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Question or focus area:

How can the Spiral of Enquiry approach help to increase student’s completion
and positive approach to Homework?

Scanning​: 2-3 sentences to summarise your scanning process. What did you notice
when you asked ‘What’s going on for our learners?’

We carried out pupil voice with students in our collective teaching groups in years 9
and 10. We noticed that the overwhelming view from the students was that
homework was ‘like a punishment’. They had very negative associations with
homework and the vast majority completed homework to avoid sanctions. They saw
little value in it.

Focus​: What key area of learning was your focus? In 1-2 sentences, articulate what
your driving question / focus was and why you selected this focus area.

Our focus was on whether removal of sanctions for lack of homework, and replacing
it with praise and reward for completion of homework would change their attitude and
completion of homework in a positive way.

Hunch​: 2-3 sentences to describe your hunches about the ways in which the school
are contributing to this situation for your learners in both positive and negative ways.

Our hunch involved students wanting the inconvenience and work involved in
managing their homework to be recognised and rewarded – for it to feel valued by
teachers more.

New professional learning​: 2-3 sentences to summarise the new areas of


professional learning you explored and what you found most effective in supporting
the learning of your team.
We gathered student, staff and parent voice to understand attitudes to homework.

Explored the EEF evidence around secondary homework and the impact of that on
progress

We explored schools that had removed all homework and those that had quite rigid
approaches to homework to look at where there had been success

Taking action​: 2-3 sentences about the actions or strategies you and your team put
in place to address your focus, and any tweaks you made to increase impact further.

In our classes in years 9 and 10 we removed all sanctions for homework for a 6
week period. Ensuring that when homework was not completed it was not treated
negatively. Instead all students who completed homework were rewarded with
verbal praise, achievement points and in some cases contact with parents. We
moved to showing a greater recognition of what they had done rather than just taking
the work in and issuing sanctions for those who didn’t have it.

We wrote to parents in advance to ensure they were aware of our trial and the
reasons for it.

Checking: In what ways (qualitative and quantitative) did you measure impact?
What was the impact you saw? On students? On teachers and school culture? Can
you provide any quotes from children or colleagues which bring to life the difference
you have made?

We largely measured impact in two ways – through the completion rate of homework
during the six-week period to see what changes took place, and through student
voice following the 6 weeks. We found that the completion rate didn’t change in that
time – students who completed homework continued to do so, and those who didn’t
also continued not to. The difference most noted was that it removed a regular
negative conversation between teacher and student who didn’t complete homework
which lead to a more positive relationship in the classroom. The students who also
received the praise and recognition for their work appreciated it and said it ‘feels nice
to get told straight away if its good’.

Reflections/Advice: ​2-3 sentences about what you learned from this inquiry, where
you plan to go next, and what advice you would offer other schools.

The completion of homework is likely to be a far more complex issue that just around
the sanction and reward in school. It is likely the students continued completing
homework for other reasons such as parental involvement and habit. In order to
really see the difference made by this approach it would need to be trialled over a
much longer period of time. We would like to trial it for a whole school year and take
views of parents and students at the end of the year to identify any attitude changes
as a result. We also found that because the students were still receiving sanctions in
other subject areas it reduced the impact of the change we were trialling.
Question or focus area: ​What is the ‘bigger picture’ of learning?

Scanning​: 2-3 sentences to summarise your scanning process. What did you notice
when you asked ‘What’s going on for our learners?’

We scanned a mixture of KS2 children for two of the scanning groups – one was
‘quiet’ children and from a vulnerable background and another KS2 group was higher
ability spellers. The final group were taken from Pupil Premium KS1 children. We
noticed that our children were not aware of the ‘bigger picture’ of their learning. They
were good at talking about grammatical improvements but not for how the skills and
attributes they were now learning could help them in later life beyond just ‘doing well
in SATs’.

Focus​: What key area of learning was your focus? In 1-2 sentences, articulate what
your driving question / focus was and why you selected this focus area.

