Our Approach

Schools often talk about ‘Quality First Teaching’, at Rodings we are on a journey to identify what that looks like in our context with our cohort. We will be working with experts from other schools and the sector to better understand and explain what makes great teaching. 

What we do know is expertly explained by the Education Endowment Foundation’s Maximising Learning Guidance. 

‍ “It is important that schools consider how children learn, how they develop knowledge and skills, and how they can be supported to lay firm foundations for later learning. Teaching approaches that ensure long-term retention of knowledge, fluency in key skills, and confident use of metacognitive strategies are crucial. These are fundamental to learning and are the ​‘bread and butter’ of effective teaching:

• Cognitive strategies include subject-specific strategies or memorisation techniques such as methods to solve problems in maths.
• Metacognitive strategies are what we use to monitor or control our cognition, for example checking whether our approach to solving a mathematics problem worked or considering which cognitive strategy is the best fit for a task.

The explicit teaching of cognitive and metacognitive strategies is integral to high-quality teaching and learning, and these strategies are best taught within a subject and phase specific context. Approaches such as explicit instruction, scaffolding and flexible grouping are all key components of high-quality teaching and learning for pupils.

Teachers at Rodings are mindful of the differing needs within their classes – it is just as important to avoid over-scaffolding as it is to ensure all pupils are adequately supported. Similarly, we know that retrieval practice supports knowledge retention, but it is important to think carefully about how that is implemented in individual subjects across the curriculum to ensure it supports learning.”

We also know that it is important to take account of the prior knowledge that children bring to lessons and to help them to build upon this understanding. Additionally, anticipating common misconceptions, and using diagnostic assessment to uncover them, is an important way to support pupils.