Oakham School’s teachers rounded off an insightful and inspiring Adaptive Autumn with a productive feedback session involving members of the Decem Prefect team.
Running between 6 and 17 November, Adaptive Autumn saw Oakham School’s teachers participate in hundreds of mutual observations across every academic department of the school, gaining ideas and inspiration from their peers to take forward into their own classrooms.
Director of Learning, Joe Sanders, said: “Adaptive Autumn is an opportunity for our teachers to open their doors to colleagues and showcase their approaches to supporting the diverse needs of learners at Oakham.
“Adaptive Learning is all about getting to know how each pupil learns most effectively. Every pupil is different, and we strive to tailor lessons to all.”
Mutual Classroom Observation
During the observation fortnight, teachers shared ideas such as gamifying learning, changing the seating layouts of classrooms, and creating formative ‘exit tickets’, all in the name of getting to know their pupils even better, and to respond to their needs even more effectively.
Pupil Voice
The pupil voice focus groups involved members of the Decem who were split up into three groups of two, each responsible for different areas of the School – Lower, Middle and Upper – to act as their pupil voice. The Decem looked at the responses their fellow pupils had given to what they feel aids and hinders their productivity and enjoyment in and out of the classroom and identified trends in the feedback.
The Decem then relayed this information back to teachers through open discussion in smaller groups, allowing for a more in-depth understanding of the feedback.
The recurring topics spoken about included: support, tests and feedback, prep and revision, variety and flexibility, and use of PowerPoint.
Joe Sanders, said: “Teaching staff came away from Adaptive Autumn with new ideas from their peers and feedback from the pupil voice focus groups.
“Critical for their adaptive learning, it gives all pupils the greatest chance of a successful and enjoyable academic journey at Oakham School.”
