Dear Parents and Carers
As discussed last week, I would like to use the Weekly News to explain our values and mission in more detail.
In order to ensure young people are successful we will develop self-assured learners. The driver for this value is the research into metacognition and how that is now becoming embedded in schools. As a definition, metacognition is thinking about our thinking, taking into account the process of assessing our own understanding and then planning actions to improve. In order to develop this skill in students, schools have altered the way we teach due to our improved understanding of how memories are created and learning embedded. Practically, what can be seen are curriculum sequences in each subject, which visibly build learning over time. These are shared with students so they are able to see where they are in the learning journey and have a good understanding of what has been and what is coming up. Furthermore, as each topic is tackled in class, it begins with retrieval work; tasks and questions which force children to explore their long term memory and retrieve the prior learning which is connected to the new topic. This is key as long term memories are formed when we hook new learning onto something which already exists in the child’s memory.
As we progress, we develop students who know how they learn best, know what they know and what they don’t know and can make decisions on how to fill gaps in their learning. This is what we mean by a self-assured learner; a student who is able to take control of their learning and plot their way through their studies and then through their lives. It is a focus for all schools and something which we can see has an impact with individuals every day and as our first value, we consider this to be the most important thing we do.
I also want to mention today our school production of We Will Rock You which I saw on Wednesday. It really is a great show, congratulations to all performers and the Drama and Music teams. The principals in the show have such fantastic singing voices and our band is first class. Many of these students are in Year 13 and in this show have delivered a great final performance for us, one of the best school productions I have seen. Great work by all.
Best wishes
Andy Perry
Head Teacher