We decided to mainly focus on the ‘bigger picture’ of learning and how skills and
attributes taught are relevant to the children for their life-long learning journey. After
discussion and ideas raised with our Coach, we developed our Theme of the Year
(Warriors – train hard/ are resilient and be an eco-warrior) and our learning powers
(www.warriors for wisdom, willingness and wonder) into the work we were pursuing
with pupils and staff.

Hunch​: 2-3 sentences to describe your hunches about the ways in which the school
are contributing to this situation for your learners in both positive and negative ways.

The positive was that the staff had a willingness to take the project forward​ ​and there
was good debate and discussion centred on learning. Pupils also trusted us when
we were scanning – talking about things that are personal to them. The only negative
we thought was that staff could have felt ‘oh no, not another thing to complete!’
New professional learning​: 2-3 sentences to summarise the new areas of
professional learning you explored and what you found most effective in supporting
the learning of your team.

After discussion with our Coach we researched about Educate Together schools and
also looked at possibly using Character Targets for the children. The idea that most
struck us was researching ‘I Wonder’ walls for facilitating child-led learning.

Taking action​: 2-3 sentences about the actions or strategies you and your team put
in place to address your focus, and any tweaks you made to increase impact further.

We got pupils to focus on the bigger picture of learning through mind-mapping,


flipped learning (creation of school YouTube channel and videos to engage parents/
carers more in learning) and end of topic evaluations linked to our whole-school
theme and learning powers. This then evolved into classes having ‘Spiral’ sessions,
days and weeks where there was an increased amount of children leading their own
learning via teacher facilitation.

Checking: In what ways (qualitative and quantitative) did you measure impact?
What was the impact you saw? On students? On teachers and school culture? Can
you provide any quotes from children or colleagues which bring to life the difference
you have made?

Each class completed end of topic evaluations based on the link to the whole-school
theme, learning powers and how their recent learning will help them in life. Classes
showed an increased level of seeing the ‘bigger picture’, being able to state more
purpose for their learning. The children also were more confident and relevant in
discussing their next steps for learning and giving ideas for how they could improve
the topic in the future. For example, when asked “How did the topic link to our theme
of warriors (train hard/ be resilient/ be an eco-warrior)?” Year 5 children could now
answer “The soldiers showed resilience in battle and they recycled clothing and
weapons after the battle”. When asked “What have you learned (ideas/ skills/
themes) from this topic that will help you in your life?” Year 2 children could answer
“Strategy and thinking ahead. English history – why castles were made and who
owned them?” We also sought out the views of children initially scanned to how they
now saw the ‘bigger picture’ of learning.

Reflections/Advice: ​2-3 sentences about what you learned from this inquiry, where
you plan to go next, and what advice you would offer other schools.

We have learnt to listen carefully to what the children are saying and not to structure
questions so that we just receive the answer that we want to hear. We will have a
focus on using Spiral of Enquiry Pupil Voice questions to a wider range of children, ‘I
Wonder’ walls being used in every class leading to more child-led learning
opportunities and children will also be given more choice in how they present their
work. Jamie will also trial other staff in using flipped-learning activities with their
classes. Our advice to others would be to take your time, listen to the children and
think carefully about next steps (don’t rush or do too much, too soon!).

Displays in school linked to  Children in Year 1 asking their 


child-led learning work  own questions in class to 
(Reception Class children  research about their topic 
designed their own questions to   
ask about tadpoles which they 
then spent a week exploring) 

Children in Year 3 researching  Children in Year 5 researching 


their own topic information in  their own topic information in 
class and choosing how to present  class and presenting it to the 
their work  class as ‘teachers’ 
 

 
School name: Hellingly

Enquiry team members: Corrine Crawford, Kyra Ward, Hollie Whyman

Question or focus area:

How can the Spiral of Enquiry approach help to impact on engagement in


learning?

Scanning​: 2-3 sentences to summarise your scanning process. What did you notice
when you asked ‘What’s going on for our learners?’

