Post Teaching

Gaps for children with low prior attainment exceeds the national in both writing and maths. Ofsted September 2017 states ‘Any barriers to learning are quickly identified and rapid intervention addresses areas of difficulty so that pupils receive appropriate help and are ready to learn. Disadvantaged pupils reach similar standards to other pupils in the school and sometimes outperform them.

We needed to address issues of gaps in learning, particularly for our disadvantaged children, both SEN and Pupil Premium, in a way that was child centred.

To address issues arising from gaps in learning we now operate the following:

• We have interviewed and recruited LSAs specifically to work with children in short bursts of time to deepen learning and close gaps;
• After the morning session, teachers identify children who have not evidenced learning of the objectives;
• The LSAs then withdraw these children individually to address the misunderstanding or clarify learning during the afternoon session;
• The sessions are brief and specific, with the LSA having already been present in the teaching that morning;
• The work is marked in accordance with the marking policy, which is very straightforward, and denoted by ‘PT’, signifying ‘Post Teaching’; 
• If further intervention is needed, this is discussed between the class teacher and the LSA, and a range of strategies can be used, including homework with parental involvement, pre-teaching (occurs in the morning before formal lesson or in feedback times) etc.
• With children that may struggle with key vocabulary for a new topic, for example, sessions are arranged in the morning or afternoon to allow learning around the subject to take place.   

The impact of the intervention is immediate, with gaps in learning arising less and less.