Month: October 2018

My ‘itch’ is quite a simple one.

Like many teachers in may subjects most of what I teach is split into topics (or units). Some of this is due to it being convenient for planning and assessment purposes, but it is also (historically) a necessity in SQA courses. One thing I have always found an issue though is that once a unit is completed pupils often forget large chunks of it as it is ‘done’. This is particularly bad for me at National 5 where we still do two year courses. I would like to improve the ability of pupils to retain the information they learn early on in the course and I have a few thoughts on how that might be done.

One option would be to use a mastery learning model where pupils learn all the ‘topics’ at the same time, progressing a bit in each rather than completing one and then moving on. Whilst this approach has some promise it also involves a prohibitive amount of development work.

Another is to use spaced practice where pupils continue to work on all types of problems as they progress through the course. Again whilst this is promising it is something that I would have to create from scratch.

Lastly is an option that (to me) holds some promise – using the review of previous learning I start nearly every lesson with to ask questions about previous topics as well as previous lessons. This will hopefully improve pupils recall of previous material and is sort of the direction that I am thinking about heading in…

I’ve split this task up into each of the wellbeing indicators below but generally, being an independent school the vast majority of the pupils I teach are from social groups A/B/C1.

• Active – We are a very active school. Outdoor learning is one of our biggest strengths, as is sport.
• Respected – We have a student government (that I help run) and regular student surveys. One of the school values is ‘Respect’ and that goes both ways.
• Responsible – Pupils have several opportunities to take on responsibilities, from the student government to peer mentors and prefects.
• Included – The school has a very inclusive atmosphere. We have a higher proportion of BAME students than other local schools and openly LGBT+ pupils.
• Safe – Our child protection officer is very pro active. The small size of the school means staff keep a close eye on pupils.
• Healthy – Physical health of pupils is well catered for – literally as we still have an onsite kitchen! Mental health provision and support is one of the key improvement targets of the school this year.
• Achieving – We try to make sure pupils are able to pursue their interests. Academic achievement is generally very good compared to pupils’ MidYIS scores.
• Nurtured – We often get comments about how the school has a ‘family feel’. This is really important as, whilst our pupil may be well off, they are do not necessarily have a nurturing home environment. For some of our pupils home is school, as we have a contingent of pupils who board.