Wheel of Wisdom
This distinctively tailored curriculum is founded on the ability to deploy cross discipline skills to enable the children to make connections with their learning guided by the Wheel of Wisdom enabling pupils to have effective working vocabularies / schemata – ‘schema’ is a complex interconnected web of knowledge which allows learning to become layered and embedded upon concepts within pupil’s long term memory.
Pre Teaching is about ensuring ALL pupils have equal access to the curriculum offer through a range of well thought out and pre planned sequencing of teaching strategies. For example, if EYFS are starting a topic about ‘The Beach’, early on in the topic launch activities would include examples such as a visit to the local beach so all children have felt sand through their fingers and toes, before then being introduced to a class text that is all about jumping barefoot on the beach. Pre teaching activities could include class educational visits/ pre teaching of facts or concepts before children are asked to apply them/ baseline assessment/ visitors coming in to school.
Pupils with SEND may require additional component steps that enable them to achieve the same ambitious goals as their peers.
Knowledge Check is the elicitation of ALL pupils’ prior knowledge to enable teacher personalisation of the delivery of the curriculum. We call these ‘flashbacks’ or ‘fuel injectors’ and at the end of each unit of work, teachers test which sticky knowledge has stuck!
Making Connections – Fluency requires over learning through repeated recall. This is about embedding basic skills and key facts in pupils’ long term working memory (e.g. times tables).
Life Long Learning is the demand for pupils’ application of key skills, an interwoven web of knowledge, facts and understanding.
Learning Footprint – The positive impact the careful sequence of learning has had on pupils’ academically, pastorally, socially and prepared them for life in Modern Britain. Have we embedded in pupil’s long term memory, what we intended to?