Teaching and Learning

Teaching at Kitchener Primary School is ‘Learning Centred’; each element of the whole school and classroom practise is designed with an understanding of how our children learn best at their heart. We recognise that children learn best when teaching and learning experiences: enthuse, engage, innovate, and motivate the children to learn, and ultimately foster a love of learning.

Key Principles

1. The learning environment and atmosphere is supportive, challenging, purposeful and relevant to our children. Effective facilitation through a purposeful environment allows children to achieve and make progress. Our school environment ensures children feel safe and valued.

2. Teaching strategies are underpinned by EAL best practice. Learning is highly social, most of our children need to talk to learn, and to practice active listening and do so within a culture of excellent collaborative learning through strong cooperative learning strategies. Teaching is bespoke and tailored to each individual’s learning style. Speaking frames are used to model high-quality academic language. Strong routines are established.

3. An adaptive approach to planned initiatives and the confidence to react to the needs, interests and passions of the pupils through a purposeful concepts-based curriculum, understanding of concepts plays a crucial part in our children’s learning. The curriculum will allow the children to know, do, experience and understand. The curriculum will promote our school values, care, equality, community, identity and learning.

4. Informative assessment practices, with regular and constructive verbal and written feedback, so pupils know what they are doing well and how they need to improve. Timely verbal feedback is fundamental in our children making good progress. High quality conferencing is used to ensure feedback is responded to, enabling good progress.

5. There are strong links between home, school and community. The importance of parental involvement in their children’s learning is recognised, valued and developed. The school influences Riverside, Cardiff, Wales and the world positively.

6. High quality inclusive teaching will be available for all pupils, ensuring that every pupil, including those with Additional Learning Needs, ensures that every child makes good progress from their starting point via effective differentiation for all pupils. There are different access points for everyone.

7. Class teachers have an in-depth professional knowledge of the curriculum and every learner in their class.

8. Questioning is delivered at a consistently high level to deepen learning and encourage higher order thinking skills (inference/evaluation/appreciation)

9. Regular interaction with the learners to facilitate and drive the learning forward so that pupils are achieving an appropriately high level at all stages of development. All teachers are (80%/20%) facilitators – instructors of learning.