Teaching and Learning
Practical support for curriculum design, classroom practice and the everyday work of helping pupils make progress across partner schools.
What we mean by teaching and learning
Teaching and learning covers the decisions teachers make every day: how a lesson is sequenced, how new ideas are explained, how pupils are questioned and how misconceptions are found and corrected. The Alliance supports schools to think about these decisions together, so that good practice is shared rather than kept within individual classrooms.
Curriculum that holds together
A curriculum is more than a list of topics. Schools need to be clear about what pupils should know and be able to do at each stage, and how each unit builds on what came before. Alliance colleagues work with subject leaders to review sequences, check that key vocabulary is revisited, and make sure that assessment matches what has been taught.
Areas of focus
Support is available across the main areas of teaching practice. Schools can choose one area for a term or work across several as part of a wider plan.
Working together in classrooms
Lesson study, peer observation and joint marking are some of the approaches that schools find most useful. The photographs below show staff working through these methods during Alliance activities.
Checking that learning has happened
Good teaching depends on knowing whether pupils have understood. The Alliance encourages schools to use short, regular checks, to look closely at pupil work, and to act on what those checks show. Assessment is treated as a tool for teaching rather than a separate task, and staff are supported to keep workload manageable while doing it well.