Effective Teaching And Learning

We encourage the children to play an active role in shaping their learning experiences.  Adults engage in discussion with the children about what they are interested in, which skills they would like to develop further and which resources they need to support their learning.  Children are encouraged to discuss what they have been ‘learning’, rather than what they have been ‘doing’ during an activity.  

They are also encouraged to consider what type of learner they have been that day by recognising the characteristics of their learning in one of our classroom characters e.g Self-Motivated like Moana, Polite like Mr Tumble, Resilient like Thomas the Tank Engine.  These characters help support children’s understanding of our school’s SPARKLE ethos.  Children are familiar with the vocabulary contained within the school’s ‘GOLDEN’ and ‘SPARKLE’ mottos. Children are supported to recognise these qualities in themselves.

S      Self-Motivated (Moana)

P      Polite (Mr Tumble)

A      Ambitious (Ryan’s world)

R      Resilient (Thomas the Tank Engine)

K      Kind (Paw Patrol)

L      Learner (Jo Jo and Gran Gran)

E      Enthusiastic (Olaf)

We aim to provide an attractive, challenging learning environment that offers high quality opportunities for the children to learn through play, both indoors and outdoors.  There is a range of ‘Continuous Provision’ available in the classroom that is designed to offer open-ended, practical learning opportunities.  Children are supported to think creatively and imaginatively and explore how resources can be adapted.  Each week, the provision is enhanced with additional resources or specific questioning from adults, based on the previous week’s observations and discussions with pupils.

Adult-led activities are practical in nature and based on first-hand experiences wherever possible.  The children are supported to develop problem-solving skills through open-ended tasks and opportunities to share their thinking with others.  The number of adult-led activities that the children take part in increases throughout the year, as their concentration develops.  Adults also take the important role of ‘Playful Teacher’ in Continuous Provision.  Here adults will engage with pupils in their area of interest and extend learning.  For example, by modelling drawing a road, including signs, to pupils learning with toy cars or writing a shopping list to children learning in the role-play shop.