Learning for Excellence

The 'Learning for Excellence' model is underpinned by a culture of high expectations, based on secure subject knowledge from all practitioners. It is used to plan effective learning sequences, individual lessons and whole school curriculum maps to ensure all children achieve excellence across the partnership.

Engagement

Children are provided with meaningful and engaging learning opportunities that enable them to become active learners who ask their own questions based on their curiosity of the world. Teachers use a variety of questions to hook children into the learning process or context. Children develop a love of learning through a range of immersive experiences, using a variety of stimuli e.g. those from philosophy for children. Such opportunities allow them to develop transferable skills for use beyond the classroom.

Fluency

Teachers use A4L to plan appropriately paced sequences of lessons that engage and challenge children, enabling them to develop, practise and apply skills. All lessons provide a good balance of teacher-led and child-initiated talk, with opportunities for questioning and discussion, strategically planned by the teacher. Teachers use challenge and variation to meet the needs of all children and ensure they make good or better progress. An effective ongoing dialogue between the teachers and children ensures feedback has a meaningful impact on learning. As a result of using embedded techniques, including those adopted from philosophy for children, learning outcomes show understanding of the 'big picture' and the 'why' of learning. 

Excellence

Once fluent, children then have opportunities to apply all of the taught skills within a range of contexts. Children reflect on and evaluate their learning and make connections between current and prior learning experiences. By applying a range of techniques from across the curriculum (including Philosophy for Children) they ask ‘big’ questions to challenge opinion, deepen understanding and develop curiosity and a passion for life-long learning. When children excel at learning, they become resilient and independent and are confident in taking risks and facing challenges across the curriculum and in future life.