Bailiff’s Ukraine Appeal
Please help the students of JCG raise money for the people of Ukraine
Read MorePlease help the students of JCG raise money for the people of Ukraine
Read MoreAuthors: Ruth Lea Date: January 2019 Agreed by Staff: January 2019 Shared with Governors: January 2019 To be reviewed: December 2021
Other than Safeguarding, this is the most important College policy.
Our philosophy of Learning
Deep and meaningful learning occurs when students
At JCG we believe that expert teaching and learning can be achieved by embedding and interleaving Six Teaching Principles with Six Learning Principles; The Scholarly approach at Key Stages 3 and 4, which is further developed through the A level Mindset VESPA programme in Key Stage 5. Everyone is as a learner at JCG and we recognise the importance of developing a growth mindset culture amongst our staff, students and parents in order to excel as both learners and educators. (appendix 1)
Teaching and Learning Principles
Embedding these principles within our teaching provides a framework with a common language for talking about teaching while enabling us the flexibility and freedom to teach in our own style. We recognise that the application of these principles will look different across and within subjects. The principles do not represent a lesson plan; an individual lesson may focus on just one of the principles.
Teachers are responsible for:
Students should take responsibility for:
Heads of Department and Heads of Faculty are responsible for:
Heads of School / Sixth Form are responsible for:
The Principal is responsible for:
Parents/guardians should be encouraged to take responsibility for:
The Governing Body:
The impact of the policy will be assessed by:
Relationship to other policies Internal Policies:
Relationship to other documents External documents:
Appendix 1 - Acknowledgements
As a College, learning is our core purpose and our approach to learning is underpinned by our core values: aspire, inquire, excel and belong. In seeking to bring these values to life for all our students, we have been influenced by the text ‘Making Every Lesson Count’, by S Allison and A Tharby, the work on Growth Mindset by Carol Dweck and the work that Professor Guy Claxton and his colleagues have done in formulating the idea of Building Learning Power. Learning is for all and both students and staff are encouraged to reflect on a growth mindset approach to learning and teaching. The concept of ‘growth’ applies to the brain as ‘effortful learning changes the brain, building new connections and capability’ meaning ‘our intellectual abilities are not fixed from birth but are, to a considerable degree, ours to shape’. We want to help our students and our staff to grow their brains and to become more intelligent and hence to aspire, inquire, excel and belong, and realise the College vision for themselves.
A level Mindset (VESPA)
There are five key elements to success at A level and these five elements can be learned. Together, the five elements are called VESPA. V = Vision How well do you know what you want to achieve? E = Effort How many hours of independent work do you do per week? S = Systems How do you organise your learning and time? P = Practice What kind of work do you do to practice your skills? A = Attitude How do you respond to setbacks? https://www.vespamindset.com
Appendix 2 - Guidance for Lesson Observation, Learning walks and SLT pop ins.
JCG is committed to building a culture where observation of practice is intrinsic to the life of the College, non-threatening, and completely synonymous with our pursuit of excellence. We aim for all teaching to be judged as good or outstanding and use the evidence from all forms of classroom observation to evaluate our success in fulfilling this aim, in addition to providing professional development and identifying good practice. All forms of classroom observations are developmental and supportive and those involved in the process will:
We observe in order to:
Learning Walks and SLT pop ins
Learning walks
Expectations for informal and formal observations The Observer and Observed will:
The Observer will:
Formal Observations