Name of Strategy Explanation

AFL StrategiesAFL Fans & Poster I implemented this strategy into Year 6 early on in my placement. I laminated and

created 30 sets of AFL fans for each individual in the class, based on a traffic light system. I found out later that it was already a school initiative however I have taken responsibility for ensuring its consistency within the Year 6 classroom. I have also developed this strategy further by creating a poster of my own to ensure the children understand exactly what each face means – this is important to ensure that children are giving me the right messages regarding their understanding so I can aid their future development accurately.STANDARD 2, 6, 5

Marking Policy PosterThis is a very simple yet important strategy that hasn’t yet been implemented consistently across the school. Although the marking policy is consistent throughout the school, it was found that few children actually understood what their teacher’s marking meant. Therefore, marking as assessment for learning was rather pointless. By creating a poster and putting up in a prominent place in the classroom the children in my class can now refer to it at any time to help them understand their teacher’s marking and therefore progress in their learning.STANDARD 2, 6

Innovative Approaches to Teaching and Learning

The Polishing Pen This is a strategy suggested by Pie Corbett that I found online and was also recommended to my teacher during a course. This is an AFL strategy where children are encouraged to go back and edit, redraft, evaluate and improve their work. This can be used as self or peer assessment and involves the children annotating their written recordings with suggestions for improvement, notes, corrections of spelling, punctuation etc. They do this in a different coloured pen so their progress and development of their work can be clearly identified and used easily to aid their future learning and work. To develop this further, giving them each a fancy pen e.g. Metallic gel pen will encourage them to make more improvements and take time to improve their work. This is an effective strategy as very often children have little time to reflect and review due to time restraints which can negatively affect their development.STANDARD 2, 6, 1

Weekly Talk Partners I implemented this strategy at the beginning of my placement and is the only class I am aware of at the moment in the school that follows this seating plan. By changing children’s partners on a weekly basis, it allows children to constantly work with somebody new and of differing abilities. This is effective for my class as some individuals are very fussy about whom they are sat next too, however now they know that it is only short term, they are much more relaxed and cooperative. It is also good for my class as the range of abilities is huge, so each week children have a chance to work in mixed ability partners, exchange different ideas and challenging each other in different ways.Using talk partners regularly also gets children used to the idea of evaluation and constructive criticism from others in order to help them improve their learning and become more robust and reflective thinkers – a great skill to practise before beginning secondary school. As the behaviour in my class can also be quite challenging, changing partners regularly and randomly means that children don’t end up sat constantly by a ‘best friend’ which they can mess around with or develop

bad behavioural habits together in the long term. STANDARD 2, 5, 7

KWL Grids These are used throughout the school, however I am trying to implement them more consistently, especially in Science and Ice Cool in Year 6. They involve the children planning their learning and personalising it for their own needs. They begin by explaining and recording what they already know about the topic – consolidating their prior learning. Next they must identify what they would like to find out and how they are going to find out about it. This develops the children as independent learners and tailors their learning and research to their own needs, differentiating learning at an individual level. They then need to record their new learning and what they have found out. Once completed, a child can see their learning journey and in time should be able to carry out this process independently on a daily basis without the grid, to support their learning in secondary school and beyond. It also allows them to reflect on their learning process and consider areas to improve/change next time. STANDARD 2, 6

X Factor Peer Assessment Although peer assessment is evident across the school, by Year 6 children are becoming disengaged with the process due to the same routine being drilled day after day. I found that children’s responses during peer assessment were often rushed with a focus on ‘completion’ rather than improving learning. I implemented a new kind of peer assessment not already used within the school called the X-Factor. This re-engaged children with the concept of peer assessment by linking it to something that entertained them outside of school. These small changes can be very effective and children’s responses have improved. To develop this further I would like to ‘audition’ pieces of work and allow the class to vote (using sticker wall for encouragement) on the best part/area for improvement to allow not only peer to peer assessment but class to peer assessment with the opinions of more than one individual.STANDARD 2,6,1

Lollipop Sticks (across KS2) Once I started my placement I soon realised that some of the children in my class have very short concentration spans and find it difficult to listen for even a short amount of time. I considered implementing the lollipop stick approach which

randomly chooses children to answer questions. This encourages children to stay on task and concentrate to avoid the embarrassment of not knowing what’s going on when they are picked. This works really effectively in my class. As some individuals are very fussy in my class, it also eliminates fuss and tantrums when choosing groups/pairs/talk partners as the children can see it is completely random. Despite implementing this in my classroom before Xmas, another student beat me to it in terms of implementing it across the school as she was in on a daily basis!!!! However, I still took responsibility for implementing this approach individually in my own class and so it is still an innovative and creative approach of my own that I brought to my classroom and continue to use it consistently.STANDARD 1,4,7

Behaviour StrategiesBell Countdown This strategy for managing children’s behaviour and voice levels was entirely a

creation of my own. After a difficult afternoon with the children’s behaviour, I decided that enough was enough. I was finding myself straining to be heard over constant low level disruption and often ended up raising my voice to the children which is not an approach I liked to adopt and left me with a headache and a sore throat. Therefore, I introduced a bell into the classroom and explained the rules clearly to the children the next morning. After the bell is rung I count down from 10. By the time I reach zero all children should be sitting down, hands in laps, silent, looking at me and listening. If any child fails to do so by 0, 1 minute Golden Time is taken from everybody for every second extra spent waiting for quiet. The children responded to this really well and I had individual children approaching me telling me how much better class was now the bell was being used! The children agreed that it was a very fair approach as it allowed them 10 seconds to finish their conversation or discussion, a realistic expectation rather than expecting silence immediately. As

the consequence is a class one, with all children losing Golden Time, this rarely happens, as children don’t want to be blamed for their peers’ loss of Golden Time. As this has worked so well and children understand the rules clearly and respond quickly, I have started to develop this strategy. Sometimes I cut the wait time to 5 seconds if appropriate to save time and I have also begun pressing the bell and using my fingers to count down rather than my voice – saving my voice further and bringing down the class noise level quicker. The class teacher, supply staff and support staff have all started to adopt this approach in my classroom as it has worked so well.STANDARD 7

