News

One of our Teaching and Learning priorities at Nova Hreod Academy is ‘Challenge for all.’ This is the notion that lessons should be planned and well-structured with high challenge content. As Assistant SENDCo at the Academy, I strongly believe in academic success for all; I teach English to students across the ability range and I teach the same high challenge content to all the classes I teach, with support in place to scaffold students’ learning. I truly believe that, with the right support, every SEND student is capable of achieving their potential, in school and beyond.

By Sophie Unsworth

Initial Teacher Training (ITT) is the first step on the journey to becoming a teacher. It is during this time that the foundations of good Teaching and Learning can be set and the seeds can be sown for a trainee to flourish into a good teacher. However, as it is such an important time in the development of a teacher then it can also be a time when bad habits become established – the seeds fall on stony ground as it were. That’s why ITT, and getting it right, is so important to the culture of any school.

By Sophie Fegan and Nick Hetherington

In a lot of ways, the following pair of blog posts is the culmination of all the learning we’ve been doing on applying cognitive science to our curriculum, teaching and learning. (And in a lot of ways, that’s perfectly appropriate for the topic at hand!)

By Phil Wilson

Hopefully, when you saw the image at the top of this page you knew exactly what game I was alluding to. Perhaps you have very distinct memories of playing it: the arguments over whether or not you’re allowed to use the dictionary to check your word before placing your tiles; the burning hope that no-one will cross that triple word score when you’re about to play WHACKED (72 points if you managed to get W or H on a double letter space); or the descent into madness when someone claims the vowel-less monstrosity they’ve just played is actually the archaic name for a lobster trap. Yes, I’m talking about Scrabble®. You knew that, didn’t you?

By Nick Hetherington

When I first started teaching, I trained as a languages teacher. This required me to teach two foreign languages and, as my degree is in Law and German, I spent a large amount of my PGCE improving my French. Often, even though I had all the Powerpoint presentations, laminated flashcards and differentiated worksheets possible, I felt woefully unprepared for lessons.

By Rebecca Sayers

This year, the Nova Hreod maths department has undergone a complete overhaul of technology. Replacing the older interactive whiteboards is a cutting-edge system focusing around wireless projection of Microsoft Surface Pro tablets to modern projectors. Alongside this, high quality visualisers have been provided in every maths classroom, projecting onto large whiteboards at the front of each room. This revamp of technology has led me to reflect on my own use of technology within the classroom, and more importantly the purpose of this use.

By Toby Watkins

In the summer term, the English teachers at Nova Hreod were gifted copies of Andy Tharby’s book ‘Making every English lesson count’ (MEELC). This is a follow-on from the equally excellent book, ‘Making every lesson count’ by Andy Tharby and Shaun Allison. As a recently qualified English teacher, I found MEELC incredibly helpful and can honestly say it’s the best teaching and learning book I’ve ever read.

By Sophie Unsworth

Every GCSE results day, commentators say that the rise in attainment is a sign that GCSE examinations are getting easier (rarely crediting the students’ hard work and improvements in teaching – but that’s not an argument for today!). A few years ago, the government decided that enough is enough, and GCSEs need a major overhaul. I, for one, welcome the idea that our iconic qualification (yes, the GCSE is an iconic qualification) should be more challenging. There is plenty of evidence that the standard of work and depth and breadth of learning at GCSE does not compare favourably with the work produced in other countries by students of the same age. Accepting (I hope) that our students deserve access to the best of humanity’s culture and learning, it would be unfair to let them drop behind international peers. So, new GCSEs with notably increased demand were developed.

By Phil Wilson

At Nova Hreod Academy, we teach a high challenge, knowledge-based English curriculum to all students in all classes. As a new member of the faculty this year, I am going to share my insights and the benefits I believe a high challenge, knowledge-based curriculum has on students’ ability to read well.

The ability to read is not innate; it requires explicit teaching. Not reading is a vicious cycle and it can quickly become something that the word-rich take for granted. As Willingham said: "Knowledge is vital for improving reading, and reading is vital for improving knowledge."

By Sophie Unsworth

Over the last year, Nova Hreod’s revision vision and the focus within many of our departments has been on the need for strong subject knowledge as a means to support skills. Within the humanities department, this has been implemented mainly through the use of knowledge organisers, “Do Now” quizzes at the beginning of each lesson and the using of “quizzing homework”, where pupils either write a quiz about a specific topic or test themselves on a previous quiz.

I have used two techniques within my classroom to make this framework as effective as possible: tracking “Do Now” quizzes and using Quizlet to supplement homework.

By Rebecca Sayers