At Lady Manners School we prioritise quality first teaching (QFT) in all lessons; educational research tells us that this is the best approach to cater for the needs of all learners, irrespective of age and ability. We break down QFT into 6 key areas and each area is further broken down to give teachers a clear framework to ensure they are providing the best lessons and learning experiences for all of our students. When we visit lessons, we look at how well the learning is meeting these expectations and we provide training for all teachers and classroom based staff focussed on the key themes from these.
Each year we have one or two key focus areas that all teachers and classroom based staff work on to develop our expertise even further. Last academic year we worked on inclusive questioning which involves a ‘no hands up’ approach and teachers asking more higher level questions to students. This proved very successful in ensuring all students were thinking more about every question asked and improved student confidence in answering questions.
This year, building on from inclusive questioning, we are working on active thinking strategies to ensure that all students are thinking more deeply throughout the lesson, eliminating any passive moments.
Over the last two years we have also been working on improving learners metacognition and self-regulation skills , introducing a toolkit to help them linked to 26 ‘Thinking Moves’. We have a common five from the 26 that all teachers are using to support students with their transference of key thinking skills across the curriculum. Metacognition essentially involves students recognising how their own thinking is helping them to learn, and applying those strategies that they recognise have been successful in the past to new learning. Self-regulation is about students being prepared to learn effectively.
The six key areas of QFT are :
Clarity of Purpose , Pace, Challenge and Rigour, Adaptive Teaching, Engagement and Assessment for Learning (AFL). You can find out more about what these areas mean below and by clicking on the six titles in blue.
