven members of staff who have saved them in there already, for which many thanks. The deadline for this is Friday please.

 

On Monday, ‘stalls’ will be set up in the dining room.  Study Group Leads should ensure that a laptop is set up containing a PPT outlining their project (use the slides from the one saved in Teams if preferred) and any other materials that exemplify the project.  At least one member of staff from each team should ‘man’ the stall at any one time and should talk listeners through the project and learning points.  

 

Everyone should have the chance to circulate around as many groups as possible, learning about the projects undertaken and the key learning outcomes.

 

I hope that you find it useful and that the time spent has afforded some interested results.