Curriculum

The Big Question...How do students learn best?

There has been a huge amount of research compounding over a number of years in this space and our government has now implemented an updated Learning and Teaching Model that aligns with this best practice approach. This update is called the VTLM 2.0 (See Attachment Below). At Skye we have aligned our teaching approach with the VTLM 2.0 and have spent the last 15 weeks learning and developing our Instructional through teacher professional development sessions weekly. We are extremely proud of how teachers have launched into the learning and are putting this into daily practice. 

The new few paragraphs are going to outline a little science understanding in parent friendly language to explain a major aspect of the way students learn.

Understanding How Children Learn: Working Memory vs. Long-Term Memory

Cognitive science is the study of how we think, learn, and remember. One of the most important ideas from this field—especially for helping children learn—is understanding the difference between working memory and long-term memory.

🧠 What is Working Memory?

Think of working memory like a mental “notepad” your child uses to hold and work with information for a short time. It helps them:

• Follow instructions with multiple steps
• Solve a maths problem in their head
• Remember the start of a sentence while reading to make sense of the end

But this mental notepad is very small. If too much is on it at once, it can easily get overloaded, and your child might forget what they were doing.

📚 What is Long-Term Memory?

Long-term memory is more like a giant library. Once something is stored there, your child can access it again and again. It holds knowledge like:

• Times tables
• Spelling rules
• How to ride a bike
• The name of their teacher or their home address

When information is stored in long-term memory, it frees up working memory—meaning your child can think more clearly and learn more easily.

💡 Why It Matters

Children struggle not because they’re not smart, but often because their working memory is overloaded. This happens when they’re trying to hold on to too many new ideas at once.

The goal in teaching is to move important knowledge from working memory into long-term memory, through practice, repetition, and connection to what they already know. Once it’s in long-term memory, it takes the pressure off working memory, allowing children to learn more complex things with greater ease.

👨‍👩‍👧 How You Can Help at Home

• Break instructions into smaller steps
• Encourage regular practice of key facts (like number bonds or spelling)
• Use visuals or prompts to reduce the load on memory
• Celebrate repetition—it helps learning "stick" 

Through our deep understanding of cognitive science and the support of the VTLM 2.0, we have developed our Skye instructional model that mirrors best practice research to ensure we provide our students with the best learning environment to grow.

During our upcoming maths open night, we are offering parents an opportunity to learn more about how we teach maths and we will go through our learning model.

I hope to see as many parents as possible attend.

Mr Snow