Harris Academies
All Academies in our Federation aim to transform the lives of the students they serve by bringing about rapid improvement in examination results, personal development and aspiration.

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Teaching & Learning

The overarching aim of Harris Academy Falconwood is to end cycles of poverty and disadvantage, enabling all our students to actively respond to the opportunities and challenges of a rapidly changing world.

The Academy provides an exciting, personalised learning curriculum, which supports and challenges all of our students and is at the heart of our teaching and learning philosophy.  We ensure that all teaching and support staff have access to the highest quality training programmes to provide the most innovative and cutting edge learning opportunities for every student.

The Academy aims to:

  • Meet the needs and aspirations of all students
  • Ensure all students can successfully access the curriculum offer, making any reasonable adjustments required where particular needs are identified
  • Recognise high achieving students and ensure they are given opportunities to stretch and challenge their learning
  • Plan opportunities for students to develop their personal potential
  • Establish an agreed range of policies and practices to guarantee a consistent approach towards learning and teaching in every classroom.
  • Involve all staff in developing and improving the quality of learning and teaching
  • Provide all staff with developmental opportunities to extend and enhance their range of teaching and repertoires
  • Develop staff to deliver skills beyond their own subject specialism and incorporate cross curricular initiatives, in particular Literacy, Numeracy, ICT and Enterprise
  • Identify students’ achievements and areas for improvement, through rigorous monitoring of progress and to plan appropriate interventions to enhance learning
  • Realise the entitlements for Learners, Teachers and Curriculum as promoted by the Student Learning Commission

 

Teaching and Learning Principles

At HAF, all teaching and learning is based around our six Teaching and Learning Principles:

Aspirational Learning Behaviour

Raising the Bar

At HAF we know that having high expectations of our students’ behaviour and attitudes is essential to success.  As educators, when we set the bar high we raise horizons by showing students the incredible things they are capable of. We believe that aspirational behaviour means more than basic compliance; it is students demonstrating behaviours which will enhance their learning experience.

Clarity of Instruction

Streamlining Thought

At HAF we know that when introducing new and challenging concepts and tasks, we need our explanations to be precise and simple for our students to produce the best work and have a deep understanding. We believe that a vital part of our skill lies in our ability to break our expertise down so it is manageable and accessible.

Making it Remembered

Recall and Repetition

At HAF we know that learning means remembering more and being able to do more. For our students to be able to know more we respect their cognitive limits and ensure that challenge is skilfully considered alongside chunked instruction and repetition of powerful knowledge. Through planned recall and skilful interleaving, we believe that our students have the best chance to make meaningful and long-term progress.

Responsive Teaching

Evidence-Informed Action

At HAF we know that we need to be clear on end points in our subject areas and gather evidence to assess whether or not they been reached. We continuously formatively assess and respond to what the data tells us. To have maximum impact, this should occur within and between lessons.

High Impact Feedback

What to Keep and Change

At HAF we know what providing students with regular and timely feedback on their work is essential to our learners being able to make progress. When we are specific in identifying strengths we want replicated and actionable development points students are able to make tangible improvements to their work.

Curriculum Comprehension

Why this?

At HAF we know that having a deep understanding of our subjects and how our curriculum is constructed means that we can plan effectively for progress as well as anticipating any misconceptions which may arise. We believe that every discipline should promote literacy through a consistent approach to reading, writing and oracy which leads to life-long success.