● We scanned pupils demonstrating poor behaviour, disengagement and pupil


premium pupils who appeared to be underachieving in reading. We noticed
that the pupils did not believe that adults in school really believed in them and
this was linked with not valuing their learning as it was not always meaningful
for them - they didn’t see the point, they didn’t feel ownership over it, and felt
that all learning was about ‘doing well in your SATs’ and ‘getting a good job
when you are older. They didn’t really understand their next steps and how
they would improve.

Focus​: What key area of learning was your focus? In 1-2 sentences, articulate what
your driving question / focus was and why you selected this focus area.

● Our focus was about developing ownership over learning and making this
meaningful for the pupils and ensuring that they understood how to progress.
● We also looked at developing how pupils thought that the adults in school saw
them, particularly for those harder to reach pupils.

Hunch​: 2-3 sentences to describe your hunches about the ways in which the school
are contributing to this situation for your learners in both positive and negative ways.

● We wanted to make sure that ALL the pupils believed that all adults believed
in them and that they were positive that they were going to be successful in a
range of ways - our hunch was that we needed to spend more time explicitly
celebrating with the children on an individual level.
● Our hunch involved the children not really caring about their learning or
progress but it was not meaningful to them and they did not have ownership
over this - in trying to help them, we were over-scaffolding them and some
systems were too rigid. Our hunch was that this lack of independence and
frustration was contributing to a lack of resilience and poor behaviour.

New professional learning​: 2-3 sentences to summarise the new areas of


professional learning you explored and what you found most effective in supporting
the learning of your team.

● We found this the trickiest - we wanted to do too much too quickly to


immediately solve the problems we saw - this was the key learning for us - to
slow down and to research thoroughly!
● We researched online, we downloaded lots of reading, we spoke with
colleagues in different schools about what worked for them and drew on visits
from other schools and what we had seen work for them.
● We involved all of SLT in the research process - for example, the PHSE
leader researched how we could track learning behaviours and the Secrets to
Success.

Taking action​: 2-3 sentences about the actions or strategies you and your team put
in place to address your focus, and any tweaks you made to increase impact further.

● Staff meetings weekly - each teacher chooses a child and something good
they have done to share with another teacher who finds that child during the
week to share this.
● Introduced ‘Secrets to Success’ to support and celebrate learning behaviours
- with children nominating each other as well as the adults.
● Introduced the ‘Golden Phonecall’ for pupils to call their nominated adult
(mum, grandparent, etc) themselves when they had done something which
had particularly impressed their teacher - using the special golden phone.
● CPD on ‘why we learn…’ and teachers sharing this big picture with children at
the beginning of each unit and subject leaders sharing about their subject in
assemblies.
● Personalised target stickers for writing which we used across the whole
curriculum and the children knew were individual to their next steps in
learning.
● Revamping the Maths Passports so that all of the children were clear on their
maths targets - with maths medals awarded in assembly when they complete
each stage.
● Y3 computing lessons - children designed their own games to support their
Maths Passport targets and videoed and edited these - these were shown on
the Anomaly screen in the playground and on the screen in the library. The
children owned these games and videos.
● Both writing personalised targets and Maths Passports targets were
integrated in Pupil Progress Meetings.
● CPD on ownership in learning and developed an approach across Maths
books (renamed Maths Scrapbooks), English, spelling, cross curricular, art
sketchbooks (renamed Art Scrapbooks) giving the children more ownership
over how they presented their work, with praise given where every piece looks
different. For example, in writing - every child writing about their chosen
subject - eg non chronological reports, WW1 topic - some children wrote
about tanks, about nurses, etc. We bought lots of coloured ballpoint pens!
● This sat hand in hand with the development of the art scrapbook approach to
learning - exploring, developing skills, practising / drafting and then creating
their piece - this was developed and then extended across the curriculum.
● Trialled ‘proud cloud’ reflection books where children reflected on what they
had learned and what they were proud of at the end of each week.
● Set up the Dengineers - when the focus group stayed on the green all week,
they got to participate in Dengineers, transforming the KS1 playground, with
tyres, logs, dinosaur land, digger land etc. The children listened to the KS1
pupils and designed around them. They supported them to play structured
games.
● Accelerated Reader - we unpicked with the children where they were going
wrong with their quizzes - eg if their books were too high a ZPD, how they
were answering the questions. A lot of the time the children were rushing and
they were not finding the answers in the text. We introduced paper quizzes
rather than online and teachers worked with target groups. This had an impact
when they understood that they were supposed to use the text to answer the
questions. We have re-evaluated the teaching of reading for this academic
year as the online quizzes are not translating in to success in the tests.

