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Teaching & Learning

Vision

At Westfield Academy, we believe that every student joining the Academy has the ability to be successful in secondary education. We aim to empower students with the ability to study and learn independently, to develop their social skills and to enjoy new experiences. Westfield Academy aims to instil in all our students a love of learning, to develop skills, knowledge, resilience and qualifications to enable them to communicate to society through their abilities, conduct and self-reliance.

The Westfield student’s learning journey is encapsulated in the Academy’s motto   : Believe | Strive | Achieve.

The Westfield Way

“The best schools have a sign above the door, regardless of what context they are working in, which says “this is how we do it here”. The best schools have absolute consistency. I don’t care whether the system they use is behaviourist or whether the system they use is extremely old-fashioned, the critical difference is that people sign up to it and teachers act with one voice and one message “this is how we do it here”.

Paul Dix - “When adults change, everything changes”

 

At Westfield Academy, we have dedicated, passionate, subject-specialist teachers who are reflective and dynamic in their daily practice. To ensure equality of opportunity for all our students, we aim for all teachers to follow what we call the "Westfield Way" in the planning and delivery of their lessons.

The Westfield Way outlines the structure of the lesson in terms of managing students in the classroom as well as their learning. This can be as simple as how the teacher "meets and greets" students at the door to set the tone for the lesson. However, in order to ensure good progress in lessons, we incorporated the "gradual release of responsibility" model into our Westfield Way. This is designed to increase student independence in lessons.

"The Gradual Release of Responsibility Model is a teaching strategy that involves a sequence of learning activities shifting responsibility from the teacher to the student1. The model has four components:

  1. "I do it": Teacher modelling.
  2. "We do it": Joint responsibility between teacher and students.
  3. "You do it together": Collaborative practice.
  4. "You do it alone": Independent application by the learner."
The Westfield Way or “How We Do Things Here”

PREPARATION: What to do before the lesson to ensure all students can make progress.

START OF LESSON: Aim for impeccable behaviour & positive behaviour management strategies. Meet & greet corridor presence: One foot in / one foot out, as students are welcomed into class; students stand behind desks; informal uniform checks; students get ready for learning (equipment out); students stand until asked to sit.

“DO NOW”: Recall & register. Do now - Recall activity, short and snappy tasks displayed at the start of each lesson; no lo