I We You

Our lessons typically follow an I, We, You structure. This means teachers first model success, then students practise together with the support from the teacher, then they practise independently. Often this structure is taught through booklets, with teachers modelling under the visualiser.

Consistency

We know that all students, but particularly students with SEND, are supported by a consistent and predictable environment. For this reason, our teachers use the same Core Routines across all our lessons. This means that all students know what to do and what to expect in each room. This in turn frees up their cognitive load to focus on learning. For more information on our Core Routines and lesson structure, please click here.

STAR

We ask students to sit in STAR. This means Sit Up, Track the Speaker, All Equipment Down, Ready to Respond. We know that learning happens when students think hard about the right thing and that memory is the residue of thought. Sitting in STAR ensures that students are focusing on the right thing and prevents distractions. 

123 Show Me

The teacher's exposition is always broken into chunks, with frequent mini-whiteboard checks. We use the same routine for mini whiteboards in all our lessons, meaning that it 

Ready to Read

A lot of our learning takes place through reading. When the teachers reads to students, we expect students to track along with their own copy of the text using their 30cm ruler. This allows teachers to see that students are following and makes it less likely that students’ attention wanders, meaning they miss out on crucial learning.