Effective Questioning

High quality interactions between learners and staff lie at the heart of assessment as part of learning and teaching. These interactions should promote thinking and demonstrate learning and development. They should be based on thoughtful questions, careful listening and reflective responses and effective feedback strategies. Conversations about learning between practitioners and children, among practitioners and among learners should be part of the planned activities or experiences.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Practitioners use Bloom’s Taxonomy as a framework for planning and reflecting on the range of questions that are used to stimulate thinking and learning across the curriculum. 

From the earliest stages, children are exposed to a wide range of developmentally appropriate questions, which they are supported to understand and formulate answers to.

Children are also supported to create and ask their own questions, to help them to develop their understanding of what they are learning, and to support them to take their own learning forward. Children are given regular opportunities to engage in open-ended learning tasks, which allow them to demonstrate their developing understanding in different areas of learning.

Thinking time / Wait time

Children are offered extended time to think, before being asked to answer a given question.

Talking partners

Randomly generated Talk Partnerships will be created on a regular basis. Working in their talking partnerships, the children will have the opportunity to answer questions posed by the teacher, and to formulate and ask their own questions

Learning Environment

All classrooms are set up in an inclusive, engaging and stimulating manner, which provides our children with an environment that supports and stimulates learning.

Every class has a widget visual timetable to support learners with their daily timetable and routine. Children’s work is celebrated and displayed in an attractive manner. Classroom displays are interactive and adapted and changed over time. Classroom displays contain a carefully balanced mix of learning aids and examples of good work. An explanation of learning will be included where relevant, as part of displays of children’s  learning.

Developing a Learning Culture

At Kellands, all staff have high expectations and aspirations for all pupils. At the heart of this is developing an inclusive and supportive school ethos, and a culture of learning.

Promoting Positive Behaviour 

We are committed to supporting our children by promoting attachment led, trauma informed approaches. At Kellands School, we promote emotional wellbeing and mental health as an overarching attainment strategy. We create a learning environment which takes account of the whole child and their mental, emotional, and psychological readiness to learn. This works in line with our ‘Zones of Regulation’ and ‘Let’s Introduce Anxiety Management’ (LIAM) to further support our children presenting with anxiety on a universal basis. We show commitment to our Kellands values (Kind Koala, Respectful Raccoon and Responsible Rabbit) by putting relationships at the heart of all we do. In line with the Scottish Government’s GIRFEC approach, we have adapted and extended our values with the remaining six wellbeing values (Safe Sally, Healthy Henry, Achieving Archie, Nurturing Norris, Active Alex and Inclusive Izzy) to create a child-friendly model of the SHANARRI indicators, that is accessible for pupils of all ages. (See Promoting Positive Behaviour Policy)

Play is the Way

Kellands School is an advocate of learning through high quality play. Our staff have been working collegiately to develop a shared understanding of effective early years practice through staff training and case studies. We looked at the learning environment indoors and out and how our interactions, spaces and experiences support teaching and learning. Our current focus is on progression across the early and first level. Collaboration from Nursery, P1, P2 and P3 staff, identifies reasons and solutions from resources and researched literature to find opportunities to implement new strategies and evaluate their impact.

(See Play Policy)

Established Literacy Interventions

We provide literacy interventions at Kellands through Makaton, Colourful Semantics, Nessy spelling, Teach your Monster to Read, Read Write Gold, Education City, Texthelp, Toe-by-toe, Social Stories, daily readers and small group phonics sessions. These interventions support our transient and EAL population, as well as those pupils experiencing ongoing barriers with literacy.

Established Numeracy Progression

We have embedded a cohesive and progressive numeracy plan, incorporating the White Rose scheme, to ensure an appropriate developmental approach. Children are exposed to higher level thinking skills using Reasoning and Problem Solving, to support the transfer of knowledge to real-life scenarios.

Creativity

Creativity is a higher order thinking skill, which can help learners not only survive, but to thrive in our fast-changing world. Creativity skills help learners to be:

• Motivated. ambitious for change especially as a lifelong skill and in preparation for the world of work.

• Confident in their capabilities and the validity of their own viewpoint.

• Able to transfer their creativity skills to other contexts.

• Able to lead and work well with others.

Creativity can be the hook which engages learners, influencing their attainment and achievement. In addition, as they are core to employability, creativity skills can help learners not only prepare for the world of work but also shape their own future job opportunities.

Teaching staff signal clearly to learners where creativity skills are being developed within learning activities, including other DYW skills. To further the development of creativity skills, teaching staff actively explore ways of giving learners more responsibility for planning and managing a creative project, making learning activities more open ended and providing effective coaching support to learners as they develop their ideas. Teaching staff ensure that all children are supported to develop creativity skills in ways which build on their personal strengths, whether as individuals or in group activities.

