Mastery
The Mastery-learning model forms the basis of our approach to traditional teaching.
This means spending greater time going into depth about a subject as opposed to racing through the things that all children should know. As a primary school, it is our duty to ensure that children have an absolutely solid, concrete understanding of subject knowledge and skills as well as being emotionally resilient for secondary school.
Now, we have the confidence to take learning at a steadier and deeper pace, ensuring that no child is left behind, as well as providing deeper and richer experiences for children who are above the national expectation for their age.
We focus on all children achieving what is expected of their age group and not going beyond this. Evidence shows that children need to be able to understand a concept, apply it in a range of situations and then be creative to really understand it. Simply going beyond their age group does not guarantee they understand something, it just means they have heard it.
At our school no child will be taught content from the year group above them, they will spend time becoming true masters of content, applying and being creative with new knowledge and skills in multiple ways.
MATHS
The National Curriculum for Mathematics aims to ensure that all pupils:
It is clear that the successful learning in Mathematics is not simply the acquisition of knowledge, but also the ability to reason and solve problems utilizing the fluent core Mathematics skills.
In short, this means working towards:
ENGLISH
From Year 1, children who show mastery of writing will have a clear authorial voice with evident purpose and audience. Their writing will show control and restraint both of word choices and structures. They will often draw on models from reading, and manipulate them for their own purposes. They will also have the stamina to write for extended periods.
Mastery of Writing is about effective not formulaic writing. Children are beginning to understand that they need to make choices about the sentences and words in their writing. Children must be able to understand how to improve their work, using proofreading to check for accuracy – spelling, punctuation and correct grammar. These children will be given time to explore words, develop phrases, play with sentences and paragraphs means that children always consider impact on the reader when they write. Teachers will look for opportunities for children to write for real purposes e.g sports journalism -reporting on school competitions; writing to local businesses to request information or to support fund raising.
Throughout the year children have the chance to show mastery in oracy skills in Christmas productions and special assemblies. To master English and achieve beyond the expectations for their age, children must be able to independently apply their Reading, Writing and Speaking skills in a range of contexts across all curriculum subjects.
Steps we have taken to demonstrate a Mastery teaching approach:
This approach is seen as good practice. It is promoted by the government and seen as the best way to deliver the new national curriculum.
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