Teaching & Learning

Teaching for today, and for tomorrow.

At Milgate, we believe effective teaching is not a choice between explicit instruction and inquiry. Students need both. They benefit from teachers clearly explaining and modelling new knowledge and skills, providing guided practice and checking for understanding. They also need opportunities to ask questions, investigate ideas, solve problems, collaborate and apply their learning in unfamiliar situations.

Strong foundational knowledge remains essential. Students cannot think deeply about something they do not yet understand, and they cannot critically evaluate information without knowledge against which to judge it. This is why our teachers explicitly teach the vocabulary, concepts, skills and background knowledge students need to access increasingly complex learning.

However, knowing information is no longer enough. Our students are growing up in a world where information is abundant, immediately available and increasingly generated or curated by artificial intelligence. The challenge is no longer simply finding an answer, but determining whether it is accurate, reliable, relevant and ethical. Students must learn that a confident or convincing answer is not necessarily a correct one.

This makes it increasingly important that students do not become passive consumers of information. We want them to question what they encounter, examine evidence, notice bias, consider different perspectives and form well-reasoned conclusions. These capabilities cannot be developed if students only receive information; they need regular opportunities to think with it, challenge it and use it.

The way we teach also communicates what we value. If students experience learning primarily as sitting silently, recalling answers quickly or repeating the thinking of others, we may unintentionally suggest that compliance and speed matter more than curiosity, reasoning and thoughtful contribution. Silence, direct explanation, choral response and retrieval practice can all be valuable at the right time, but they should form part of a broader learning experience in which questions are welcomed, ideas are explored and students are expected to think actively.

Inquiry learning provides important opportunities to develop these capabilities. 

Through carefully planned inquiries, students learn to develop questions, examine evidence, make connections and justify their conclusions. Teachers continue to guide the learning and ensure the required curriculum is taught, while creating space for students to contribute ideas, encounter complexity and exercise agency.

This balance also shapes our approach to technology and AI. We want students to understand when technology can genuinely enhance their learning and when it may interrupt or replace the thinking they need to do themselves. AI can be a useful tool, but it cannot replace curiosity, creativity, sound judgment, personal effort or meaningful collaboration with others.

Our aim at Milgate is to develop knowledgeable, capable and discerning young people, not passive recipients of information. By combining explicit teaching with purposeful inquiry, we are preparing students to do more than find answers. We are teaching them to ask worthwhile questions, make sense of information and use their knowledge thoughtfully and responsibly.