Cognition and Learning Key Stage 3
| SKILL | WHAT TO DO FIRST Identifying and supporting need | ASKING FOR HELP Starting Assess, Plan, Do, Review | WHEN MORE HELP IS NEEDED Targeted support |
| General | Individual pupil: Differentiation- e.g. task sheets; providing PowerPoint printouts; timers; breaking down skills; understanding of ‘small steps’ approaches; targeted questions at different levels. Scaffolding of work- e.g. task plans; word banks; sentence starters; writing frames. Promoting independence- e.g. scaffolding; timers; visuals; sharing expectations; work pitched at pupils’ level; effective deployment of support staff; offering mediation (approaches and strategies used to support during tasks and activities) at a lower level first before increasing, where necessary (see Asking for Help column). Pre-teaching vocabulary Classroom: Staff awareness of the learning hierarchy to support their understanding of the stages involved in developing a skill and identifying which stage pupils have reached/ where additional support to progress may be needed: Acquisition (being introduced to a task, such as recognising a phonic sound, and recognising initial components. Focus is on accuracy and getting it right, rather than speed or use of concepts to problem solve). Fluency (practice phase and becoming familiar with the task; starting to focus on speed as well as accuracy (e.g. identifying sounds more quickly and automatically). Individuals will make different rates of progress). Mastery (task is fully learnt and feels like ‘second nature’; pupil has developed a level of proficiency which is not affected by new learning or periods of time without practicing the skill, such as being able to recognise a phonic sound over time). Generalisation (mastered task is now used in other situations; with instruction, the pupil applies the skill with novel materials or under different conditions, such as applying phonics sounds to reading a book with some help. Learning is less prescribed, and reinforcement can take place through everyday experiences, enabling simple problem solving). Adaptation (the mastered skill is fully generalised, and the information can be used in novel ways and for more complex problem solving, such as applying phonic knowledge to new words. Specific instruction in complex or new situations isn’t needed, and the pupil can ask themselves what skills or knowledge they might need to solve the problem). Adaptive teaching techniques – differentiated instruction, scaffolding, active learning strategies. Create a supportive learning environment- e.g. ‘help box’ with appropriate resources in each classroom; folders in classrooms (on tables) containing resources such as word mats; using off-white paper (not black text on white paper); colour coding/ dyslexia friendly environment; working walls and purposeful displays (e.g. key vocabulary); prompts/ reminders/ ‘to do’ lists; seating selection; visual cues and timetables; timed rewards and consequences; changing visuals (e.g. Smart boards – changing images, clips, texts and colours); brain breaks. Staff approaches- e.g. chunking verbal instructions; repetition of key instructions; allowing thinking time. Multi-sensory teaching methods. Repetition of concepts and skills- e.g. pre-teaching vocabulary; address misconceptions the same day; retrieval practice (last session/ last week/ last topic/ last term); bridging new content and skills with prior learning (e.g. ‘where have we seen this before?’) Whole school: Staff approaches- e.g. peer observation, joint planning and support (e.g. triad delivery model). Provide staff and peer feedback that is specific, clear and accurate; which focuses on improvement from previous work; and which supports effort and perseverance. Establish good links with home to support learning, e.g.: Ensure that the curriculum is accessible for parents so they can help their children. Online homework support systems so pupils don’t have to write things down. | Further assessment of need through observation, collating assessment data, and gathering the views of staff, parents/ carers and pupils, following a graduated approach and assess-plan-do-review learn cycles. Facilitate learning activities in smaller and targeted groups, in limited distraction environments where possible. Awareness of pupils who may benefit from additional support at the acquisition and fluency stages of the learning hierarchy (e.g. strategies such as pre-teaching of key concepts/ vocabulary and increased repetition and over-learning with opportunities to revisit concepts more frequently). See Getting Advice column. Individual and/ or small group interventions with appropriate pre- and post- measures to evaluate progress (examples of specific Literacy and Numeracy interventions are suggested below); good starting points for finding out about evidence-based interventions, programmes and approaches are: The Education Endowment Foundation’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit and Language and Literacy and Mathematics projects. Evidence 4 Impact – an independent service that supports educators in using evidence-based practice in order to improve outcomes for pupils. The Early Intervention Foundation guidebook – provides information about early intervention programmes that have been evaluated and shown to improve outcomes for children and young people (including the ‘Enhancing school achievement and employment’ outcome). Different pupils will require different types, levels and intensity of adult