Parent Success Letters This is a strategy that doesn’t exist within the school but is an idea given to me in university which I have adapted for my Year 6 class. Some of the behaviour issues in my class are due to low self-esteem and some parents only ever hear from school staff when their children have behaved badly during the day. Therefore this positive reinforcement strategy allows parents to hear more regularly about the successes of their children and boost the confidence and self-esteem of these children. As a student it is important for me not only to build relationships with the children in the class but also the parents of these children. By giving out one of these letters daily, I can easily make contacts with the children’s parents and can discuss these comments further with them if they wish. For those parents whoconstantly hear bad news, it provides them with an opportunity to see that staff are not targeting their children and want to celebrate them as well as make parents aware of potential problems.STANDARD 1,2,7,8

Miss Samuel’s Golden Ticket Competition

I have created this competition to try and promote good behaviour from all children in the classroom. The class will be split into mixed ability teams with a range of well-behaved children and those with more challenging behaviour. This gives each group a fair chance of winning the golden prize and encourages those with challenging behaviour to participate as they don’t want to let the other children in their team down and as they are with children who behave well, they feel like they have a chance of winning. Each time a child tries hard, makes me proud, shows good team work, follows instructions, tries their best or produces a fantastic piece of work, gold tickets will be given to them to put in their team jar. This also provides those who behave well all the time to have rewards rather than focusing on those with challenging behaviour all the time. At the end of the week each team’s golden tickets will be counted and those with the most tickets will receive a prize from chocolate, sweets, stationery etc.STANDARD 7,1,2

Horseshoe Table Arrangement I took the advice of my teacher who recommended this seating arrangement for the class. I decided to implement this strategy within Year 6 in the hope that it will improve behaviour. The horseshoe shape means that all children are facing the front and have a clear view of the teacher and the board. The teacher can also see every child clearly and has no backs facing them. This allows the teacher to focus on all children within the class and can identify any children off task or misbehaving much quicker than tables in groups. It also reduces the likelihood of distraction as children are focused on facing the lesson at the front, not facing any of their peers, only the teacher, reducing messing around and disruptive behaviour. This may seem a more didactic way of teaching, however, by incorporating weekly talk partners into this arrangement, collaborative learning is still an essential and regular part of the school day.STANDARD 1,2,4,5,7

General Teaching StrategiesPE Warm Up Games Booklet (across upper KS2)

The PE lessons in this school are shorter than in other schools I have visited. Once children are changed into PE kits, time for the lesson is precious. To improve my

time management and to plan well-structured lessons I decided to create a booklet of warm up games that I could easily pick up and use at the beginning of each session to ensure children are warmed up before physical activity.This booklet that I have created incorporates some fun activities and games which promote teamwork and pair work and get children moving quickly. I created this booklet using some ideas from teaching websites and also my own prior experience as a sport coach. The children have responded really well to these games and put them in the right, positive, ‘can do’ attitude for the PE lesson. As this worked effectively during my PE lessons, I shared this practise with the other KS2 classes who now also implement my range of warm up games during PE.STANDARD 3,4

VCOP Learning Wall This learning wall was entirely my own creation that I implemented before Xmas when asked to sort out the English display. As I was told that VCOP was an essential part of their language lessons, I decided to create a learning wall which could be used to encourage children to develop their VCOP skills during lessons and remind them of their importance. During lesson introductions, I focus on one aspect of VCOP and relate it to that week’s topic. For example, what vocabulary could be effective if used in an explanation? Each child writes some examples on a flashcard each. We share the ideas within the class and each child’s flashcard gets put in the V polypocket – the children are then encouraged to use these in their lessons to support and scaffold their writing across the curriculum.STANDARD 3,4,1

Welsh Help i’r Heddiw Games – (particularly Bang Bang, Bowlen Frwythau and Alibi)

Welsh is a subject that the children in Year 6 find quite difficult. This immediately creates a negative attitude towards the subject in the classroom and the class almost immediately becomes disengaged and uninterested. To increase their enjoyment in the subject I have decided to implement 10 minute games recommended by the Consortium Government where every child is actively involved in orally practising their welsh. I am implementing this approach to Welsh learning consistently on a daily basis and have already begun to see a difference in their attitude towards the subject – even asking to do welsh games as a treat at the end of the day for good behaviour! Along with a new, eye-catching, clear and useful Welsh learning wall these games have seen a transformation from their perceptions of the subject at the beginning of term and I will continue to expand their variety of games to ensure engagement and enjoyment continues. STANDARD 3,4,1,2,7

The Two Lesson Approach – Investigation & Reasoning

This is an approach recommended by the head teacher during Maths inset last week. However, as Year 6 will soon be entering secondary school, facing independence and taking exams which require reasoning, I had already begun incorporating an investigative approach to their learning, particularly in Maths (building bridges investigation). After this inset I have decided to adapt my ideas on investigative learning and incorporate the 2 lesson approach described by the Head teacher. This involves posing children with a problem which they then must solve as part of a team, using logic and reasoning skills and using a step by step approach to solving the issue. I will consistently implement reasoning into my lessons and will plan a reasoning and investigative Maths week for the children. Next term, the Science and Ice Cool I am planning is also largely based on independent outcomes and experiments/investigations where reasoning, logic and step by step approaches are essential to success for these children. STANDARD 3,4,1