Through our Professional Development through Coaching and Research Programme we have established the following key principles for teaching and learning. This is not meant, by any means, to be an exhaustive list-rather an overview or collage of some of the discoveries made through following our own spirals of enquiry. It is meant to promote challenge and further questioning rather than representing definitive solutions to barriers to learning.It will continue to slowly develop so watch this space!

1. Pupil agency is the key to engagement and deeper more sustained learning

2. Collaborative learning leads to enriched and accelerated learning and a greater desire to take on a challenge and take risks
3. Peer tutoring in class strongly benefits all involved and leads to a broader range of mastery
4. Regular peer evaluation leads to much clearer understanding of their own learning needs and a much better ability to set their own targets and responsibility for
5. Enquiry based learning should wherever possible be the core approach to the curriculum
6. The storytelling approach of Dr Sue Lyle promotes much stronger writers
7. Reciprocal Reading leads to children gaining a much deeper insight into books and the reading process.
8. Co-learning is an effective way for children to teach each other core knowledge
9. A Learning Community approach promotes much stronger learning behaviours and attitudes
10. Mixed attainment groups have a more positive impact on learning than ‘ability’ grouping
11. All independent/collaborative learning skills need to be explicitly taught
12. Context can often get in the way of learning. Learning needs to take place where the curriculum and the child’s world meet
13. Purpose is vital for true engagement
14. Growth Mindset needs to be threaded through day to day dialogue and reflection rather than be expressed as slogans around the classroom
15. Wherever possible children need to choose to be part of an intervention through their own evaluation of their needs
16. Learning should not be competitive but mutually supportive and enhancing
17. Replacing hands up with a variety of gestured responses e.g. I want to build on this idea, I want to make a link, I disagree, I agree, I need clarification etc. leads to much deeper development of community thinking

18. Dialogic teaching and learning gives the children the language to develop, enrich and embed their ideas collaboratively

19. Rewards and sanctions undermine strong and  positive learning and social relationships

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