In a large school like Cathedral Primary, year-to-year changes in teaching staff and occasional staff absence, whether short or longer term, is inevitable. It is vital, however, that these factors do not impact on the quality of learning and teaching Cathedral learners experience. For this reason, Cathedral Primary School has a detailed and comprehensive Learning, Teaching and Assessment Framework which all teaching staff, whether permanent or temporary, are required to adhere to.

Cathedral’s Learning, Teaching and Assessment Framework comprises six key documents, developed collegiately by Cathedral Primary teaching staff, in consultation with pupils and parents. The framework is not subject-specific but is intended to inform and support high-quality learning and teaching across all areas of the curriculum.

• OUR OVERARCHING PEDAGOGY: this outlines Cathedral Primary School & Nursery Class’s overarching pedagogy (the way in which we plan, teach, organise, facilitate and support learning), underpinned by Tina Bruce (1987; 2015) and drawing on Julie Fisher (2016).
• THE DEVELOPMENT OF SKILLS: this brief document outlines the vital place of skills development across all aspects of learning and provides important information on Cathedral’s bespoke ‘skills mats’.
• CURRICULUM RATIONALE: this document explains what makes OLGA Cathedral Primary School special and how our curriculum responds to the unique context of our school. It outlines the building blocks of our curriculum and explains how we bring each of these to life in response to our particular context and setting. It also provides a whole-school Curriculum Overview, which is reviewed and refreshed on a regular basis.
• ACTIVE8: LET’S PLAY/ACTIVE8: these documents provide teaching staff with guidance on how to organise their classroom for learning and teaching in a way which maximises pupil engagement, challenge, personalisation and choice.
• MAKE EVERY LESSON GREAT: this resource outlines the essential elements of an effective lesson and explains how a lesson can be structured to ensure maximum impact.
• ASSESSMENT POLICY: this document provides staff with guidance on formative assessment, summative assessment, planning for assessment, standardised assessments and the recording and tracking of data gathered from on-going assessment. It also includes our whole-school assessment framework.

By adopting this whole-school approach to effective practice, Cathedral Primary School ensures high-quality learning, teaching and assessment is established and maintained across all Cathedral classrooms.