Checking: In what ways (qualitative and quantitative) did you measure impact?
What was the impact you saw? On students? On teachers and school culture? Can
you provide any quotes from children or colleagues which bring to life the difference
you have made?

● Wider Curriculum leader monitoring the ‘big picture’


● We talked with children more - and more informally - SLT taking on an
additional lunch duty each so each did one ‘reds’ duty, one playground duty
and one dinner hall duty each week, giving more opportunity to discuss with
the children outside of the classroom about their learning experiences
● We monitored behaviour through new ClassCharts electronic system
recording all reds - we then added recording whenever a child was a ‘target’
of another child’s behaviour to support monitoring trends
● Impact on children’s self esteem - examples of children so excited that Mrs S
had told her that her teacher had been talking about how hard she had been
working on her fronted adverbials and she had taken her in to her classroom
to show her her book and Mrs S was so proud too.
● This has also led to staff learning the names of pupils outside their classes
(especially relatively new staff) and addressing the pupils by name, showing
that they are known and valued.
● Writing targets and Maths Passport targets integrated into PPMs meant that
these specifics became the teacher’s targets too and valued by both teacher
and pupil. Many, many more maths medals were given out! All children, when
asked their maths targets are able to respond, including when they are given
their medal for completing it and they know the next one. This demonstrates
how they are valuing their targets and their learning more.
● Accelerated Reader - monitoring the % correct averages on online quizzes
about their books - this was also incorporated into PPMs and those children
scoring below 85% were listed as a progress concern with actions identified to
support them to accelerate this.
● Children are keen to show off their books - they feel like they belong to them
and they show enjoyment and pride.
Reflections/Advice: ​2-3 sentences about what you learned from this inquiry, where
you plan to go next, and what advice you would offer other schools.

● We learned to REALLY listen to the children - we thought we were listening to


them but when we reflected on this, we were making decisions we thought
would work and not really listening to their experiences and thinking things
through in different ways.
● We tried to do too much too quickly and we needed to build in more research
time.
● Next, we are going to use the spirals to go back to the original issue of
behaviour, with a key focus on those harder to reach pupils.
● Alongside this, we want to explore the key thread further - ​‘All learners - leave us
more curious than when they join us (children and adults) and leave the stage with dignity,
purpose and real options.’
Question or focus area:  

How  can  the  Spiral  of  Enquiry  approach  help us to understand how our pupils see their 


own learning and how can we work with them to be the best they can be? 

Scanning:​ We started the scanning phase with a few selected children in school and used a TA 
who was new to role to ask the 4 key questions. The children selected were children who were 
particularly vulnerable, less engaged or not meeting their targets. We also included PPG and SEN 
children. We noticed that most of them named friends who believed in them but not adults in 
school. We then decided to scan as many of the children in school as possible focusing on the first 
question after an assembly about what success was and being successful meant. We noticed that 
a number of children could not name an adult in school they thought believed in them and that 
they were not able to talk specifically about their own targets.  
 

Focus:  Our  focus  was  on  how  we  could  encourage  all  children  to  take  ownership  of  their  own 
learning  and how we could motivate children to take a central role in their progress. We wanted to 
look  at  how  we  could  support  them  in  really  understanding  their  targets  and  next  steps. We also 
wanted  all  children  to  develop  a  self-belief  in  being  a success based on them recognising at least 
one adult in school who believed in them. 

