Teaching and Learning
Vision
At Bolton St Catherine's Academy we believe that learning is the key that opens the door to a whole life of opportunities and 'life in all its fullness'.
Together. we continually strive for excellent teaching which inspires, motivated and engaged learning.
As such, we acknowledge that we are all learners, and seek to constantly refine our practice in order to better meet the needs of our learners.
BSCA Excellent Teaching Model
Our Excellent Teaching Model gives us a conceptualisation of all the elements of highly effective Teaching & Learning.
At it’s core is the powerful knowledge as defined by our Knowledge curriculum – details of this can be found on the curriculum page. Because we place knowledge at the heart of what we deliver, that affects our pedagogy and how we structure lessons and sequences of lessons so that student’s body of knowledge is growing.
Building on the curriculum are the teacher activities. The blue ring captures all the teacher activities that make up lessons and sequences of lessons and enable new knowledge to be delivered, embedded, assessed and applied. These are not a checklist but an index of excellent practice.
Acting as the ‘brace’ to teacher activities, providing the structure and framework in which excellent teaching can flourish are the Cultural and Instructional Routines. More on these below.
Around the edge of the model are the teacher knowledges that must be constantly developed for teachers to be able to:
- Plan and deliver well sequenced lessons based on secure subject knowledge
- Chose the most appropriate methods for delivering the knowledge, based on their understanding of general and subject specific pedagogy
- Effectively assess what is known and feed that back into planning
- Meet the needs of the students in their classes, especially those with SEND
- Build strong, positive relationships that enable students to flourish
- Reduce extraneous cognitive load when learning
- Ensure students build useful mental schema
More on Routines
Well established and consistent routines enable teachers to concentrate on teaching, and students to focus their attention on learning, without other distractions. They reduce the variation between classes, establish the minimum expectation and reduce the cognitive load for teachers and children.
We practice and improve these routines through the Instructional Coaching programme, which you can read more about here on our Continuous Professional Development page.
The routines that are worked on across school are our BSCA 20:
BSCA Way
BSCA 10 Culture Routines
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Meet & Greet |
This routine welcomes students individually into the lesson in a warm and positive way. It also directs students to their ‘do now’ learning activity creating rigour and pace to the beginning of the lesson. |
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Exit Routine |
This routine is giving students explicit instruction about how they should pack away, exit the room and transition to their next lesson or social time. |
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Cultural Reset |
This routine sets out the process of pausing the lesson when students are unfocused and distracted. The routine re-establishes a calm, purposeful and focused classroom environment conducive to classroom rigour. |
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Signal for Silence |
This routine gives students explicit instruction that the teacher needs a quality audience in the room. |
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In Class Transitions |
This routine ensures the movement between stages of lessons are done with pace and purpose – at speed with no fuss. |
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S2S Language |
This routine is about the consistent use of our S2S academy language. The habitual use of this language supports with behaviour management, academic progress and positive framing. |
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Positive Framing |
This routine is about establishing and maintaining high expectations through positive reinforcement, encouragement and affirmative language. The routine shows students that teachers are assuming the best and corrective directions are framed positively. |
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Full Sentences |
This routine is about the insistence on students speaking in full sentences and standard English, in all formal classroom exchanges. |
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Uniform & Work Ready |
This routine is about using positive scripting to address any concerns regarding uniform or work ready equipment. |
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Learning Posture |
This routine is an adaptation of STAR acronym which teaches students the baseline behaviours for learning. It supports students to maximise their ability to demonstrate their excellence. |
BSCA Way
BSCA 10 Instruction Routines
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Cold Call |
Cold Calling is a technique that creates an expectation that all students are ready to answer every question. Instead of a small group of students putting their hands up and offering answers, the teacher selects and invites responses from a range of students across the class. |
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Call & Response |
Call and Response is asking your class to answer or repeat in unison. Call and Response is typically used for learning new vocabulary and helping encode it in memory. It can also be used in retrieval practice to drill, and commit to memory powerful knowledge. |
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Show me boards |
This instructional routine involves students writing an answer to a response or a problem on a mini whiteboard. Students then simultaneously show the teacher their responses giving a big hit of feedback to the teacher about the understanding of the learning across the class. |
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Explicit teaching of vocabulary |
This instructional routine is the considered, deliberate and explicit teaching of tier 2 and 3 vocabulary. The process involves the verbal and written practice of the word. There is also a choice of methods whereby the teacher breaks the word down to support a deep and comprehensive understanding of that piece of vocabulary. |
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Exposition |
This routine is about giving students a clear, well-structured explanation that introduces the new learning or knowledge. |
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Modelling |
Modelling is the process of setting the standard with a completed piece of successful work. The process of modelling involves the teacher breaking down the methodology, addressing misconceptions and providing the scaffolding necessary for students to complete a similar question / problem themselves. |
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Independent Practice |
Independent practice is safeguarding silent working time where students apply their learning and knowledge. This is a planned part of the learning sequence where the teacher removes from of the scaffolding that has been used in modelling and worked examples to see what has stuck. |
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Assertive Monitoring |
Assertive monitoring is the strategic circulation of the teacher during silent independent practice. The teacher actively monitors students’ work against the success criteria and addresses misconceptions in the moment. The teacher’s route circulating around the room is planned and rigorous. |
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Questioning |
This routine is about checking for understanding. Probing questions are designed to follow up students’ thinking by prompting further explanation, justification or getting them to make connections between ideas. Probing questions also allow the teacher to identify misconceptions and gaps in knowledge. Process questions are follow-up questions that get students to articulate understanding of a methodology. |
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Systematic Adaptive Teaching |
This routine is about the careful diagnostic assessment of learning followed by adapting planning prior to the lesson and adjusting practice during the lesson. |
