The Preston Lodge Cluster Learning Team

The opportunity to become involved in a Learning Team was met with real enthusiasm by the support for Learning staff in the Preston Lodge Cluster. L.S. staff were enthusiastic, partly about the opportunity to explore Formative Assessment and partly about the opportunity to work together.

The initial meeting started with a discussion about Formative Assessment, it was quite familiar to a number of staff who were involved in working on one or more aspects of it as staff in their schools were already part of Ann McLanachan’s first Learning Team. The fact that members of the group were coming from varying degrees of background knowledge made for a robust initial meeting.

After deliberation we decided to focus on questioning. So much of what we do on a day to day basis revolves around listening and talking we thought that focusing on questioning would allow us to try out Formative Assessment strategies in small groups, one to one and with whole classes. Leading on from questioning wait time became important and a number of the group are now using Think Pair Share.

On our third meeting it was decided to change our focus, although it would be fair to say that we all continue to work on developing appropriate questions. We’ re now all working on Edward Be Bono’s Six Thinking Hats. At this meeting we were joined by a colleague from Preston Lodge. Her input added an extra dimension to the general discussion. Everyone has benefited from the opportunity to share our learning objectives and to reflect on the changes we are making to our teaching practice.

All such opportunities require funding, we have benefited form an allocation provided by the Learning Co-ordinator from the Assessment is for Learning Fund. To date we have been able to have 3 mornings together with a 4th arranged for the end of April. The value of having this time for discussion and reflection is not lost on any of us.