Hunch:​ Our hunch involved our school vision and our work on growth mindset. We wanted all 
children to feel valued and to be able to name an adult in school they trusted and could go to, to 
talk. We wanted to build on the positive relationships and family feel we have in school by 
making sure staff were more explicit in demonstrating to the children that they believed in them 
and ensure that the children recognised that all adults believe they could be successful. We want 
all children to understand what success is and looks like.  
 
New professional learning​:  
- Staff took part in staff meeting, in school training to look at what success means and how 
we could talk to children to help them understand that we believe in them  
- Staff were introduced to the Spirals approach and asked who they could name in school 
who believed they were a success 
- Growth mindset training continued and developed in school in order to improve targeted 
positive praise that will impact on children’s belief and the way they see themselves. 
- All staff had attachment theory training to understand the behaviours of children and how 
we can support children to feel secure, safe and supported in school 
-  
Taking action​:   

- School assemblies to focus of what success looks like for all children 
- Each class takes part in PSHEe/Circle times to discuss what success looks like. Staff talk to 
children to ensure that all children can identify an adult in school they trust and can go to. 
Children think about an adult in school that believes they will be a success and can name 
them. Teacher shares any children that find this difficult as a whole staff so people can 
target these children on a daily basis to catch up with and notice.  

- If children need to be sanctioned, time is given to listen to children and for them to reflect 
on the choices they have made and what they would do differently. Staff focus on 
naming behaviours rather than labelling children to build self-belief and change how 
children see themselves 
- Introduced a critique gallery in the infant classes in order to model how to give and use 
positive feedback and to develop peer feedback as a learning tool. Teaching staff 
modelled and shared feedback to show children how it helped understand personal 
targets and next steps and how to accept them as a positive learning tool.  
- SLT had time for short mentor/catch up session with identified children to help them take 
pride in learning and to have a purpose to show their best and celebrate this. 

Checking:  

- Rescanning children and revisiting the question regarding adults who believe in them 
throughout the year to ensure that all children can identify someone in school they can go 
to 
- Pupil voice is happening more regularly and staff and really listening to what children are 
saying and how they want to be supported in their learning. Staff are now ‘listening’ more 
rather than ‘hearing’ and interpreting with their own ideas 
- Identified children are monitored in pupil progress meetings and their individual progress 
in tracked to look at the impact from mentoring and adapting the curriculum more 
specifically 
- Quantitative data used in KS1 to look at the impact of the critique gallery, peer feedback 
and allowing children to identify personal, individual targets.  
 

Reflections/Advice:  

- Allow  plenty  of  time  for  scanning  the  children.  Ensure  children  really  understand  the 
questions before scanning them to get the most accurate results. 
- Scanning  the  staff  first  helped  our  staff  team  to  understand  what  we  were  asking  the 
children and what it meant 
- We  have  really  learned  to  use  pupil  voice  more  regularly  and  more  effectively  to  adapt 
our teaching and learning to the needs of the children 
- Talking  to  children  has  helped  us realise the importance of explaining the reasons why we 
do something as part of helping them understand their targets.  
How can
the
Spirals of Enquiry approach help to develop pupils’ independence?

Scanning

We began by each scanning children in our class randomly to try and identify a
focus. Between us we scanned around 75 children but no specific pattern emerged.
We then drilled down into how most of our ‘Towards’ children found it really hard to
talk about school, their lives and their learning.

Focus

Our focus was on taking the time to talk to some of our ‘hard to shift’ children and
find out about their experiences of school. These children have had school based
interventions which have only had limited impact and we wanted to explore the
bigger picture.

Hunch

Our hunch was that the issue was deeper than just filling in gaps and was more
linked to their attitude to learning and particularly their levels of independence. The
emerging pattern was that these children were either over or under parented and
didn’t have the skills to take responsibility for themselves and ultimately their
learning. We wanted to explore what we could do in school to support them to
develop this.

