At Stoke Primary, we believe that high-quality teaching and learning are at the heart of every child’s success.
This document outlines our shared principles and approaches that ensure all pupils are challenged, supported, and inspired to become independent, creative, and reflective learners. Our teaching is informed by evidence-based research, professional reflection, and the understanding that effective learning is an active, social, and dynamic process.
2. Our Vision for Learning
At Stoke Primary, we strive to create a learning community where every child is inspired to achieve their very best, equipped with the knowledge, skills, and character to thrive in an ever-changing world.
Understand how they learn best and apply strategies that help them improve.
Make meaningful connections across subjects through well-sequenced and engaging experiences.
Develop resilience, creativity, and independence.
Are included, valued, and heard.
Our teaching prioritises depth, focusing on key knowledge, core concepts and transferable skills that build over time.
3. Core Principles of Effective Learning
Our curriculum and pedagogy are shaped by the following core principles:
Movement: Learning is active. Physical engagement, active exploration, and hands-on investigation deepen understanding and memory.
Choice and Autonomy: Pupils are given opportunities to make choices, fostering ownership and motivation.
Creativity: Learning experiences encourage imagination, innovation, and problem-solving.
Voice: Every pupil’s voice is valued. Children are taught and encouraged to articulate their ideas, reflect on feedback, and express understanding confidently.
These principles reflect our belief that learning is inclusive, purposeful, and joyful.
4. Understanding of Memory and Learning
Teaching at Stoke Primary is grounded in cognitive science and understanding how memory works. We recognise that learning is the process of transferring information from working memory to long-term memory and retrieving it effectively over time.
Teachers plan with reference to:
Retrieval practice - regular opportunities to recall prior learning (Rosenshine, 2012).
Spaced and interleaved learning – revisiting key concepts over time, across topics and year groups, to strengthen retention (Coe et al, 2014).
Cumulative quizzing - low-stakes quizzes designed to revisit and strengthen learning over time, helping pupils build and retain knowledge across topics and terms.
Schema building - connecting new ideas to existing knowledge frameworks (EEF, 2021).
Explicit instruction - clear, structured modelling before independent practice (supported by EEF and Rosenshine).
By revisiting and deepening core concepts, pupils develop secure, transferable understanding.
5. Prioritised Teaching
Teachers plan and deliver lessons that focus on what is most important for pupils to know, remember, and be able to do. Our curriculum design ensures that learning builds cumulatively - deepening understanding and connecting knowledge over time. We recognise that effective teaching requires clarity of purpose and precision of focus. Therefore, our teaching is underpinned by the following principles:
Curriculum Sequencing: Learning is organised to ensure that essential knowledge and key concepts are introduced progressively and revisited regularly. Teachers consider prior learning through ‘Curriculum Narratives’, plan from core knowledge and skills, and ensure that each lesson contributes meaningfully to long-term understanding.
Cognitive Load Awareness: Teaching avoids overloading working memory by introducing new material in small, manageable steps, allowing time for guided and independent practice (Rosenshine, 2012).
Adaptative Teaching: Lessons are adapted based on ongoing assessment for learning, ensuring that misconceptions are identified and addressed promptly.
Explicit Teaching and Modelling: Teachers clearly explain new content, model high-quality examples, and make thinking visible to help pupils understand how to apply knowledge independently and purposefully.
Purposeful Practice: Pupils are given structured opportunities to practise, apply, and consolidate what they have learned. This deliberate practice helps to embed knowledge and strengthen fluency. Teachers provide varied opportunities for pupils to show what they know.
Teachers make use of Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction (Sherrington, 2019) to structure lessons: starting with review, presenting new material in small steps, providing scaffolding, and guiding practice before promoting independence.
6. Skilled Learners and Metacognition
We aim to develop pupils who are reflective and self-regulated learners. Teaching encourages children to:
Plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning.
Understand and apply metacognitive strategies.
Reflect on what helps them learn best.
At Stoke, this is underpinned by our Stoke Learner behaviours: Challenge, Persevere, Focus, Collaborate, Celebrate, and Reflect. These behaviours help every child to grow as a confident, resilient, and motivated learner. They are acknowledged and reinforced through our Stoke Learner sticker grids, celebrating progress and effort in developing positive learning behaviours.
Our approach is aligned with the EEF’s ‘Metacognition and Self-Regulated Learning’ guidance, ensuring pupils gain the tools to think critically, reason deeply, and become lifelong learners.
7. Inclusion for All
At Stoke, inclusion is at the heart of all we do. We are committed to ensuring that every pupil - whatever their starting point - experiences success and makes strong progress.
We recognise that all pupils bring unique strengths, needs, and prior experiences to their learning. Our teaching reflects this by being adaptive, ambitious, and inclusive. This includes:
High expectations for all learners, including those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND), those working at Age-Related Expectations (ARE), and pupils with greater depth potential.
Adaptive teaching that scaffolds and supports learning without lowering challenge, enabling every child to access the full curriculum and achieve ambitious outcomes.
Targeted support and intervention that respond to specific barriers to learning, using formative assessment to guide next steps.
Enrichment and extension opportunities that stretch and inspire pupils working at greater depth, ensuring challenge is sustained across all areas of the curriculum.
Personalised approaches that recognise the whole child - academically, socially, and emotionally - valuing diversity and promoting equity.
We teach and challenge all pupils to reach their full potential, ensuring that inclusion means everyone thrives, not just participates.
8. Dynamic Teaching
We view teaching as a dynamic and responsive process. Our classrooms are places of curiosity, energy and purposeful learning. Teaching is not static; it evolves to meet the needs of pupils and the expectations of the curriculum.
Teachers are encouraged to think deeply about how knowledge is best imparted – ensuring that lessons are engaging and relevant. This includes:
Designing practical, contextual, and immersive learning experiences that help pupils make meaningful connections between new knowledge and prior understanding.
Using a variety of pedagogical approaches - including modelling, guided practice, collaboration, and inquiry - to make abstract ideas tangible.
Ensuring learning activities promote active participation, creativity, and discussion rather than passive completion of tasks.
Using assessment and questioning dynamically to adapt teaching in real time, address misconceptions, and extend learning opportunities.
Learning environments are calm, purposeful, and engaging, promoting positive relationships and high expectations for all.
9. Professional Development (CPD)
We know that excellent teaching stems from continual professional growth. At Stoke Primary, professional learning is:
Evidence-informed: Staff development draws on research, including the EEF, Rosenshine’s Principles, and cognitive science.
Collaborative: Teachers engage in professional dialogue, coaching, joint planning, and network moderations.
Reflective: Staff evaluate the impact of strategies on pupil learning and share best practice.
Sustained: CPD is ongoing, embedded within school improvement priorities and tailored to individual development needs through professional performance review, staff meetings and INSET days.
We work to cultivate a culture of professional curiosity where all staff see themselves as learners.
10. Monitoring and Evaluation
Teaching and learning are regularly reviewed through:
