Calderstones School - Teaching and Learning Marketplace (Part 2!)

On Monday I was fortunate to take part in Calderstones Teaching and Learning Marketplace inset day which can only be described as a festival of learning....

As outlined in my earlier blog, the day involved visiting each department for around 30 minutes with each department showcasing their top teaching and learning strategies and how they delivered! I spent the day with Eleri, Mark and Chris from the Business Studies department, going from department to department, sampling the teaching and learning 'wares' on offer.

At the start of the day, Lee, the Assistant Headteacher gave a passionate introduction to the day, with the key focus being, 'does it make the boat go faster' , a reference to former Olympic rower Ben Hunt-Davis, who, whilst training for the Olympics would only take part in anything that would make the boat go faster. So, by focusing on a few small teaching and learning strategies well we can achieve marginal gains and have a much bigger impact on learning. What can teachers do in the class to make the boat go faster.

I can honestly say that the day was perhaps one of the most innovative and useful things I have ever taken part in and I came away even more enthusiastic and brimming with new ideas that can really help make the boat go faster. There was so much to see that I didnt get to see it all but what I did see was amazing. For example:

• I met Lucy Duffy, creator of one of the most innovative strategies I have ever seen in relation to students writing and paragraph development, 'boxing to argue'
• Iceberg paragraphs - How low will students go to gain deeper learning and understanding
• Connectives pyramids
• Learning chord changes in music via the stand-up/ sit-down game
• Geocubes in Geography
• A strategy to ensure students abilities were matched when playing Badminton in PE
• Energy Keyword Chop in Science
• Bellwork and learning grids in Business Studies
• Wallpaper revision in MFL
• What happened next in Science
• Taboo
• Exam Doctor
• Match the medieval cure to the medieval ailment in History

and many, many more.....

I am really thankful to Lee and the rest of the team at Calderstones for making me feel so welcome and I am looking forward to visiting the school again in the future.

Below are just some of the hundreds of pictures I took through the day