Ms Camwell (English) – Ms Camwell was passionately reading to the class with the expectation that students closely follow the text as they were to be quizzed after. The atmosphere was calm and focused, a good sign of clear routines and high expectations of students. Following the class reading Ms Camwell questioned the students and expected them to elaborate on their answers to think hard about the passage that had just been read. She also made use of the ‘no opt out’ strategy when questioning students and didn’t accept ‘ I don’t know’ as a response. Instead she re-phrased the question or ask students to look back through their exercise book to build an answer to the question.

Feedback from Ms Camwell on how to improve the spelling of key words.

Ms Hawke (Geography) – Year 8 students were re-capping knowledge on ‘Waves’ from a previous lesson as this had been highlighted as an area students were struggling with. Ms Hawke gave a really concise explanation which was backed up by a short video to help students understand a concept. She then used questioning to see what students had understood and probe their understanding further. During the class questioning Ms Hawke had really high expectations and expected students to elaborate on their answers. She also used the behaviour system really effectively by making it really clear to students what was acceptable behaviour before transitioning into the next part of the lesson.

Mr Thatcher (D&T) – Year 7 students were busy practicing their use of a coping saw by cutting out pieces of wood for a puzzle. Mr Thatcher was busy moving around the classroom offering support and feedback on the technique employed by each student. He was keen to ensure they used the correct technique and recognised the difference it made to their work. Following this there was a strong emphasis on literacy with students producing a written piece of work describing the process they went through to create their puzzle pieces.

Mr Parrott (PE) – New to the school this year, Mr Parrott has wasted no time in setting high expectations and establishing routines. He was teaching a year 8 class out on the school field. The students were in the middle of a timed cross-country session. Mr Parrott was keeping a close eye on the students and referring back to their times from the previous week. He gave them lots of encouragement as they came past and reminded them of the importance of pacing themselves. Great start to the year!

Mrs A Peers (Maths) – Year 8 students were learning a new concept and Mrs Peers was using questioning to establish what they already knew. She made really good use of the TLAC strategy ‘wait time’ so that students were given enough time to construct answer rather than a student call out the answer immediately which tends to limit the number of students who have an opportunity to think about an answer. Following the ‘wait time’ after the question a number students were then ready to offer an answer which the class then went onto explore. Mrs Peers also made really good use of praise and attempted to acknowledge where students had made a positive contribution by writing student names on the board. This helped to encourage students to take part.

Mr Day (Maths) – Year 9 were working through some questions on negative numbers. Mr Day had spent some time working through examples with class and de-constructing the questions to find common misconceptions. Some students communicated that they were finding it difficult and Mr Day took this opportunity to explain that being in the ‘struggle zone’ was a good thing for learning. Mr Day has really high expectations of student work / presentation and has developed a neat strategy for catching students up who miss lessons. Every lesson he photocopies the best bit of work and that is used by other students to catch up on work that is missed. It helps model to students what great presentation looks like in maths.

Mr Day’s photocopied ‘best work’ from week 1. Used by students who were away to help catch up. Also a great resource for modelling great performance in Maths to students.

Mr Slocombe (PE) – Year 8 students were practicing their table tennis skills. Mr Slocombe got the group of students together (using a 5-1 countdown – good routines!) to model a serve and explain the technique and strategy behind the serve. Students were engaged with Mr Slocombe’s explanation which expected much of the students vocabulary. He explained intrinsic feedback and the role that played in deciding what shot to play next. Students were then given time in small groups to practice. Really purposeful lesson!

Mrs Cusack (H&SC) – Year 11 students were discussing social bond between people and how this may change over time due to external and internal influences. Mrs Cusack gave a great explanation by using concrete examples that helped students to really grasp the concept. She made good use of the ‘Power of 3’ idea of explaining the same concept in three different ways using different examples. Following the explanation she then questioned the students to assess their immediate understanding, expecting lots of detail in student answers.

Mr Bernaert (MFL) – Mr Bernaert is an NQT this year but has made a really strong start. During a year 9 French lesson students were already use to several routines that he had set. Firstly during the register students knew that they also had to display their homework so that Mr Bernaert could identify who had/hadn’t submitted (which he could log on ShowMyHomework whilst doing the register. Students were also expected to write down the date, objective and begin the start activity whilst the register was being taken. A really strong start to the lesson and efficient use of time.