Teaching and Learning is helping students to THRIVE at Talbot Heath
The Teaching and Learning philosophy of a school is vital to its success. It creates a vision which allows staff and students to unite under a common understanding and helps staff focus on pedagogical priorities. Thus, Teaching and Learning can drive forward innovation, allowing for reflective practice and enhancing the Talbot Heath student experience.
This year has seen the launch of a new 3-year programme of Teaching and Learning focusing on the current pedagogical concept of metacognition. “In simple terms, metacognition involves teaching pupils’ specific strategies for planning, monitoring, and evaluating their learning.” (Education Endowment Foundation). Talbot Heath’s THRIVE programme centres around students developing critical thinking skills which enable them to plan, monitor and evaluate their own learning to make progress across the curriculum. Research based evidence from The Education Endowment Foundation has stated that those schools which introduce and develop metacognition skills within their curriculum see an average of 7 months greater progress in their students than schools which do not.
THRIVE is the shared common language which we have introduced to Talbot Heath this year in order to allow students to embed the practices of metacognition into their own learning.
The interrelationship between cognition and metacognition has three stages; planning, monitoring and evaluation. The autumn term has seen the launch of THRIVE focusing on the planning stage of the metacognition cycle. Staff have had two training sessions, the first focusing on creating a shared language and vision and the second on cognitive apprenticeship.
Based on Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction, this session focused on explicitly modelling thought processes to students to help them understand the mental strategies and decision-making steps involved in a task. Senior school students were introduced to THRIVE through an assembly, focusing on the planning element of the model.
Studies have shown that implementing metacognitive strategies within a school have numerous benefits. Not only can they be seen to increase attainment levels, but they also raise the resilience levels and independence of students. As we embark on our metacognition journey at Talbot Heath, we hope that it helps the ‘curious minds’ of our students develop even more.
Vicky Mortell
Leader of Teaching and Learning
