At Lislagan Primary School we believe in the concept of lifelong learning and the idea that both adults and children learn new things everyday. We maintain that learning should be a rewarding and enjoyable experience for everyone; it should be fun.  Through our teaching we strive to equip our children with the skills, knowledge and understanding necessary to be able to make informed choices about the important things in their lives. We believe that appropriate learning and teaching experiences help children to lead happy and rewarding lives.

Aims

We believe that children learn best in different ways. At Lislagan we provide a rich and varied learning environment that allows children to develop their skills and abilities to their full potential.

Through our teaching we aim to:

• 1. Enable children to become confident, resourceful, enquiring and independent learners
• 2. Foster children’s self-esteem and help them build positive relationships with other people
• 3. Develop children’s self-respect and encourage children to respect the ideas, attitudes, values and feelings of others
• 4. Show respect for all cultures and religions and, in so doing, to promote positive attitudes towards other people
• 5. Enable children to understand their community and help them feel valued as part of this community
• 6. Help children grow into reliable, independent and positive citizens.

Effective learning

We acknowledge that people learn in many different ways and we recognise the need to develop strategies that allow all children to learn in the ways that suit them best. We offer opportunities for children to experience:

• 1. Investigation and problem solving
• 2. Research and finding out
• 3. Group work
• 4. Paired work
• 5. Independent work
• 6. Whole-class work
• 7. Asking and answering questions
• 8. Use of the computer and internet
• 9. Fieldwork and visits to places of educational interest
• 10. Creative activities
• 11. Use of multi-media facilities
• 12. Debates, role-plays and oral presentations
• 13. Designing and making things
• 14. Participation in athletic or physical activity

We encourage children to take responsibility for their own learning, to be involved as far as possible in reviewing the way to learn, and to reflect on how to learn – what helps them learn and what makes it difficult for them to learn.

Effective teaching

When teaching we focus on motivating the children and building on their skills, knowledge and understanding in the Northern Ireland Curriculum. We use the Northern Ireland Curriculum to plan and guide our teaching. We use a whole school approach to planning and are constantly reviewing and updating schemes of work for the core subjects.

We base our teaching on our knowledge of the children’s level of attainment and focus on ways to develop further the knowledge and skills of the children. We strive to ensure that all tasks set are appropriate to each child’s level of ability. When planning work for children with Special Educational Needs, we give due regard to information and targets contained in the children’s Individual Education Plans (IEPs). We have high expectations of all children, and we believe that it is the responsibility of all staff to ensure that the work at Lislagan Primary School is of the highest possible standard.

We endeavour to encourage the children to set academic targets and we use Statutory Tests twice a year.

We plan our lessons with clear learning outcomes. Our planners contain information about the tasks to be set, the resources needed, the way we assess the children’s work, the cross-curricular links and the introduction of new language. We evaluate our lessons so that we can modify and improve our teaching in the future. This is enhanced by our structured Self-evaluation system.

All teachers make a special effort to establish good working relationships with all children throughout the school. We treat the children with kindness and respect. We treat them fairly and give them equal opportunities to take part in activities. The teachers follow the school policy with regard to discipline and positive behaviour. We set and agree with the children the class code of conduct and we expect all children to comply with these rules to promote the best learning opportunities for all. We praise children for their efforts and, by so doing, we help to build positive attitudes towards school and learning. When children misbehave, we follow the guidelines for sanctions as outlined in our positive behaviour programme.

Health and Safety are considered for all tasks and activities to ensure the safety of the children and to help them learn to stay safe. When we plan to take children out of school, we inform parents and obtain their permission.

We deploy classroom assistants as effectively as possible to enhance the learning experience.

Our classrooms are attractive learning environments. We change displays at least once a term to ensure the classroom reflects the topics being studied by the children. We ensure that all children have the opportunity to display their work. All classrooms have a range of dictionaries,, thesauruses, fiction and non-fiction books, as well as displays relating to Literacy and Numeracy. We believe that a stimulating environment bets the climate for learning, and an exciting classroom promotes independent use of resources and high quality work by the children.

All teachers reflect on their strengths and weaknesses and plan their professional development needs accordingly. We do all we can to support our teachers in developing their skills, so that they can continually improve their practice.

The Role of Governors

Our Board of Governors determine, support, monitor and review the school policies on teaching and learning. In particular they:

• 1. Support the use of appropriate teaching strategies by allocating resources effectively
• 2. Ensure that the school buildings and premises are best used to support successful learning and teaching
• 3. Monitor teaching strategies in the light of health and safety regulations
• 4. Monitor the effectiveness of the school’s learning and teaching policies.

The Role of Parents

We believe that parents have a fundamental role to play in helping children to learn We inform parents about what and how their children are learning by:

• 1. Sending information to parents throughout the school year
• 2. Sending reports to parents in which we explain the progress made by each child and indicating how the child can improve further
• 3. Meeting with parents twice a year and any time an interview is requested
• 4. Explaining to parents how they can support their children with homework.

We believe that parents have the responsibility to support their children and the school. We would like parents to:

• 1. Ensure that their child has the best possible attendance record
• 2. Ensure that their child is equipped for school
• 3. Do their best to keep their child healthy and fit to attend school
• 4. Inform us if there are matters outside of school that are likely to affect a child’s performance or behaviour
• 5. Promote a positive attitude towards school and learning in general.

Monitoring and Review

We are aware of the need to review the school learning and teaching policy on a regular basis so that we can take account of new initiatives, changes in the curriculum, developments in technology or any other impacting changes to the school environment. The Curriculum Co-ordinator will continually identify the training needs of staff and, in conjunction with the Senior Management Team, will work with the staff to ensure quality learning and teaching for all children.