Pedagogy at The Piggott School

The Piggott School offers an engaging and tailored learning curriculum designed to support and challenge all students. We hold the strong belief that every student has the potential to succeed, and this conviction drives everything we do.

Consistently outstanding quality-first teaching is central to our approach. Our expert staff are focused on providing both the challenge and support necessary for students to master key knowledge and to excel academically. Additionally, we foster the development of skills and attributes that equip students to thrive in life and achieve long-term success and happiness.

Our teachers are the experts in their field, and we empower them with the autonomy to make decisions in the classroom that best meet the needs of their students.

At the core of our teaching methodology are Rosenshine's Principles of Instruction, which guide the planning and delivery of lessons across the school.

We expect all our teachers to continuously refine their teaching practices, critically evaluating their effectiveness and engaging in ongoing professional development to ensure the highest standard of education for our students.

Rosenshine’s Ten Principles of Instruction:

1. Begin a lesson with a short review of previous learning: Daily review can strengthen previous learning and can lead to fluent recall.
2. Present new material using small steps: Only present small amounts of new material at any time, and then assist students as they practise this material.
3. Ask questions: Questions help students practise new information and connect new material to their prior learning.
4. Provide models: Providing students with models and worked examples can help students learn to solve problems faster.
5. Guide student practice: Successful teachers spent more time guiding the students’ practice of new material.
6. Check for student understanding: Checking for student understanding at each point can help students learn the material with fewer errors.
7. Obtain a high success rate: It is important for students to achieve a high success rate during classroom instruction.
8. Provide scaffolds for difficult tasks: The teacher provides students with temporary supports and scaffolds to assist them when they learn difficult tasks.
9. Require and monitor independent practice: Students need extensive, successful, independent practice in order for skills and knowledge to become automatic.
10. Engage students in weekly and monthly review: Students need to be involved in extensive practice to develop well-connected and automatic knowledge.

The principles do not seek to provide a checklist to be followed in order in every lesson.

Master Learning Model:

The Piggott School’s teaching approach is further enhanced by the use of a mastery learning model, which underpins our commitment to ensuring all students achieve a high level of understanding before moving on to more complex concepts. This ensures that they are confident and competent in their understanding, rather than moving forward with gaps in their knowledge. By focusing on mastery, we prioritise deep understanding and long-term retention over superficial or rushed learning.

• Pacing for Success: Every student is allowed to progress at their own pace, ensuring they have a firm grasp of each concept before moving on. This is particularly important for students who may need additional time to fully understand certain topics. With mastery learning, no student is left behind, and all learners are supported to achieve success.

• Continuous Assessment and Feedback: In line with Rosenshine’s principles, we regularly check for student understanding through formative assessments, quizzes, and other methods of monitoring progress. If a student is struggling to grasp a concept, they receive timely feedback and additional support to help them achieve mastery. If students demonstrate mastery, they can move on to more advanced material.

• Focus on Mastery, Not Speed: Mastery learning ensures that students are not pressured to move on until they have demonstrated a clear understanding of a topic. This helps to build confidence and promotes a deeper, more connected understanding of the material, rather than simply rushing through content.

• Individualised Support: Teachers meet each student's needs, providing differentiated support as required, scaffolding, and resources. Teachers spend time working directly with students who need extra help, and they celebrate when students achieve mastery in each learning goal.

• Clear Learning Goals and Standards: Each lesson and unit is designed around clear, measurable learning objectives. Students are given clear criteria for success, and the focus remains on mastering each objective before moving on to new material. This ensures that all students, regardless of ability, can achieve a high level of understanding.

Spiral Curriculum Model:

The Piggott School employs a Spiral Curriculum model, which is carefully designed to ensure that key concepts and skills are introduced early in the learning process, revisited regularly, and explored in greater depth as students’ progress through their academic journey. This approach not only reinforces previous learning but also gradually increases the complexity of the material, providing students with a deepening understanding over time.

• Repetition with Increasing Complexity: Key ideas and fundamental concepts are revisited at increasing levels of difficulty throughout the curriculum. This allows students to build on their prior knowledge, refining their understanding as they encounter more complex versions of the same ideas. For example, a student might first encounter basic principles in mathematics or science and later return to these principles in more advanced contexts, tackling more complex problems and applications.

• Deepening Understanding Over Time: The Spiral Curriculum ensures that learning is not static or linear. Instead, students continually revisit and deepen their understanding of core ideas, allowing them to make stronger connections between concepts as they progress. This reinforces long-term retention and ensures that students can apply their knowledge in diverse and increasingly sophisticated contexts.

• Earlier Introduction of Complex Ideas: One of the key advantages of the Spiral Curriculum is that it introduces complex, abstract concepts earlier in the learning process—concepts that are typically reserved for later stages in traditional curriculums. By providing students with early exposure to these ideas, the school encourages them to engage with more advanced content and challenges them to master complex themes from the outset. This approach ensures that students are not discouraged by difficult concepts, but rather empowered to tackle them as part of their ongoing learning.

• Application to Real-World Contexts: The Spiral Curriculum also supports students who wish to apply their conceptual learning to real-world situations. As they revisit key concepts at increasing levels of difficulty, students are provided with opportunities to engage in practical applications. This deeper, applied learning helps them see the relevance of their studies beyond the classroom.

• Reinforcement of Previous Learning: Each time a concept or theme is revisited, it is not merely a repetition of what was learned before. Instead, it is presented with greater complexity and in new contexts, reinforcing prior learning while challenging students to think more critically and creatively. This spiral structure helps ensure that no knowledge is ever truly "forgotten"—each time an idea is revisited, it is reinforced and expanded upon, deepening students' understanding.