Looking Ahead
The summer term is a time when we celebrate academic achievement and begin to gather our thoughts for the next year. We spend time considering what aspects have worked well and what we would like to change for the upcoming year. Our thoughts always centre on improving pupil progress and academic wellbeing by looking closely at the structures and systems that underpin this. We also look at our knowledge base as professionals to ensure that we are critically aware of recent advances in education.
Such advances in education have drawn our attention to the importance of understanding how neuroscience and psychology can improve learning and teaching. Through understanding how the brain works (metacognition) we can help pupils not only to access learning more easily but imbue a deeper level of learning. This is a key goal for all educators.
As teachers we explore the ideas of metacognition and look at ways to further improve our learning and teaching practice. We are particularly interested in embedding practices that foster pupils’ abilities to monitor, review and direct their own learning.
In the past I have enjoyed writing about the ideas of growth mindsets and how the language we use can create a positive engagement in learning. I believe this is still useful, but schools across the sectors are beginning to widen this idea to consider more about how the science of learning can have a positive impact on pupils’ learning.
Next term, we will be running Curriculum Engagement Evenings in both Pre-Prep and Prep to help you understand how we teach your child in the classroom and how you can support them at home.
The Pre-Prep evening will focus on strategies to support pupils’ learning in phonics and spelling while in the Prep School we will be focusing more on the science of learning and in particular understanding how we engage, build and consolidate learning. We hope you will be able to join us next term.
Mr Andrew Bartlett
