‘Great schools are filled with teachers talking about learning and teaching’ Dylan Wiliam
At St Richard Reynolds Catholic College our core purpose is to provide outstanding learning and teaching for all pupils. This is achieved in an environment that encourages, supports and develops the spiritual, intellectual, moral and physical development of the child. We are committed to providing children with an inspiring academic experience which is child-centered and academically rigorous. We foster an environment where pupils are loved, listened to, challenged and inspired. We are deeply committed to opening the hearts and minds of our young people towards God.
Our learning rhythm outlines our focus each half term for professional development and research. Each member of staff completes an evaluative research project annually based on College development priorities and reflects on findings to develop their pedagogy.
Our learning and teaching approach is based on our SRR10, including Rosenshine’s ten principles of instruction – Principles of Instruction: Research-Based Strategies That All Teachers Should Know, by Barak Rosenshine; American Educator Vol. This includes devoting lesson time to review previous learning, providing modelling and scaffolds, high quality questioning and introducing new concepts in small steps (Teaching for Mastery Maths curriculum).
Cognitive load theory informs our curriculum sequencing by revealing the role of memory in helping pupils build the ‘cognitive architecture’ required to access the curriculum effectively. The children review prior learning each lesson and logically sequenced episodes of learning allows them to accumulate in small stages, securing understanding before moving on to the next.
Research from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and Voice 21 on the impact of developing pupil’s spoken language skills has been used as a basis for developing an Oracy curriculum from Reception to Year 6. Key oracy skills are taught throughout the whole curriculum and the Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) programme is used to support pupils in EYFS and KS1. Objectives are progressive and sequential; teaching the children the skills to confidently and effectively use the spoken language for educational progress, and for life in general.