Learning and Teaching

Teaching & Learning

A message from Mrs Hodgetts

The above image is called 'The Learning Model'. It is the stimulus that Catholic Schools are using to promote current best practice.

As a school, we have broken the model up into four key parts to provide professional development to staff and introduce whole school practices across the school:

• Environment
• Attention
• Memory
• Retrieval

Environment

The focus here is to reduce distractions within the classroom environment to enable students to focus on the explicit teaching. As a result, you may have noticed less displays at the front of the class, tables front facing and even our new colour scheme in the the renovated rooms. 

Attention

As communicated in previous newsletters, we have introduced a number of whole schools routines in order to gain student attention and increase full participation. Examples include the mini whiteboard routine and exit tickets.

Memory

Understanding the characteristics and differences between sensory, short term and long term memory is the key to the element of the learning model. Thus, ensuring instructions are keep to less that 5 - 7 items and there is plenty of links made to attach new learning to existing prior knowledge in the human brain.

Retrieval

The final element is retrieval, which involves strategies to improve remembering and reducing forgetting. Your child may have spoken about the Daily Review. This is a part of the lesson where students are given the opportunity to revisit content from previous lessons to help them more it into long term memory.