How We Teach AT MORLEY VICTORIA
At Morley Victoria we are always molding and shaping our curriculum to suit our young people and it really is a privilege to continually develop our curriculum offer. Reading is our ‘Master Skill’ and sits at the heart of everything we do. The National Curriculum of course is the starting point for all subjects to ensure our curriculum is robust and in line with Government guidelines. We also develop and shape our offer in line with current research and reading.
Schema Development
We teach our subjects discretely, preserving the unique nature of each individual subject. It is important however that children make connections within their learning and the subjects we teach. We therefore aim to adopt a measured approach that retains subject disciplines but makes connections where they are appropriate. We use a combination of both substantive and disciplinary knowledge to ensure the children build on prior knowledge and take their subject specific knowledge and skills to the next level within each year group. Revisiting prior knowledge and making connections across the curriculum ensures that children build strong schema, solid component knowledge and are ultimately able to take make connections on their own and develop their learning independently.
Practise, Practise, Practise
As a school we have undertaken research around long-term memory, cognitive load and the importance of revisiting prior learning and practicing skills so that new concepts and knowledge ‘stick’. At Morley Victoria we plan for lots of practise and revisiting of concepts that have been taught throughout their time with us, as well as building upon prior knowledge.
Ensuring each lesson is pitched correctly
At Morley Victoria we know our children so well on an individual level and ensure that each lesson is pitched correctly so that all learners achieve the lesson outcome and that work is scaffolded appropriately for each individual to do this successfully. We are also mindful of pushing the more able children further within their learning too, to ensure their knowledge base becomes even broader and deeper.
Key Concepts
Within each subject there are key concepts that are developed each year to ensure progression and development within that particular strand of the National Curriculum. For example, in History we have the key theme of ‘Empire’ in which we work hard to develop each year; and in art we develop the 7 elements of art each year. We ensure component knowledge is built upon to ensure progression in every lesson. See below for some sample concept tracking.
Our Lesson Design
High quality first teaching is the most important factor is ensuring maximum impact for all learners. To ensure this happens we have ensured we have a strong curriculum design, all staff have a clear vision about what each learning session should contain (which is based on evidence based research) and we are committed to providing high quality CPD for staff at all levels.