New professional learning

● Researched ways other schools helped develop independence


● Researched TRG approach to school development
● Researched ways to engage parents further
Taking action

Develop a separate independence project for each year group to support age
specific goals and motivate targeted children to take responsibility for themselves.

Changed parents evenings to individual consultations throughout the year. As part


of this our identified children had personal organisation and independence targets
which were then discussed and then it was identified how the family, school and the
child will support its development.

Held regular meetings to discuss progress, share successes and research and refine
the process.

Checking

Impact has been measure through:


● school data (who has made progress)
● changes in homework being handed in
● changes and improvements recorded at Parent Consultations

Reflections/Advice

The most important thing we learned was not to miss the children out of the process
of school development and improvement. We had tried so many different strategies
and ways of trying to move these children but hadn’t actually taken the time to talk to
them about their experiences.

Taking the time to involve the parents more closely in the process of target setting
for their children has been a revelation. Having a clear role in how they can support
their child is something which they really like and has helped to build stronger
relationships with the child as the focus.
Sawtry Village Academy

SPIRALS OF INQUIRY PROJECT SUMMARY 2017-2018 


Scanning: 2-3 sentences to summarise your scanning process. What did you 
notice when you asked What’s going on for our learners? How do we know? 
Focus: What key area of learning was your focus? In 1-2 sentences, articulate 
what your driving question / focus was and why you selected this focus area. 
I  was  interested  in  students  taking  more  responsibility  for  their own learning. 
I  wanted  to  see  how  much  learning was delivered by the teacher (compared to 
independent learning) and to what extent lessons were teacher led. 
Hunch: 2-3 sentences to describe your hunches about the ways in which the 
actions of the educational professionals are contributing to this situation for 
your learners in both positive and negative ways. 
I felt that within the department our lessons had become too teacher led and 
students were becoming too passive and not learning or progressing as much 
as they could. I decided to try and make schemes of work more independent 
for learners and more reflective on what they had learned. 
New professional learning: 2-3 sentences to summarise the new areas of 
professional learning you explored and what you found most effective in 
supporting the learning of your team. 
During the learning communities, a group member shared an idea from 
Science and Core Studies in which student reflected on what they had learned 
during the lesson by finishing a selected sentence. I decided to adapt this for 
my own subject and trial it with both KS4 and KS5. 
Taking action: 2-3 sentences about the actions or strategies you and your team 
decided on and how your actions worked out. 
During lessons students were asked to work in pairs on independent tasks to 
research the information which would have normally been a teacher-led 
lesson. Lessons become much less of the teacher at the front talking and more 
of the students discovering the information in alternate ways. The students 
would receive regular feedback on what they had found out to ensure the 
right learning was taking place. At the end of lessons students would select a 
lolly stick with a reflection question and write a response in their books to 
reflect on what they had learned. 
 
Checking: 2-3 sentences to describe the difference you made. Was it enough? 
Were you satisfied? What did you use as baseline evidence? If your focus is in 
an area where performance standards are available, please show what changes 
were evident. In other areas, be clear on what you used as evidence of growth. 
Provide as a chart or graph if possible. 
During the process, regular assessments of progress were given and working 
at grades issued. The students appeared to progress at a good rate and were 
able to reach MTGs quickly (at KS4). The students were noticeably more 
engaged in the lessons and worked well together in differentiated pairings. At 
KS5 the students used the lolly system to discuss their learning as a group at 
the end of lessons. The students enjoyed doing this and asked to select more 
than one stick to discuss. The reflection process allowed them to think about 
what they were learning even when it was just a practical coursework lesson 
and made them engage with the lessons more as they then appreciated them 
more as they felt that they were in fact learning. It helped them understand 
their own learning. 
Reflections/Advice: 2-3 sentences about what you learned from this inquiry, 
where you plan to go next, and what advice you would offer other schools. 
It is clearly evident that the system of students working independently together 
to discover learning and then reflecting on what they have learned has had a 
positive impact to their progress and engagement with the subject. Students 
prefer to work in this way rather than to be sat at a desk copying notes of what 
the teacher has said. The progress this has produced is at a faster rate than 
would be normally expected and lower attainers have benefited greatly from 
working in differentiated pairings. The reflection process in particular has 
been a success, particularly at KS5 for making them understand and 
appreciate what they are learning in every lesson. It is my intention to roll this 
system out across all schemes of work. 
 
