Teaching and Learning

Our approaches to Teaching and Learning at Ormiston Denes Academy are rooted in the latest research in education and cognitive science so that our students benefit from up-to-date, proven strategies that enable them to know more and do more over time.  

This grounding research underpins 5 Teaching & Learning Principles from which our curriculum and pedagogy is developed. 

  1. The more you remember something, the more it sticks  
  1. We learn from what we give our attention to.  
  1. ‘Memory is the residue of thought’ 
  1. Practice makes permanent. 
  1. Effective routines set students up for success.  

These principles inform our teaching through developing a consistent lesson structure and delivering high quality teaching.  

  1. A consistent lesson structure. 

All lessons follow a Four-Part Lesson structure with clear teacher and student routines and expectations in each lesson phase. This ensures students are given calm and predictable environments with consistent language and familiar routines, reducing any unnecessary cognitive load or anxiety. This allows students, but especially those with additional needs, to focus fully on learning and practicing new material and getting feedback from their teachers. The four phases of the lesson are: 

1 – Do Now. Students complete an independent activity to start the lesson, helping them to settle calmly and recall prior knowledge that is relevant for new learning.  

2 – Exposition. This is the knowledge-building phase, where teachers will break down and teach new material in an interactive and engaging way. This will include modelling of new ideas, asking lots of questions and giving students opportunities to rehearse ideas, debate different points of view, practice problem solving, try new skills and more. Teachers will check that students understand the material before moving on, so that there is a high degree of success.  

3 – Application. This is the practice phase, where students can apply their newly acquired knowledge and skills. This would include building arguments and extended writing, answering practice questions, redrafting work, completing practical tasks such as cooking or sports, and so much more. The application phase is vital for students to develop the independence needed to thrive in each subject. Students will be given appropriate support which will gradually release over time, so that they become independent and confident scholars in each of our subjects.  

4 – Review. The final phase enables the teacher and students to review their learning and check progress, informing future teaching and making sure progress is being made. 

The Four-Part lesson is best viewed as a jigsaw – not all learning occurs chronologically. Whilst it is important that students know what is expected within each phase of the lesson, it is also important that teachers use their expertise to structure the lessons phases in a way that ensures learning is planned to effectively deliver the substantive and disciplinary knowledge set out in our curriculum. 

  1. High-Quality Teaching 

Our lesson structure, with its clear routines and expectations, gives our students predictable and supportive learning environments and means our subject-specialist teachers can focus on delivering the curriculum. While the delivery of this curriculum will sometimes look different in different subjects – an art lesson will look different to one in maths – our principles ensure that high-quality teaching strategies are used across the school, so that our students are put in the best position to succeed. For example: 

  • Students are taught for memory, so that they build knowledge and skills over time.  
  • Students have access to Knowledge Organisers, supporting their recall and reducing cognitive load, while also developing independence.  
  • Strategies such as Cold Call and Write-Pair-Share ensure that all students are pushed to think, given the opportunity to speak and share their ideas, and debate them with their peers.  
  • Explicit teaching of key vocabulary to support literacy development and boost reading. 
  • All of this is supported by live-feedback, ensuring that where students have gaps or where errors occur, they are picked up and corrected.  
  • Continual checks of student learning, such as thorough questioning to ensure all students are understanding and learning the curriculum.  

While these strategies may sometimes be used differently in different subjects, their consistent use across all classrooms ensures that students are given multiple opportunities to think hard, to share ideas and to develop into thoughtful, kind and independent young people ready to move on to the next stages of their education.