Teaching Methods (Hansard, 11 December 2003)

§ Mr. Stephen Twigg

The national Primary and Key Stage 3 Strategies have enabled teachers to improve and broaden their teaching skills to raise standards of attainment for children of all abilities. Typical of their approach to inclusion has been the help on challenging and supporting all pupils in whole class teaching, in the ways in which teachers differentiate tasks, in the ways pupils are grouped, and in the ways in which teaching assistants are used to support pupils. This year Key Stage 3 Challenge Programmes offer support in new approaches in one-to-one teaching for pupils who are falling behind in basic skills. Our programme for gifted and talented education, including our support for the National Academy for Gifted and Talented Young, is also helping to develop teachers' understanding of the most effective approaches to the teaching of the most able pupils.

Our ambitions for personalised learning in schools are that universal provision should be tailored-to the needs of every child. Central to this agenda are that teachers have more effective skills in formative assessment. We know through a wide body of research, for example through the Ofsted report "Good Assessment in Secondary Schools" published earlier this year, that the quality of assessment by teachers has a significant impact on attitudes to learning through challenging children and through encouraging teachers to focus on how to improve the learning skills of individual pupils. That is why we have made available to all schools the new Pupil Achievement Tracker to help them identify their pupils' strengths and weaknesses and set appropriate targets for development, based on the results of pupils in their National Curriculum Tests. 614W And through the Primary and Key Stage 3 Strategies we will be making available to teachers next year support in assessment for learning techniques and approaches.