Teaching Approaches to Promote Consistent ... - Learning Wales

“We’re noticing a consolidation year, or even going back, in Year 3. Perhapsthey’ve been pushed so much in Year 2 they slow down.”(Y3 teacher, school E, group En)Finding 33: Year 6 teachers did not appear to recognise specific challenges inmoving pupils to level 4 that did not also apply to raising the achievements ofpupils in Years 3 – 5.Certainly, Year 6 teachers were under no illusions about the pressure to maximise thenumber of pupils achieving level 4. Moreover, they were well aware of work carriedout in previous years and saw their task as building on this, not as introducing newchallenges and new teaching approaches. Typical was the following explanation:“We have moved beyond drawing up (a policy)…our policy is now brokendown to show each teacher which part of the strategy they are responsible for...it’s part of the whole school approach to be more focussed…and part of theSDP…the focus is on children’s needs…”(HT, school C, group Co)All schools except one (school H, group Ma) mentioned teaching becoming moreformal in Year 6. More cases of structured teaching with focus on objectives occurredwith older groups. In one school this was reflected in the comment:“In Years 3 and 5 the teachers are confident in allowing pupil dialogue. Notso much in year 4 – that’s the teacher’s style. In year 6 (things are lesspractical due to SATs”(HT, school A, group Co)6.2 Transferring teaching approachesChildren’s language development does not depend only on the quality of teaching inEnglish lessons. Nor does their mathematical knowledge and understanding dependonly on their school work in mathematics.69