Policy for Teaching

To acknowledge and define the role of the teacher as a facilitator of effective learning.

To ensure a consistency of good practice throughout the school.

The teacher will:

• Demonstrate a good working knowledge of the Foundation and Key Stage 1 curriculum and where appropriate relevant aspects of the Key Stage 2 curriculum.

• Develop a good understanding of each child's physical, social, emotional and academic profile and treat them with equal care and sensitivity.

• Work with the children to create an environment of mutual trust and respect in which they feel confident, happy and safe.

• Provide a bright and stimulating classroom environment which continually changes to reflect current areas of learning.

• Ensure that all appropriate resources are well organised, clearly labelled and independently accessible by children.

• Establish clear expectations of appropriate behaviour and involve the children in developing simple codes of conduct for the classroom.

• Use language sensitively and appropriately to communicate effectively with children and adults.

• Organise and use time resources effectively and ensure that adults in the classroom feel valued and are confident about what they are doing and why.

• Provide purposeful, challenging and imaginative contexts for learning, which suit the needs of groups and individuals.

• Plan and teach lessons which are well-structured and clearly focused.

• Ensure that learning objectives are grounded wherever possible in children's own experience of the world and that their interests, ideas and contributions are valued and used.

• Provide opportunities for children to learn in open-ended investigational contexts and plan experiences which engage the emotions and which involve multi-sensory responses.

• Ensure that a high proportion of learning is set in practical, interactive contexts, where "play" is valued as an essential part of the learning process.

• Encourage children's curiosity and questioning and value and celebrate their responses.

• Encourage children to take risks and try things out in order to solve problems and to be aware that there is often more than one solution.

• Encourage children to take as much enjoyment in the "finding out" as in achieving the "answer".

• Use mistakes and misconceptions proactively in order to move the learning on.

• Provide time and space for children to think something through and begin to think reflectively.

• Provide opportunities for children to work as individuals, in pairs and in a variety of small and large groups, using conferencing and other discursive strategies where appropriate.

• Ensure that children are clear about their learning objectives and that success criteria which will be used to assess their progress.

• Involve each child in their own learning pathways, by sharing the personal target setting process and engaging them in the evaluation, celebration and review of their achievements.

• Develop a classroom culture in which children are able to talk about their learning and understand what they can do and what they have learned so that they are clear about what they need to do next.

• Develop formal and informal systems for monitoring, evaluating and assessing children's progress in all areas of the curriculum in order to assess the impact of teaching upon the quality of learning.

• Vary the pace and style of teaching strategies and be sensitive to the children's need for "time-out" breaks during periods of high concentration.

• Develop a reflective and evaluative approach to their own practice and be prepared to modify, develop and improve it.

The teacher is responsible for responding to the needs of the "whole" child - personal, social, emotional, physical, spiritual and intellectual. They play a key role in helping the child learn how to learn and in developing in them the confidence, independence and self-belief with which to do so.

A child's attitude to learning and their level of motivation and enjoyment is dependent upon the quality of teaching they receive. Every child is entitled to good teaching and where good teaching exists enjoyment, enthusiasm and a sense of fulfilment are experienced by all.