My ethos for teaching strongly encourages children to express their ideas and suggestions as I believe it is extremely important for them to have control over their learning. It is important to create an atmosphere which encourages children to ask questions. In my current setting, we use the Agree, Build or Challenge approach which has greatly advanced the children’s language skills.

I believe children learn best through first-hand experiences and stimulating environments. I also give pupils time at the beginning of each lesson, to act upon any targets arising from previous work.
When introducing a new topic, I ask open-ended questions to allow me to gauge what they already know, enabling me to plan the areas of learning to be developed.

As a reflective practitioner, I regularly evaluate lessons to analyse improvement, progress and achievement. Reflection on lesson plans and observations help to identify misconceptions and allow me to adapt my teaching strategies and plans for future lessons. During lessons, I ensure that my plans contain activities which cater to all learning styles. This includes making learning very visual for children with English as an Additional Language and allowing higher ability children to investigate topics in greater depth and with greater autonomy.

I have high and realistic expectations of every pupil, to enable them to reach their full potential and to behave in a suitable manner. This can be achieved by providing good quality first-hand experiences which are both stimulating and interesting.