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Learning Cycle

Our learning cycle shows the journey of each lesson across the school. We ensure that the children have time to recap prior learning so new learning builds upon what they already know. We endeavour to give all children time to practice and apply new knowledge in a variety of contexts across the curriculum. 

Remember: Retrieval practice to retrieve past knowledge. Review to help to remember the key knowledge from the last lesson or other content from previous units that is helpful. Use of AfL here to assess which knowledge has been forgotten. This may take the form of a quiz, picture quiz, keyword match up, picture match up, flashcards, gap fill, tell your partner, etc.

Instruct Powerful Knowledge (Substantive): New substantive knowledge is instructed in small chunks and is carefully sequenced. Knowledge is broken down into knowledge statements, using ‘I know…’ using dual coding. This knowledge, along with key vocabulary, is then checked

Model (Disciplinary): Disciplinary knowledge and skills are then modelled by the teacher within the context of knowledge already taught. Modelling of this is done one step at a time with continual checks. Instruction is minimal and language is simple. Support understanding of small steps taken- ‘my turn, our turn, your turn’ staged approach

Practice and Apply: Children have the chance to have a go and show their understanding. They experience tasks that help them to apply their substantive knowledge using the disciplinary skill. Evidence in books shows how the children have applied their knowledge. Suitable adaptions have been made to allow all children to experience success and achieve the learning intention   

Deepen: Pupils have the opportunity to deepen the new knowledge, allowing them to show a depth of understanding. These tasks often require a degree of critical thinking where the children need to reason, explain, justify or make connections between previous taught content

Reflect and Review: Recap on the new learning ensuring that the pupils have taken away the ‘sticky’ bit of knowledge. This could be by using sentence stems to share their understanding. Use of AfL here to identify the next steps for learning