Tom Cragg
Head of Client Success, MFL Consultant and Examiner, School Governor, former Head Teacher
Teaching and learning is clearly at the heart of Woodlands School’s agenda.
David Wright, Nicola White and their team’s incredible positivity and boundless energy, coupled with a lot of skill and hard work, have created a wonderful learning environment at Woodlands, taking it from a school that was in special measures nine years ago to the second most over-subscribed school in Essex last year.
There is a whole goldmine of great thinking going on at Woodlands, but here are a few ideas that particularly caught my eye:
Half-termly topic meetings
At the end of every half-term, Heads of Faculty meet with any non-specialist teachers delivering lessons in their curriculum areas. They talk through the topics for the following half-term’s curriculum, show teachers which resources are available and give them the chance to ask questions. This strategy is not only hugely beneficial and reassuring for non-specialists but also means that Heads of Faculty need to be right on top of their planning.
A meticulous approach to lesson feedback
The school has thought deeply about who gives feedback at Woodlands and how it is delivered:
- Every teacher receives a minimum of a 20-minute lesson drop-in every half-term. This low stakes model evidently works for teachers, as they expect and welcome visitors to their classrooms.
- For every new leader’s first three lesson visits, they are paired with an experienced leader to moderate their feedback.
- Video clips of lessons are used to write and then moderate feedback in training sessions with all Senior and Middle Leaders who give feedback.
- A carefully constructed schedule of who will feedback to who is put in place every half-term, for example, the SENDCO will visit teachers with action steps around SEND and the Head Teacher will always do the second visit for new teachers.
Questions for students during lesson visits
The team wanted consistency in what leaders were asking students when they went in to see lessons, so they agreed on sets of questions for each area of their teaching and learning rubric. Here are the questions from the ‘Plan’ strand:
- What are you doing in today’s lesson? Do you know why you are doing this?
- I see you are learning about X? Tell me what you know about this. How does what you are learning today link to what you were learning last lesson?
- How does your teacher help you to remember all the content in the subject?
- What are the key skills in this subject? How does your teacher help you to develop these skills? How do they increase in difficulty?
- What has made you think hardest? How did your teacher help with this?
Woodlands School’s journey is a testament to the power of clear leadership, well-structured support, and a relentless focus on teaching and learning. Their commitment to continuous improvement has created an environment where both teachers and students thrive.
If you’d like to explore how structured feedback and professional development can drive excellence in your school, get in touch, we’d love to help.
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