Aims and Objectives

Teaching and Learning is our core business. Teaching and Learning sits at the very heart of Hedingham School. It permeates into everything that we do and is in the very centre of all school development planning. We endeavour to ensure that we provide an environment in the classroom that allows our learners to flourish and grow, one that inspires and nurtures a lifelong thirst for learning. We strive to meet every child's individual need and value their journey and the destination. Our curriculum provides a breadth that covers traditional academic subjects but also meets the needs of the modern world.

To maximise the growth of Teaching and Learning within the school, we have structured key approaches that encourages the continued professional growth of our teaching staff. We share Professor John Hattie’s belief that after students themselves, teachers have the biggest impact on learning. As such, much time and effort is directed to ongoing professional growth and development; examples of this include:

• Fortnightly Continued Professional Development (CPD) for all teaching staff that is personalised to meet each individual's professional need and that draws on the very best practice from around the school
• Regular dedicated time, ring fenced for Teaching and Learning development, for teaching staff to work collaboratively in their departmental team (current focus being curriculum development, strategies to encourage deeper thinking and problem solving, strategies to develop “knowledge” rather than “information” and becoming specialists in our subjects)
• An active research and development community that explores the latest and most effective pedagogy within education
• Opportunities for leadership training, development and growth at all levels (leadership in the classroom, leadership at Middle Leader level, Pastoral leadership as well as aspiring Senior Leadership)
• A strong monitoring structure that schedules regular classroom observations across all departments in the school, involving all staff and providing key information for departmental and whole school development planning

Teaching and Learning Excellence at Hedingham School

To achieve a consistency in what we as a school constitute as excellence in the classroom, we need a framework for teachers to follow and refer back to. We encapsulate this framework using centralised principles that we value in the classroom. This is not a “policy”, rather a framework to draw upon in everyday classroom practice. These principles are used to inform our planning, our staff training and our internal monitoring.