At The Hayfield School, we have a long tradition of academic success and high expectations. At the heart of this is the quality of teaching that students experience every day.
Our approach to teaching and learning is deliberately built around a clear set of Standards and Expectations in the Classroom. These establish the routines that help create calm, purposeful classrooms and identify the principles of high-quality teaching that we believe make the greatest difference to learning.
Our approach is informed by educational research, including the evidence and guidance produced by the Education Endowment Foundation. However, it is not intended to prescribe a particular style of teaching or dictate what every lesson should look like.
We believe that excellent teaching cannot be reduced to a script.
Our teachers are skilled professionals with deep knowledge of their subjects and of the students they teach. We trust them to use that expertise to make thoughtful decisions about how best to explain, model, question, challenge, support and inspire.
Different subjects have different traditions, different ways of thinking and different approaches to developing knowledge and expertise. What works particularly well in a History classroom may look different from excellent practice in Mathematics, Art, Science, Music or Physical Education. We therefore do not expect lessons to follow a standard format or teachers to adopt a single teaching style.
Instead, our Standards and Expectations in the Classroom provide a shared framework within which professional judgement and creativity can flourish.
There are some aspects of classroom life where consistency matters enormously. Our shared classroom routines help students know what to expect and allow lessons to begin and proceed in a calm, orderly and purposeful way.
These include simple expectations around welcoming students, establishing readiness to learn, sharing the purpose of learning, recognising success, organising resources and maintaining a positive climate for learning.
The intention is not uniformity for its own sake. Good routines reduce unnecessary distraction and uncertainty, allowing teachers and students to concentrate on what matters most: learning.
Alongside these routines sit our principles of Quality First Teaching. They provide a common language for discussing, developing and reflecting upon teaching across the school.
Our framework places emphasis on:
These are principles rather than a recipe. We would not expect every principle to be equally visible in every lesson, nor do we believe that effective teaching can be judged by looking for a predetermined list of features. Teachers draw upon the principles intelligently according to what they are teaching, whom they are teaching and what they want students to learn.
Perhaps the simplest way of describing our approach is creativity within a strong framework.
We want students to benefit from the security and consistency of high expectations while experiencing the richness that comes from being taught by knowledgeable, enthusiastic and individual teachers.
That balance matters to us. Consistency does not have to mean conformity, and professional autonomy does not mean an absence of shared expectations.
Our framework gives us a common understanding of great teaching while leaving room for the professional expertise, subject knowledge and creativity that bring classrooms to life.
Ultimately, our ambition is straightforward: every student, in every classroom, should experience teaching that is ambitious, inclusive, engaging and rooted in a deep understanding of how students learn.
No. Our Standards and Expectations provide a shared framework, not a lesson formula. Different subjects require different approaches, and we trust teachers to use their professional expertise to decide how best to teach the knowledge and skills within their discipline.
Quality First Teaching is the high-quality teaching that every student should experience as part of their everyday lessons. Our principles provide a common language for some of the features we know can support effective learning, including questioning, metacognition, disciplinary literacy, oracy, adaptive teaching and assessment.
No. Effective teaching is responsive to what is being taught and what students need to learn. A particular lesson may draw heavily upon some principles and much less upon others. We are interested in the quality and impact of teaching, rather than whether a lesson contains a predetermined list of features.
Because we believe consistency and autonomy can sit comfortably alongside one another. Shared routines create calm, predictable and purposeful learning environments for students. Within that environment, teachers have considerable professional freedom to teach their subjects effectively and creatively.
Yes. Our approach is informed by a growing body of evidence about effective teaching and learning, including research and guidance from the Education Endowment Foundation. We use research to inform professional thinking rather than treating it as a script to be followed.
High expectations apply to every student. Teachers use their knowledge of their classes, alongside assessment and other relevant information, to adapt their teaching appropriately. The aim is not to create a different curriculum for different learners, but to ensure that students receive the support and challenge they need to access ambitious learning and become increasingly successful and independent.
Professional development is an important part of our culture. Teachers have opportunities to engage with research, work collaboratively, reflect upon their practice and develop their expertise. Our shared principles give colleagues a common language for those professional conversations while recognising that excellent practice will look different across subjects and classrooms.
