Learning and Teaching Policy
Thomas Tallis School
LSU/Mentors Department
A Policy for Learning and Teaching
Aims
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The key purpose of Thomas Tallis School is to foster the development of independent learners as
lifelong learners.

This development process also nurtures the development of active citizens who are ready to
make a meaningful contribution to their wider community.

Thomas Tallis School aims to include all learners, staff and parents in this process, irrespective of
ability, sex, race, religion or sexual orientation.

This policy seeks to support a culture where all members of the school community are able to
learn, achieve and participate fully in school life.

This policy aims to nurture this partnership between all key players to foster effective learning so
that pupils respond creatively to the variety of learning experiences they have.

Thomas Tallis School also aims to provide support and opportunities for students to develop their
emotional intelligence, and an understanding of the contribution this has to their achievement at
school and beyond.

The results of this learning can be seen, some are measurable, all are transparent and all are
valued. These outcomes can be used to cultivate equality of opportunity.

This policy supports the development of whole school policies which respond to national initiatives
in areas such as literacy, numeracy, ICT, and assessment for learning.

Importantly this policy also celebrates good practice in learning and teaching in Thomas Tallis
School.
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The regular review of this policy informs the planning of CPD and the performance management
cycle in the schools.
Effective Learning involves developing a sense of discovery and exploration.
This is achieved by:
Making sense of new information and experience.
Talk about work and acknowledge/recognise students feelings.
Evaluate what they have done so far and improvements to be made.
Encourage them to identify ways they can become independent.
Identify where they have gone wrong, e.g. what happened, where it happened, who was involved, when it happened, how
it happened.
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Learning and Teaching Policy
Seek opportunities for positive praise/reinforcement.
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Making it a personal process.
Building rapport is vitally important, without it very little progress can be made.
Using the technique to centre upon important issues.
Listen carefully to all responses so that student feels listened to.
Learners doing or finding out something new – it is a creative process.
Reflecting upon a reviewing targets for learning and behaviour.
Learners receiving, processing and managing new information – it is an active process.
Jot down feelings/thoughts at the time.
Using descriptive praise to recognise achievements/build self-esteem.
Mind map where they want to go next.
SL & LT goals.
Remembering that learning involves making mistakes and sometimes getting stuck. Good learning
involves practising ways to become unstuck.
Building a positive context for learning so that getting it wrong can be seen in a positive, rather than a negative way.
Providing for the development of skills which are transferable.
Developing a learning context within subject areas which is inclusive of ideas and knowledge from other area.
Providing a safe, secure and stimulating environment.
Ensure that the LSU has interesting displays which are used as part of the teaching process.
Recognising that motivation is an important factor in the quality of learning.
Building good relationships with students is essential to successful motivation.
Building rapport is vitally important.
Breaking down learning tasks into small steps which lead to success.
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Learning and Teaching Policy
Recognising that it is a lifelong process.
Students are encouraged to read widely around a subject, including journals, periodicals, national newspapers and
websites to set learning in a wide context.
Demonstrating that teachers are also learners.
Making it challenging and enjoyable.
Use of humour to lighten the mood and see positive connections.
Planning for the next steps in the learning process and encouraging students to see beyond the immediate.
Effective Teaching involves cultivating a sense of wonder and achievement.
This is achieved by:
Teaching and support staff working in partnership to facilitate learning.
Good communication between all staff working in the LSU.
Providing an environment conducive to learning.
The LSU is decorated with informative and interactive displays, as well as with the various outcomes of students’ learning
in order to celebrate their achievements and that these are used in part of the lessons.
Staff providing learning experiences which enable students to make sense of new information.
Scaffolding tasks for students so that they can work with staff and be supported until they can work/think independently
about a task.
Staff using their knowledge of students to inform their interventions and planning.
Staff use the baseline information provided (MEL’s, thumbnail sketches, MEGs, IEPs, information from internal /external
sources) to plan learning sessions and sequences of sessions that are designed to meet the needs of individual learners
as well as information on emotional intelligence/needs.
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Learning and Teaching Policy
Providing structured interventions to facilitate pupils learning and progression.
Staff structure their sessions to allow for a variety of activities and experiences and have awareness of student’s
individual emotional responses.
Ensuring a consistent level of access and challenge for all learners.
The needs of each student are assessed on entry to the LSU on each occasion they visit.
Delivering well structured lessons. (see Appendix 1)
Building rapport and engaging students is the key element of our approach. Once this is done we can structure a learning
experience based upon work from the classroom.
Structured planning in the medium and long term.
This is done in liaison with head of year, SEN coordinator, outside agencies, parents, student, and class teachers.
Sharing, reinforcing and reviewing the objectives of learning with the learners themselves.
This is done on a regular basis – for some students LSU targets can be daily, hourly, or part thereof. Students are
challenged to review their school targets and their LSU agreed targets.
Providing learning experiences which are multisensory (VAK) and varied.
Where appropriate/possible learning experiences are always presented in as many different ways as possible to engage
the student. Staff assess the most appropriate ways whilst building rapport with the student.
Providing opportunities for individual to extend and enrich their learning.
Through the rapport building process staff are constantly on the look-out for ways to extend and enrich learning for each
student in order to interest them in the learning process. This could be within a subject area or more general eg an
interest project.
Providing a high challenge low stress learning experience.