ICT to Support and Enhance Learning

We aim to place ICT at the core of Kellands Primary School, providing a range of technologies, capabilities, and the creativity for transformative, lifelong learning in the classroom, across the school and in the community.

To best prepare our learners for success in tomorrow’s rapidly evolving and digital world, Kellands is aiming to deliver two key objectives:

• ICT is routinely and effectively embedded in all aspects of learning and teaching.

▪ Learners and teachers have personal access to ICT whenever and wherever it benefits learning and teaching.

Our digital learning helps meet these objectives by:

• Providing access to up-to-date, authentic information from a huge variety of sources.

▪ Allowing us to personalise and transform learning and teaching using a wide range of digital tools.

▪ Allowing us to extend learning, collaborate and publish beyond the classroom.

▪ Helping develop the learning, thinking and digital literacy skills vital for success in today’s rapidly evolving, technology rich society and understanding consequences of misuse.

Pupils with access to devices will:

• Have access to ICT whenever and wherever it is beneficial to support learning in school.

• Make effective use of online learning resources and tools and a wide range of ICT applications to demonstrate and improve their learning across the whole curriculum.

• Develop safe and responsible attitudes and aptitudes relating to technology that will enable them to engage effectively in lifelong learning and the world of work.

• Agree to a code of conduct for the use of ICT within the school.

Staff will:

• Raise the achievement of all pupils through the development of ICT and the effective deployment of a range of stimulating and creative technologies for learning across the whole curriculum and age range.

• Continue to improve their ICT capabilities through school development and sharing good practice.

• Consistent approach to ICT responsibilities, and regular reminders about keeping our kids respectful of ICT equipment.

• Use of widget software being developed

Parents will:

• Access information about the life and work of the school via the school website and online learning journey platform Seesaw.

• Work in partnership with the school to support learning.

Interdisciplinary Learning

Interdisciplinary Learning, based upon groupings of experiences and outcomes from within and across curriculum areas, provides relevant, challenging, and enjoyable learning experiences and stimulating contexts to meet the varied needs of children.

Revisiting a concept or skill from different perspectives deepens understanding and can also make the curriculum more coherent and meaningful from the learner’s point of view.

Interdisciplinary learning can also take advantage of opportunities to work with partners who are able to offer and support enriched learning experiences and opportunities for young people’s wider involvement in society

Effective interdisciplinary learning at Kellands:

• can take the form of individual one-off projects or longer courses of study

• is planned around clear purposes

• is based upon experiences and outcomes drawn from different curriculum areas or subjects within them

• ensures progression in skills and in knowledge and understanding.

The curriculum includes space for learning beyond subject boundaries, so that children can make connections between different areas of learning.

Outdoor Learning

Well-constructed and well-planned outdoor learning helps develop the skills of inquiry, critical thinking, and reflection necessary for our children to meet the social, economic and environmental challenges of life in the 21st century.

Outdoor learning connects children and young people with the natural world, with our built heritage and our culture and society, and encourages lifelong involvement and activity in Scotland’s outdoors. Challenge, enjoyment, relevance, depth, development of the whole person and an adventurous approach to learning are at the core of outdoor pedagogy.

The outdoor environment encourages staff, pupils, and parents/carers to see each other in a different light, building positive relationships and improving self-awareness and understanding of others.

We plan for all children, from nursery to P7, to engage in regular outdoor learning experiences, within our school grounds, local community and further afield. Our yearly program of outdoor learning experiences includes: a residential ski trip to Glenshee for P6, for P7 an outdoor activities week and P5 a day experience at Huntly outdoor centre. We also engage in the John Muir award at P7. We have well developed partnerships with other educational settings and organisations. These partnerships enable us to offer our older children enhanced outdoor education experiences. We also have access to our own allotment where children can have first-hand experience of growing our own food.

Our Early Years (N-P3) setting operates a free flow system to the outdoor play areas regularly to promote self-regulation and critical thinking. These child-centred areas allow children to freely explore a wide range of opportunities that enhance learning across all curricular areas.

Outdoors learning experiences contribute to the well-being of our children and enables them to become resilient, responsible citizens and successful lifelong learners, who value our landscape and culture and contribute effectively to our local and global society.

Bikeability

At Kellands School, we offer level 1 Bikeability to our P5's and level 2 to our P6's and P7's. Qualified instructors from the schoolwork with the children to build up their confidence, ability and safety while cycling. During ‘The Big Walk and Pedal Week’, qualified staff in cycling skills deliver cycling and safety skills to each class along with an obstacle course for the children to explore and trial their skills.