 
 

Question or focus area:

E.g How can the Spiral of Enquiry approach help to impact on pupil
premium children’s progress in writing by increasing their growth mindset?

Scanning​: 2-3 sentences to summarise your scanning process. What did you notice
when you asked ‘What’s going on for our learners?’

We carried out face to face interviews with a selection of pupils from Years 1 to 6 (20
pupils). We also gave out written questionnaires to all pupils in KS2. We noticed that
our pupils are very unsure about how they can improve their work (in particular their
writing). They are over reliant on the teacher to tell them how to improve, and
struggle to take ownership of their own progress.

Focus​: What key area of learning was your focus? In 1-2 sentences, articulate what
your driving question / focus was and why you selected this focus area.

Our focus is on empowering our pupils to understanding the learning process more
clearly by making the skills of learning more explicit. Part of this involves the pupils
becoming more reflective and skilled at self and peer feedback and critique.

Hunch​: 2-3 sentences to describe your hunches about the ways in which the school
are contributing to this situation for your learners in both positive and negative ways.

We focus too much on results/outcome rather than on the learners’ needs.


Sometimes the way we give feedback isn’t helping pupils as we are giving them too
much rather than encouraging them to reflect and identify how they can get improve.
Therefore, we are aiming to build on the pupils’ independence and metacognition by
increasing pupil involvement and ownership of their learning (less teacher talk).

New professional learning​: 2-3 sentences to summarise the new areas of


professional learning you explored and what you found most effective in supporting
the learning of your team.

We researched Guy Claxton’s learning powers and started to develop our own
unique way of introducing these to the children through stories and displays and
incorporating into the daily classroom dialogue. Staff learning sessions have also
been focused on metacognition and developing the pupils’ verbal reasoning skills.

We used our staff learning sessions to discuss our current feedback/marking


practices and how we could develop these to change the pupils’ attitudes to their
learning journey. We looked at examples of peer and self-assessment techniques
and implemented these into our lessons. We have shared the pedagogy around EFF
research on self-regulation and metacognition with staff.

Taking action​: 2-3 sentences about the actions or strategies you and your team put
in place to address your focus, and any tweaks you made to increase impact further.

Each class created a ‘critique gallery’ to encourage reflection and train the children
to give feedback that is ‘specific, kind and helpful’.

We have adapted the way we give feedback and the pupils are much more involved
in the feedback process through self and peer assessment.

We have started to introduce ‘learning powers,’ beginning with the ability to reflect on
learning.

Checking: In what ways (qualitative and quantitative) did you measure impact?
What was the impact you saw? On students? On teachers and school culture? Can
you provide any quotes from children or colleagues which bring to life the difference
you have made?

Greater evidence of peer assessment and self-reflection in the children’s work


books. The classroom dialogue has shifted more towards the how we learn rather
than the ‘what’ we are learning.

Classroom displays also reflect the school’s focus on the learning process and peer
critique.

Quotes from children:

I am getting better at learning because I now listen to the feedback from


my teachers.

I can help others to get better by giving them feedback to help them to
know how to improve.

Reflections/Advice: ​2-3 sentences about what you learned from this inquiry, where
you plan to go next, and what advice you would offer other schools.
We plan to introduce more of the ‘learning powers’ to make the language of learning
more explicit.

We will continue to embed opportunities for self-reflection and peer critique into
teaching and learning across all subjects so that it becomes second nature and
pupils begin to see how they can positively influence their own progress and that of
their peers.

My advice to other schools would be to take your time with the process so that you
can really tune in to what the pupils are telling you and involve all staff in the different
stages of the Spirals process to achieve maximum impact.

We would also say: Don’t settle for your first hunch! Dig deeper if you need to.

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