TS8

Good pedagogy and teaching strategies are not the only that make up an effective teacher. TS8 shows us that a teacher must contribute top the wider school community to become an effective practitioner. When a teacher has the chance to work alongside support staff like HLTAs and LSAs, they should be able to use them in a way that promotes the best outcomes for everyone in the class. Sometimes this may be offering one-to-one support to those in need of it, other situations allow teaching assistants to engage in intervention groups and behaviour management. 

A large part of my ethos involves effective partnerships with parents. TS8 states that teachers must communicate effectively with parents top ensure the best outcomes for all students and I wholeheartedly agree. Without engagement at home as well as in school, children lose focus and find it harder to make good progress. By building and forming positive relationships with parents, one can reinforce the importance of working at home as well as in school, therefore allowing the best progress to be made by all. 

"Adam has been an asset to the classroom. He has worked incredibly hard. He has built professional relationships with children and staff. His behaviour inside, and outside of the classroom, has always been polite, professional and mindful of safeguarding. He has actively sought advice on his lessons and has always responded to feedback. He attended a school trip and was a member of the team that could be trusted and relied upon. He actively took part in World Book Day activities." - K Marl (Mentor, Phase 1a) 

"Adam has joined in with forest schools this half term. He has built relationships with a range of staff members and has discussed subject knowledge with them. He has observed the teaching on phonics throughout the school and has taken part in our project with the Royal Opera House." - M Pettey (Mentor, Phase 1b)

"Adam has been proactive contributing to the wider life of the school. He has helped the Head Teacher and Assistant Head Teacher to set up laptops that were given out to pupils as part of home school learning and has also helped to rejuvenate our school library by building a beach hut in line with our sea-side theme. Adam has been proactive in developing his own pedagogy and attended our Trust conference day and has completed all CPD from the White Rose Maths. Adam has communicated with parents effectively during remote learning and this has been greatly received by parents. Adam behaves in a professional manner at all times, he is always punctual and is an organised individual. He shows respect to pupils, parents and colleagues at all times. He has completed safeguarding training and knows how to deal with a safeguarding concern. Through our class assemblies, Adam has promoted British Values and looks to explore these ideas across the curriculum." - H Chinnery (Mentor, Phase 2)

In the Summer term on 2020/21 I was able to bring the idea of a science club to the headteacher and the science subject lead. After getting the go ahead from both of them, I liaised with the science lead to plan a six week science club for a group of Year 2 and Year 3 pupils. Over the six weeks, we covered aspects of biology, chemistry and physics using hands-on, experimental learning styles. This allowed the children to take part in engaging and investigative work that promoted a love of science in the children. 

By using hands-on practical experiments that were cheap and easy to carry out, we were able to show that science could be engaging and informative. I wanted to start the club to allow children from my class who struggled with written forms of learning to try a more hands-on method to see if they could develop better progress in this way. 

By starting a club, I was able to go off-curriculum when it came to planning the activities we would be doing each week. As we were not restricted by the needs and outcomes of the National Curriculum, we were able to include areas of science that the children would not have encountered before to give them a wider sense of what science has to offer.