Teaching and Learning at Verulam
At Verulam we strive to create ‘effective learners’ by supporting students to plan, monitor, understand and manage their own learning, in order to develop into inquisitive, self-motivated learners. In order to achieve this, all staff are supported and trained to use effective approaches (as indicated by emerging research from the Education Endowment Foundation) such as peer tutoring, collaborative learning, feedback, meta-cognition and self-regulation strategies.
At Verulam we implement our curriculum by following MMA which means we address:
- Misconceptions and develop memory by regularly using retrieval activities
- Mistakes by marking students’ work ‘lightly’ for ‘SPAG’ and ‘developmentally’ for progress
- All PP and SEND students are targeted each lesson with Q&A questions to check their understanding so that they are supported to achieve
Misconceptions and Memory
‘Make it Stick’ – The Science of Successful Learning states that it’s important to revisit knowledge regularly. We aim to regularly start lessons with 5-10 questions on prior learning topics. This type of low stake questioning helps students jog their memory and consolidate the knowledge in their long-term memory.
Marking – ‘Light’ vs ‘Developmental’
‘Light’ marking of work is where teachers acknowledge and recognise student effort, looking for common areas for development and spelling, punctuation and grammar mistakes in class books in red pen .
Teachers skim-reading exercise books to ascertain common misconceptions, commonly misspelt words/errors and feeding back to students collectively, allowing them time to sift through their work to address issues themselves in green pen.
‘Developmental Marking’ is where incisive feedback on attainment and success is given by teachers in red pen . A response from students in green pen is also required to strengthen the teaching and learning process in order to accelerate and deepen learning. Although some work is submitted and assessed electronically on Google Classroom or other platforms, students must feel that the work that they carry out in class or as homework in their books is valued. We actively review this to ensure that misconceptions and literacy errors are identified.
Homework at Verulam
Key information about how often homework is set, and how parents can review homework tasks can be found below in our Homework document.
Homework at Verulam October 2022/23
