Staff info booklet Teaching and Learning at JCS

Committed to Excellence
Teaching and Learning
at JCS
2018-19

Teaching and Learning Procedures
Teaching and Learning Methodology
All staff have a responsibility to meet the learning needs of all students through high
quality lessons. Staff will actively seek to improve their knowledge and skills through
continuous professional development at whole school, subject team and individual
levels. Collaborative planning during the Tuesday afternoon directed time slots is a
mandatory expectation of all staff that are involved in the learning of students. The
three basic principles of Planning, Teaching and Assessing will underpin what staff
do in the classroom (see below for Assessment Procedures)
Responsibilities
Subject Teachers and Learning Support Assistants have the responsibility to plan,
teach and assess for student needs that help to drive their progress. Explicit details of
these can be found in The JCS Learning Expectations Document (Appendix 1) . They
should also ensure that they are following the Behaviour, Recognition and
Consequences guidelines in a fair and transparent manner.
Subject Team Leaders and the Senior Leadership Team have the responsibility to
quality assure that staff are following the expectations outlined in The JCS Learning
Expectations Document (Appendix 1 and ensure that they undertake the required
amount of monitoring following the procedures as outlined in Appendix 2 and 3.
Reports for SLT and Governors will be expected in line with the school calendar of
monitoring.
Students have the responsibility to ensure that they arrive on time to lessons,
equipped and ready to contribute to the learning within their classes in a positive
way. They are expected to follow the school behaviour, recognition and consequences
and the homework procedures.
Parents and Carers have the responsibility to ensure that their child is ready to learn
with the correct equipment for school, including homework completed to the
expected standard.

Homework
Homework refers to tasks given to pupils by their teachers to be completed outside of usual lessons.
Common homework activities may be reading or preparing for work to be done in class, or practising
and completing tasks or activities already taught or started in lessons In addition, it may include more
extended activities to develop inquiry skills or more directed and focused work such as revision for
exams. On average, the impact of homework on learning is consistently positive (leading to on average
five months' additional progress).
Responsibilities
Subject Teachers have the responsibility to set regular, appropriate homework and deadlines to meet
the needs of their students. This will be recorded on www.showmyhomework.co.uk on the day that the
work is set, with clear timings to guide the student. A minimum of 2 nights are allowed to complete the
task set. Subject Teachers are also responsible for assessing and giving appropriate feedback to help
the progress of the student. Any missed homework deadlines will be recorded on SIMS and escalate to
STL if this occurs more than once.
Subject Team Leaders have the responsibility to monitor the quality and quantity of the homework set
for each year group within their department and hold Subject Teachers to account if there is an issue.
This may be monitored in conjunction with the Heads of Year. Subject Team Leaders are expected to
make phone calls home if persistent deadlines are missed.
The Senior Leadership Team has the responsibility monitor, through work sampling the effectiveness
of departmental procedures. The Senior Leadership Team will discuss students who persistently fail to
hand in homework on time every two weeks and make phone calls home to students of concern.
Students have the responsibility to ensure that they check www.showmyhomework.co.uk every night to
ensure that they understand the task and can meet the deadline. Students should attempt all tasks,
complete the work to the best of their ability and inform the teacher of any issues in advance of the
deadline. Students are expected to catch up on missed homework if they were absent when the work
was set.
Parents are responsible for supporting the school in ensuring that homework is completed to the
expected standard and it is handed in on time. The student should be provided with a suitable place to
conduct home study, such as a quiet space (no mobile phones) and a desk. The Subject Teacher
should be contacted if there is a problem with the task set.
Duration of Homework
In Key Stage 3, the homework set by each subject should last approximately 30 minutes per piece
unless stated otherwise.
In Key Stage 4 the homework set by each subject should last approximately 45 minutes per piece
unless stated otherwise.

Assessment and Feedback Procedures
The ‘Eliminating unnecessary workload around marking’ Report of the Independent
Teacher Workload Review Group (March 2016), made clear recommendations to
schools and Ofsted with regards to assessment, marking and feedback. The summary
of their report outlined that all marking should be:
●Meaningful: marking varies by age group, subject, and what works best for the pupil
and teacher in relation to any particular piece of work.
●Manageable: marking practice is proportionate and considers the frequency and
complexity of written feedback, as well as the cost and time-effectiveness of marking in
relation to the overall workload of teachers.
●Motivating: Marking should help to motivate pupils to progress. This does not mean
always writing in-depth comments or being universally positive: sometimes short,
challenging comments or oral feedback are more effective. Don’t do more work than
the pupils.
Peer/self assessment: Pupil assessment is an important part of metacognition
development. If done well, pupils can reflect on their learning and make good progress.
Most pupils will be used to doing this at primary school - capitalise on this in Year 7
and ensure that Year 7 teachers are using this a part of their practice.
MAD time: This form of assessment is useful because it offers a range of strategies
that allows individualised self reflection to take place. It is important that teachers use
MAD time to not only allow for pupil reflection time, but also to make marking more
manageable.
With both of these strategies, it is important not to fall into the trap of marking again
once you have looked at the work: ‘Accepting work that pupils have not checked
sufficiently and then providing extensive feedback detracts from pupils’ responsibility
for their own learning, particularly in editing and drafting skills. Pupils should be taught
and encouraged to check their own work by understanding the success criteria,
presented in an age appropriate way, so that they complete work to the highest
standard.’

