Wellfield Educational Charity: Home

OUR SYLLABUS

The material we use differs depending on the teachers' preferences as we feel we get better results if they teach from material they are familiar with, permitting the material is of a high standard.

In mathematics we encourage the use of the Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching's (CIMT) courses for key stage one up to A-level developed by the University of Plymouth.

In English our focus is on reading and writing appropriate to the level required in the national curriculum, though we like to push our students. Classes tend to focus on reading aloud, discussion and criticism on the readings, writing stories or essays, basic writing and reading skills for the youngest and vocabulary enhancement.

Science classes focus on research skills in investigative projects.

OUR TEACHING METHOD

Teachers will generally spend the first ten minutes of the class going over homework and answering questions. They will then teach an interactive class in which they will introduce topics and talk the children through examples with their help; examples reinforced in homework. Problems with work from their weekday classes may be addressed after our lessons. As mentioned, children are in classes according to their ability, not age, and progress from one level to another at a pace appropriate to their ability, while being encouraged to work as hard as they can.

Discipline is strict and we will not tolerate misbehaviour. Children will work in silence unless engaged in discussion with the teacher and will always put their hand up. Three counts of bad behaviour will have a child suspended. We can manage this level of discipline because of our small teache-student ratio (around ten) and not being required to keep children on.

All our schools have slightly different setups depending on the experience and preferences of the teachers. A indication of what one afternoon's teaching might look like would be:

Maths lesson (1hr, 15 min):

First 45 minutes – work based on curriculum

Last 30 minutes – work outside of curriculum to expand children's knowledge e.g. working on Maths Challenge; logic puzzles; computer programming

Break (30 min): (Children must be involved in one of the following activities)

Public speaking
Debating
Intellectual games
Acting/role-playing
Lecture from an expert
Science/engineering workshop
Philosophical discussion
Creative writing
Computing

English lesson (1hr 15 min):

First 45 minutes – work based on curriculum

Last 30 minutes – work outside of curriculum to expand children's knowledge e.g. class reading time

Free break (15 min)

Science lesson (1 hr 15 min):

First 45 minutes – work based on curriculum

Last 30 minutes – work outside of curriculum to expand children's knowledge e.g. engineering skills (making a bridge out of straws), scientific investigation

After school:

Half hour where children can ask teachers anything, especially in regard to work from their regular school.

Children will be given homework each week in each class which will be marked by teachers and gone over in class the following week. Weekly progress is recorded for each child.

When children first come to the school, they are tested to establish their level of competence in each subject. Each child is then assigned a class and tested every three months to check their progress. Tests are usually of the same form as SATs, GCSEs or A-levels and we teach the children exam technique.

We will also help children with interview technique and applications for jobs or further education and may be able to write references.

We place a joint emphasis on improving reasoning and memory skills. Reasoning is all very well, but one cannot reason with no information. Knowing things is useful, but not if you cannot reason their consequences.