Students often arrive at the LSU very stressed indeed! Our goal is to provide an environment in which we accept feelings
and calm the situation. Rapport building then leads to engagement in the learning process.
Providing opportunities for students to develop as effective independent learners.
Students are strongly encouraged to be active in their learning and not reliant upon staff. Students are actively engaged
in collecting work, planning out replacement/follow-on work, and thinking about the next task.
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Learning and Teaching Policy
Staff reflecting on their own practice, and being actively engaged in their continued professional
development.
Staff discuss/assess each others approaches to building rapport/engaging students. We learn from each other and
regularly attend outside courses to seek/reinforce our practice. Feedback/training can be ‘on the job’ or at department
meetings.
Using assessment to enhance learning
This can be achieved by:
Using a variety of methods to facilitate assessment of and assessment for learning.
Every visit by a student is recorded each period. When first attending the LSU, or when referred, an information sheet is
completed. Further assessments can be made using the LSU’s resources for assessing emotional intelligence.
Celebrating the diverse outcomes of learning in order to motivate and support the emotional
intelligence of learners.
Displays regularly contain work that reflects achievement across the full ability range to celebrate the varied outcomes of
learning and different levels of progress that students make and are referred to in the teaching and learning process.
Planning for progression in learning and critically reflecting on outcomes so as to raise standards.
Meetings with head of year/faculty, parents, offsite agencies, and of course the students are essential in reflecting upon
our approach and raising standards.
These processes nurture the school’s ethos of promoting inclusive lifelong learning.
Please refer to the School’s Assessment for Learning Policy for more detail on the processes and
systems involved.
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Appendix 1
Effective Learning is Supported when Staff Structure the Learning Experiences
A Suggested Learning Structure.
Part
Section
1
Overview/Starter
2
Input
Process
3
Review/Plenary
Approximate
What’s it for?
Duration
10
To create an appropriate working atmosphere. Link
lesson to prior topic/learning. Share objectives and
stimulate interest and curiousity.
20
Provide students with new information – this should
include a multisensory approach to suit different
learning styles (VAK).
e.g. teacher demonstration, teacher explanation,
video, audio.
20
The section where students make sense of the new
information, and show their new understanding.
e.g. the tasks that students carry out to make
sense of new information.
10
To review what has been learned and how it has
been learned.
To consider next steps and future lessons.
These different elements could be seen in a lesson.
The input and process section can happen at the same time or even be split into a sequence of
smaller chunks over the course of the whole lesson.
They could also be seen across a sequence of lessons.
They could also be repeated several times within one lesson.
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Learning and Teaching Policy
Appendix 2
The Learning Partnership
At Thomas Tallis School we recognise that at the heart of the most successful learning here is a
strong partnership between pupils, parents and the school. We believe that each of these partners
has important roles and responsibilities in making sure that every student achieves to the very best of
their potential.
The framework below summarises our vision of how each partner can successfully support the goal
of maximising every pupil’s potential.
In order to realise their potential pupils need to:
 Take pride in what they do and celebrate their success individually and as a group.
 Ensure excellent attendance and punctuality.
 Be organised.
 Show respect to the different abilities, genders, races, religions and cultures that exist in the
school.
 Actively take part in experiences that school opens up to them in lessons and after school
activities, through clubs and teams as well as on school journeys.
 Always have a go – it’s okay to get stuck when you’re learning. Good learning is about learning
‘to get unstuck’.
In support of this, pupils at Thomas Tallis can expect the school to:
 Communicate regularly with them and their parents.
 Provide learning opportunities to facilitate their growth and development in class and through
independent study.
 Assess learning and to provide clear and regular feedback to help them make improvements
and progress.
 Ensure access and challenge for all pupils, including able students and those with Special
Educational Needs.
 Provide rewards to celebrate achievements and success in all aspects of school life.
 Provide sanctions where necessary to encourage improved performance and achievement.
 Promote and sustain a school ethos based on positive relationships between learning partners
in a safe and secure environment conducive to learning.
This partnership between staff and pupils can be further supported by parents/carers if they:
 Ensure good attendance and punctuality.
 Play an active part in helping their child to complete homework and coursework.
 Support the school in promoting a culture of equality of opportunity and good behaviour.
 Support their child’s organisation
 Support the school’s rewards and sanctions recognising that these are there to encourage
improved performance and achievement.
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Learning and Teaching Policy
Appendix 3
Monitoring and Evaluation
To ensure that we provide equality of opportunity at Thomas Tallis it is essential that we monitor and
evaluate the Teaching and Learning Policy at School.
Monitoring
The Teaching and Learning Working Group takes and active role in overseeing the development and
realisation of this policy, and in promoting the spread of good practice in relation to it. This is a
responsibility shared with the Senior Leadership Team
Whole school strategies include:
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Calendered whole faculty/subject area sampling of work.
Calendered leadership team sampling of work.
Performance management classroom observations and sampling of work.
Middle and Senior management monitoring the quality and setting of homework.
Leadership team sampling of planners.
Analysis of examination results and value-added data.
Shadowing students.
Peer coaching cycles.
Internal audits (Through the Teaching and Learning Working Group)
External audits carried out by agencies such as the education authority inspectors and
consultants, HMI and OfSted.
Evaluation
This policy will be evaluated as part of the school self-evaluation and self improvement process. Our
strategies include:
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Regular meetings of the Teaching and Learning Working Group.
Consulting with middle managers.
Consulting with students and parents/carers.
Consulting with borough advisers.
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