As part of Governor Monitoring Week, I visited Year 6 to see how the pupils I interviewed earlier this term were actually doing in class. What I witnessed was astonishing. It was a geography lesson in which the pupils were reading maps and drawing conclusions about the land from their discussions. The whole class was completely engaged in the session and showed that they were excited by their discoveries. The questions of the teacher challenged all children to think deeper but also gave opportunity to to most able to really consider their answers. They were encouraged to reason rather than just provide an answer. The lesson, although a geography lesson, included maths and science. The teacher stretched the children by using high level vocabulary and words such as hypothesis. An observation from one pupil when responding to the question ‘Why might it be colder in Scotland?’ Was ‘ It is further away from the equator –  it is in the northern hemisphere’ and another pupil talked about water not evaporating because it is colder so that is why there are more lakes in Scotland.

I could write much more but I think this is enough to demonstrate that this method of teaching is really pushing all pupils towards those greater depth responses. Thank you Year 6 it was a privilege