November 2022
Dear Parents/Guardians
We wanted to write to you to give you some information about how we teach your child/children at Erdington academy and most importantly, why. In recent years we adopted Direct Instructional teaching as the basis for our approach to teaching and learning across school, which we refer to as the ‘Teaching for Excellence’ model. We were really interested in looking at the Science of how students learn and wanted to ensure that we incorporate this in our teaching, so that students are learning in the most effective way. The diagram below shows how we learn:
The key principles we have adopted are:
A Do Now task – usually a retention test, or an activity based on prior learning to encourage knowledge retention over time.
Explanation – effectively planned – this is not interrupted or punctuated with questions. It is the opportunity for the teacher, the expert, to deliver the subject they are passionate about.
Modelling – this is an opportunity for pupils to ‘make sense’ of the learning. This can be through a plethora of creative and imaginative strategies that ensure the lesson is memorable.
Questioning – to check for understanding: questions help students practice new information and connect new material to their prior learning. Checking for student understanding at each point can help students learn the material with fewer errors.
Deliberate practice – the individual activity completed by the pupil, usually linking with exam skills, always with success criteria. This will always include ‘live feedback’, where teachers circulate during the deliberate practice and provide ongoing feedback.
If you would like to find out more about how your child learns, please join us at the next Parents’ Forum at the Academy on Wednesday 30th November from 6pm – 7pm.
Yours sincerely
Simone Mabbet
