LEARNING AT BARCLAY

At Barclay we believe that learning is at the heart of all we do. We are all learners: students, teachers and support staff. We are committed to providing the best learning opportunities for each individual. We believe that learning should be full of enjoyment and excitement but also acknowledge that it can sometimes be hard work.

We seek to:

• prepare students for the adult world
• give them the skills and knowledge they need for lifelong learning
• introduce them to a wide range of subjects and studies
• make them more independent and self aware
• show them how to think and learn for themselves
• give them confidence to join in, ask questions, help others
• make them and you proud of them
• lay the foundations for success at GCSE and beyond

We do this by incorporating the best of the Secondary Strategy into our learning and teaching. We seek to meet the personalised needs of all our students and to make sure that our teaching staff make the best use of modern and traditional methods.

We know much more about how we learn than we used to. 95% 0f what we know about the brain has been discovered in the last 15 years:

For example, did you know that:

• We forget 40% of the content of a lesson within 5 minutes and 80% within 24 hours
• We have short and long term memories

We learn:

• 10% of what we read
• 15% of what we hear
• 80% of what we experience
• 90% of what we teach to others?

This tells us that rather than just tell students what they have to learn, students will learn much more when teachers provide opportunities for students  to be actively involved in the learning process

• The brain needs fuel: oxygen, water, protein and rest

As we know this we encourage students to drink water, to eat a proper breakfast and to have a good night’s sleep before school days. Teachers make sure that the teaching spaces are well ventilated and comfortable.

We know that we can do a great deal to facilitate students’ learning but ultimately we know that they are the only ones who can do their learning for themselves – nobody else can do it for them.

We share our learning objectives with our students at the start of the lesson so that they know what they will know, understand and be able to do by the end of the lesson. Clear understanding of learning objectives is essential.

We believe that to learn you have to think. Students might be given a brief activity at the start of the lesson to make them think. For example, they might be asked to explain how many faces they can see in this picture:

Or they might be asked to puzzle out what these mean. Can you work them out? (Answers at the end of the section)

We find out about our students’ learning preferences to support their learning. We all learn in different ways or combinations of ways.

Do you recognise your learning preferences here?

Are you predominately a visual learner?

• To spell a tricky word, I write it to see if it looks right
• I find it easyto understand maps, graphs, diagrams
• I am able tovisualise pictures in my mind
• I talk quickly - I tend to talk more than I listen
• I prefer to see a map than be given spoken directions

Or are you predominately an auditory learner?

• I prefer to listen to an explanation than read it in a book
• I often talk to myself - say things aloud - when talking
• I often tilt my head to the side and / or rest my head in hand during lessons
• I often repeat instructions to myself under my breath

Or are you predominately a kinaesthetic learner?

• I don’t like reading or listening to instructions - I just prefer to get on with it
• I wave my hands around a lot when I’m explaining something
• I find it hard to sit still - I fidget
• If I had to assemble a piece of furniture, I would just work it out by trial and error rather than follow the instructions

We use plenaries to help our students to:

• Help to crystallise what has been learnt
• Create a sense of achievement
• Take learning deeper
• Reflect on how we learn
• Look forward to what comes next

We use formative assessment. Spoken and written feedback to students is essential for students to know how they can improve, get to the next level and to be the best they can be.

Answers:

short and to the point

last but not least

up and over