mediation (approaches and strategies used to support during tasks and activities) to maximise their learning of specific skills and to promote increased levels of independence. The focus of mediation may include: Regulation of behaviour (finding out what helps the pupil to manage behaviours associated with learning such as attention, impulsivity and distraction); Rule teaching (helping and encouraging the pupil to find and apply rules); Insight (helping the pupil to use ‘what works’ and apply these tactics to new and novel situations – generalising); or Sequencing (helping the pupil to respond in an organised and sequenced way). Modes of mediation may include: Focusing (directing and maintaining attention to a task using prompts such as gesture or verbal and visual cues); Motor (drawing, moving objects into pupil’s line of sight, hand over hand guidance); Verbal (using instructions to guide and direct through questions, step-by-step instructions and feedback on what has gone well). Mediation should begin at the lowest level needed for the pupil; some will need to begin at a higher level than others. Mediation progresses from higher to lower levels as follows: Hand over hand guidance. Modelling with initial guidance which is gradually faded. Modelling the task using specific examples of rules concepts and strategies. Pointing out general characteristics (but not task-specific). Asking for further applications of previously used strategies. Teaching how to select appropriate strategies using previous input from mediation. Pupil applies previous strategies and rules with increasing flexibility. Previous mediation internalised and fully self-regulating. Use effective assessment and monitoring tools to identify all pupils’ learning levels and track progress, e.g.: B Squared assessment – broken down into lesson steps to reduce gaps. Learning Ladders assessment framework. Comparison and analysis of special pupil attainment (CASPA). Meaningful moderation of assessment. Arrange relevant training for staff from external support services, where needed. Where possible, support parents to access similar resources to the ones accessed in school. For example, a school license for Clicker 8 also allows parents to access the resource at home for free. | Use appropriate assessments to identify difficulties early, establish a greater understanding of the pupil’s needs and inform appropriate referral to other services. Over rehearsal of information to enable pupils to progress through the hierarchy of learning (see General section) e.g. Precision Teaching (PT) intervention. PT intervention is suitable for those who struggle with working memory difficulties and retaining information and is used as an intensive 1:1 intervention. Higher levels of mediation during tasks (see Getting Help). Obtain and record pupil’s views through pupil voice activities. Obtain and record parental information and views through questionnaires, parents’ evenings, assemblies and social media forums. Create individual education plans (IEPs) or similar and adapt termly, with progress against targets routinely reviewed by the SENDCo, relevant staff and pupil/ parents/ carers. Ensure that any Teaching Assistants (TAs) involved with the pupil understand the purpose of the IEP or group plan and support the pupil to achieve their targets. Use of plan-do-review-learn processes to monitor progress and plan individual support. School staff, SENDCo, parents/ carers and pupil to continue to liaise on a regular basis – a minimum of three meetings with parents within a 12-month period. Refer to external agencies for further support around learning and factors which may impact children’s progress (e.g. Educational Psychology Service (EPS), Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) service, Tameside Pupil Support Service. Where a pupil has an EHCP: Refer to described outcomes and provision and implement. Continue to use the Plan-Do-Review-Learn process against the specified outcomes and provision, using previous SEN Support Plan as ‘EHC Implementation Plan’. Regularly update with strategies as they are tried. Complete Annual Review of EHC Plan. Continue to request and act upon advice from external agencies, as necessary. Carry out and review assessments, as advised by external agencies. |
| Thinking Skills | Individual pupil: Access to key information (e.g. subject specific vocabulary, key spellings, number facts etc.) visually to promote independence and reduce working memory loads. Use of verbal and visual cues/prompts to direct or redirect attention – access to opportunities for movement breaks and different modalities of teaching and learning. Classroom: Organise and structure classroom talk and dialogue, including ‘Socratic talk’, talk partners and debating. Teacher modelling of own thinking and understanding at a whole-class level (e.g. modelling self-talk when preparing for a task, making mistakes or monitoring reading comprehension). Use of open questioning to support pupils’ thinking around a task (e.g. ‘what do we have to do here?’ ‘How might we start?’) Use of structured planning templates (e.g. visual task plans or check lists), teacher modelling, worked examples and breaking down activities into steps. Whole school: Employ strategies to develop pupils’ metacognition and self-regulation (i.e. the ability to monitor, direct and review their own learning, through explicitly thinking about their own learning, setting goals and evaluating progress) and executive function skills (these are a set of skills and mental processes that develop throughout childhood and adolescence, which support pupils to self-regulate, initiate, attend to and persevere with activities successfully). Explicit teaching of metacognitive strategies, following the seven-step model: Activating prior knowledge. Explicit strategy instruction. Modelling of learned strategy. Memorisation of strategy. Guided practice. Independent practice. Structured reflection. | Promote dialogic teaching at a whole-class and small group level, which emphasises dialogue through which pupils learn to reason, discuss, argue, and explain. Explicitly teach pupils how to organise and effectively manage their learning independently – provide guided practice. Provide exam preparation and self-study support in small groups for targeted pupils. Use of self-evaluation and feedback tools such as ‘exam wrappers’ (a pre- and post-exam self-evaluation tool). Teach and model working memory and recall strategies within small groups (rehearsal and chunking of information, visual memory strategies and creating narratives). Gather observational data and conduct targeted assessment to further clarify strengths and needs (e.g. Working Memory Rating Scale (WMRS)) Provide explicit instruction and targeted goal setting with individual pupils/groups around key skill areas (e.g. self-management or self-organisation skills). Regularly cue pupils to remind them of the skills they are focusing on before initiating a task and recognise and reward progress. Small group/individual interventions to develop targeted skills (e.g. access to small group sessions to practise attention and listening skills, working memory instruction/practice: Cogmed. Complement computerised interventions with strategy-based practice within the classroom. Use of personalised work areas/stations with clear systems for organisation and planning (e.g. using task boards or in-out trays). Provide regular opportunities for short breaks and use of individual items to support attention and concentration within agreed boundaries across lessons (e.g. brief movement breaks and/or access to fiddle items). | Access to a highly personalised curriculum incorporating additional support to enable ‘readiness for learning’ (e.g. self-regulation, planning, preparation, and organisation). Targeted intervention, clearly linked to IEP objectives, for key competencies (e.g. time, inhibition control, working memory intervention e.g, Cogmed). Use of pre/post measures to monitor impact and progress. |
| Literacy | Individual pupil: Collaborative learning and peer tutoring approaches (e.g. Paired Reading, Cued Spelling). Classroom: Use of evidence-based approaches to teaching literacy (e.g. Education Endowment Foundation Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools guidance). Reading buddy/ peer support/ joint learning. Class literacy programmes which can be differentiated for individuals. Cross-curricular embedding of basic Literacy skills. Whole school: Effective quality first teaching, whole school approaches, assessment and links with parents (See General section). | Targeted assessments e.g. IDL, Lexia, PiXL CODE, SNAP SpLD, Accelerated Reader, Nessy, Connective Learning. Standardised assessments such as the PhAB, the Detailed Assessment of Speed of Handwriting and the Wide Range Achievement Test 5. Small-group support for pupils struggling with literacy, e.g. Read Write Inc. Reciprocal Teaching to raise reading comprehension levels. Use of technology such as Clicker 8 and online software such as Dyslexia Gold and Lexia Power Up Literacy. Introduce accessibility tools on Microsoft Word, e.g. Immersive Reader. Explore alternative methods or recording such as voice to text, using a keyboard. | Interventions to develop literacy skills, based on principles of repetition and over-learning, with support to generalise skills (e.g. Precision Teaching, Toe by Toe). See General section. Very small group/ paired/ individual interventions to develop literacy skills, e.g.: Word Shark Acceleread, Accelewrite Accelerated Reader BoostingReading@Secondary Access to resources such as aurally encoded dictionaries. |
| Numeracy | Individual pupil: Collaborative learning and peer tutoring approaches (e.g. Paired Maths– an approach where a ‘tutor’ and ‘tutee’ jointly work on Maths questions using a framework of understandg the question, finding an answer and finishing the question by reflecting on what they have done and linking to previous learning). Classroom: Use of evidence-based approaches to teaching Mathematics (e.g. Education Endowment Foundation Improving Mathematics in Key Stages 2 and 3 guidance report). Cross-curricular embedding of basic Numeracy skills. Whole school: Effective quality first teaching, whole school approaches, assessment and links with parents (See General section). | Use of appropriate assessments to identify strengths and areas of need, in order to target intervention at an early stage. This may include standardised assessments (e.g. Sandwell Numeracy Test) as well as formative, criterion-referenced and curriculum-based assessments such as Precision Teaching baseline probes. | More specialised interventions, e.g. Numbers Count – a specially trained teacher gives individuals or small groups at least 3 x 30-minute lessons for a term. Sessions are planned for individuals based on initial assessments, with a focus on number and calculation. 1stClass@Number can be adapted for older pupils who need to reinforce basic mathematical skills and concepts. |