Formative Assessment
How do we incorporate the 3’M’s’?
Formative: This involves teachers using evidence of pupils’ understanding and
learning to make decisions, minute-by-minute and day-by-day, about the next
steps in teaching and learning. This evidence could also be used when planning
lessons or differentiating activities for individual pupils. When assessing
formatively, the feedback given by teachers moves learners forward. Students
are developed to be owners of their own learning and support each other to
progress.
What
❏Feedback that enables students to make progress, that without it, they would
not have achieved
Why
❏Encourage progress in skills, knowledge or understanding
❏Build confidence and therefore resilience to difficult challenges
❏To promote ownership of work - with good formative feedback, students are
responsible for their own learning and progress.
❏Opportunity to use therapy to address gaps in knowledge or skills
How
❏‘Not yet’ is used to encourage students to be persevere with learning
❏Written feedback in books to enable progress
❏Verbal feedback (including questioning)
❏Peer feedback
❏Walking Talking Mocks
When
❏Every lesson - written or verbal
❏In depth feedback in books (min. once a half term)
❏On individual basis due to need
Who
❏All students through self and peer assessment
❏All staff (Teachers/LSA/HLTA/Learning Mentor/Inclusion Manager/HOY)

Summative Assessment
The goal of summative assessment is to evaluate student learning at the end of
an instructional unit by comparing it against some standard or benchmark.
What
❏Assessment modelled on the final GCSE format of the subject (eg: exam paper or
CA).
Why
❏Summative data will be used as part of the assessment and judgement for LTA
grades.
❏To assess the learning of pupils over at least one term of teaching.
❏To identify any gaps in knowledge, understanding and skills.
❏To update parents on progress (eg: through parents evenings or reporting).
❏To give students experience of exam conditions and the demands they will face
towards the end of their courses.
❏To ensure that students are clear on the layout, question type, skills etc required
for the subject.
How
❏Marking criteria (eg: PLCs) to be shared with students in advance (eg: at the
beginning of a series of lessons).
❏Assessment takes place in exam conditions
❏Departments to standardise marking before returning papers to students and
making LTA grades.
When
❏Termly
❏All students in each year group to sit the same task/paper within a 2 week period
prior to the entry of LTA data.
Who
❏All students
❏All summative assessment must be marked by teachers to quality assure pupil
knowledge and understanding.

Lessons are planned to ensure that questioning drives pupil progress. When
planning, staff consider the needs of learners and plan their questions accordingly.
Targeted questions are used to stretch, challenge and engage the learners in all
John Colet School Classroom Expectations
These are expectations for every lesson.
Consistency
Meeting and Greeting - staff should meet and greet students on entry to the
classroom (peripatetic teachers to greet asap). Uniform should be addressed before
students enter the classroom.
Taking the register - this should be done in the first 15 minutes. Any student
arriving late, minutes of lateness should be added to SIMS.
Seating Plan - This is a working document; it needs to be legible, not neat!
Printed for every class available in a folder on teacher’s desk
Subgroup information - SEN, Disadvantaged, Ability (can be colour coded)
Progress based on most recent learning cycle data - colour code for above
(green), below (red), on (leave blank)
Optional - can add intervention strategies
Reinforce a Positive Relationship - positivity and praise create a productive
classroom, and ensure sanctions kept to a minimum
Presentation of work - Title and date always written and underlined. Diagrams,
tables etc drawn in pencil. All sheets secured in books before the end of the lesson -
do the “shake test”
Reflection - Students should be given at least one opportunity each lesson to be able
to reflect on their learning and/or progress made. This can be through the use of
MAD time, mini-plenaries or summative plenaries such as exit tickets or short
quizzes. This is to ensure that the learning objective has been met and to inform
planning for subsequent lessons.
Questioning (click on for linked document)

John Colet School Classroom Expectations
Questioning (click on for linked document)
Lessons are planned to ensure that questioning drives pupil progress. When
planning, staff consider the needs of learners and plan their questions accordingly.
Targeted questions are used to stretch, challenge and engage the learners in all
lessons.
Assessment and Feedback (click on for linked document)
Formative assessment used to improve learning in every lesson, either written or
verbal. This can include peer and self assessment. Positive feedback will enable
students to develop resilience and respond proactively to guidance. Students must
be told how to improve their learning, meaning that feedback given is personalised
to the student’s needs.