Last year, we introduced a Word of the Week programme during tutor time. As you'd expect, systematically introducing only one word a week across the whole academy during tutor time had a very...
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There have been a number of excellent blog posts published recently about modelling - most notably, in my mind, this one from John Tomsett. As I read the blog, three things which I've been working...
I've written previously about how we use our teaching and learning model to stretch and challenge our students. I've also described how we're developing a mastery curriculum to match the high...
In the last few posts on this blog, I’ve mentioned Martin Robinson’s book, Trivium 21st C a number of times. The title of the book stems from the three paths (trivium) to a...
For a number of years, we've been looking to develop a genuinely coherent approach to building students’ vocabulary. There are plenty of isolated activities out there which you can...
In my last post here, I identified that we'll be seeking to develop our curriculum even further over the coming year, drawing on the ideas of David Didau and the framework of Martin Robinson's...
In this fourth part of the Stretch and Grow series, I'm handing over to our curriculum teams, who were given time on our training day to work together to produce a plan for the use of models or...
Today was a teacher training day. On this occasion, in terms of teaching and learning, our focus was firmly on ensuring that we stretch and challenge all of our students, though with a specific...
This post focuses on some of the work of Lorraine Jordan, our Curriculum Leader for Humanities and teacher of Geography, with her Year 11 GCSE group. Way back last year, in preparation for...
Back in the summer of 2013, we began the process of preparing for the implementation of a mastery curriculum for our 2014 Year 7 cohort. We knew that we were looking to ensure that the students...