Monthly Archives: November 2017

Explicit Vocabulary Instruction as a Whole-School Literacy Strategy

Posted on November 29, 2017 by classteaching

Whole-School Literacy: Where to Begin Last week at Durrington High School we spent a part of our INSET refocusing our whole-school literacy strategy. This began through comparing literacy to a toolbox that students can, and should, have available in every curriculum area. In … Continue reading →

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Classroom culture: high expectations and challenge

Posted on November 24, 2017 by classteaching

Growing a strong classroom culture is the aim of every teacher.  In order for this culture to mature and bear fruit, it must be rooted in challenge and expectations.  In this week’s teaching forum, geography teacher Hannah Townsend shares her reflections on what she has done over the past four … Continue reading →

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Effective CPD – Subject Planning and Development Sessions in Maths

Posted on November 20, 2017 by classteaching

Last year at Durrington we introduced a new approach to CPD – Subject Planning & Development Sessions.  The idea behind them is very straightforward – once a fortnight subject teams meet and discuss, what are we teaching over the next … Continue reading →

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Bright Spots: high ability

Posted on November 17, 2017 by classteaching

  This week Shaun Allison and I walked around the school and visited several lessons focusing on the teaching of high ability students.  We dropped into English, maths and science top sets, observing the teaching and learning strategies that were being employed.  Most teaching … Continue reading →

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Using student checklists to support metacognition

Posted on November 15, 2017 by classteaching

This week’s teaching forum was with science teacher Becky Owen.  Becky has been reflecting on how she and other members of the science team have been using content checklists with students with, a view to: Improving student awareness of their … Continue reading →

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Bright Spots: 9th November 2017

Posted on November 9, 2017 by classteaching

Today Fran Haynes and I walked around the school and visited a number of lessons.  It was great to see so much effective practice, that we will summarise in the ‘bright spots’ post.  We think it’s important to talk about … Continue reading →

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Working effectively with disadvantaged children

Posted on November 8, 2017 by classteaching

The focus of this week’s Teaching Forum is working effectively with disadvantaged children. I spoke to maths teacher Sam Down – an assistant head with responsibility for raising the achievement of disadvantaged children – about how to go about this successfully. … Continue reading →

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80-20 – paring down the knowledge

Posted on November 2, 2017 by classteaching

In the autumn of 2016 with the English Literature exam looming large on the horizon, English teacher Tod Brennan decided to alter both the curriculum he was delivering and the manner he was teaching it.  In this week’s teaching forum Tod shared how he used the ideas behind … Continue reading →

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