Teaching and Learning

Teaching and Learning is at the heart of what we at Bottisham Village College, as outlined in our evidence informed Teaching and Learning Strategy.

This approach underpins all the work that we do and is evident throughout the school, as demonstrated in the following examples:

• Making Innovative and Inclusive classrooms a central part of our College Improvement Plan
• Creating a high challenge, low threat environment where students are supported to think deeply and make their learning visible
• Helping students to better understand aspects of metacognition through the use of platforms and programmes such as Elevate, Seneca and Maths Watch
• Emphasising the importance of Articulacy; using GL assessment data and articulacy strategies to ensure all students can both access, and be challenged by, our curriculum
• Building a cohesive curriculum (see Curriculum overviews) that allows students to access the best of what has been thought and said
• Defining and implementing High Quality Assessment to make sure that teaching and learning is responsive and shows students the next steps on their Learning Journey

To ensure our approach to Teaching and Learning is the best possible, we at BVC are committed to being evidence informed and continue to be at the forefront of academic research in the following ways:

• Continuing our work with Cambridge University and the SHARE project where we are using action research to both develop and learn from schools in Kazakhstan
• Becoming the lead collaborative, alongside Anglian Learning, for a three year Creative Thinking action research project funded by the Arts Council (Click here for more information), the findings of which will be published by the Durham Commission and scape the educational landscape for years to come. (Click below for the Anglian Learning – Creativity Collabroatives Newsletter)

• Taking part in the Connected Schools action research project, focusing on the learning environment and its impact both on students’ academic progress and well-being. The interim findings of this project have already been published in the Chartered College of Teaching Impact magazine.

(Click on the image above to read the connected schools article)

• Having lead members of staff presenting at the National ResearchEd conference on the recent curriculum and assessment work that we have undertaken

Alongside this wider work, we believe that it is vital that our staff’s day to day practice remains research informed and so Professional Learning at BVC is linked to action research with all teaching and Learning Support staff undertaking their own action research projects, focused on key areas of our College Improvement Plan and following the process outlined below:

Being at the vanguard of research informed teaching and learning, both within and beyond the classroom, consequently makes Bottisham Village College a very exciting place to both study and work.