The National Thinking Classrooms Programme
If closing the achievement gap or deepening learning is a priority for your school The National Thinking Classrooms Programme should be your first step
Get in touch about The Thinking Classroom Programme TODAY
About the programme
Years and years of making Closing The Achievement Gap, a government and Ofsted policy priority, have failed to stop the gap widening between working class and middle class children. The Pandemic and Covid have made things much worse, and the cost of living crisis will only add to the problem.
At the root of the issue is a half-acknowledged fear that children from lower socio-economic groups frequently come into school with a less developed repertoire of cognitive and linguistic skills. These are deep-lying issues and are often never addressed through traditional teaching.
The National Thinking Classrooms Programme with its emphases on cognitive and metacognitive skills, speaking and listening skills, and its commitment to dialogic teaching, remedies the underlying issues which are preventing many children from succeeding.
However, the programme will also energise and engage all children in the class and give your teachers a new way to be creative teachers. En route, it will engage, and go beyond, Ofsted’s core priorities on teaching and learning.
| In terms of creative teaching and learning, Ofsted’s inspection framework states that good schools will: |
|
|---|---|
| Provide an environment in which teachers are encouraged to take risks and to be creative in their teaching | |
| Encourage pupils to be curious and to ask questions, and to take an active role in their own learning | |
| Promote the development of pupils’ critical and creative thinking skills | |
| Provide opportunities for pupils to apply their thinking skills in different contexts and to solve problems independently | |
| Encourage pupils to ask questions and to think critically about the information they are presented with | |
| Provide a curriculum that allows pupils to develop their talents and interests | |
| Provide pupils with the knowledge and skills they need to be successful in their future lives |
Effective questioning to develop speaking and listening, critical thinking, metacognition, and self-regulation in a collaborative classroom
Programme packages
Awards
There are two levels of Awards – Silver and Gold – for schools completing the programme and who are able to show an improvement in teachers’ commitment and success in teaching critical thinking.
N.B. All in-person coaching will involve additional travel expenses
* You can buy this course for all your teachers on its own and they can run through the course in their own time, reflecting on their practice themselves as prompted by the course.
** Schools can choose how to use these hours, they can be used for a whole school INSET or staff meetings (online or in-person), a smaller regular staff meeting for a core team e.g. staff meetings three times a year, or one-to-one mentoring for a member of staff, with a TPF trainer. To develop a lead teacher, one member of staff can use the allotted hours to have: one-to-one support with The Philosophy Foundation’s mentors to become an Associate Teacher with The Philosophy Foundation, if they pass the training, which includes: Observation of lessons by TPF specialist philosophy teachers not available elsewhere (either online or in-person); Support over 5 lessons: 1 observation / coaching for of one lesson (online or in-person depending on location); 3 feedback sessions on self-reflection after an enquiry; Final observation to give further feedback advice and give TPF associate teacher status if appropriate.
*** A Thinking Classroom Coach can accredit staff who are taking the National Thinking Classrooms course, and be paid to do this work through the programme.
There are 8 key areas subdivided into chapters of 7-20 lessons
ABOUT THE PROGRAMME
The programme, authored by the acclaimed Philosophy Foundation, takes between 40-50 hours to complete. It is an online programme supported by qualified tutors who train designated Thinking Classroom Leaders to support the programme. This makes the programme sustainable and allows schools to support other schools once completed.
Expert Writers and Coaches
Coach your own Thinking Classrooms Leaders
Each teacher in your school will be taught by the programme how to use questioning styles and metacognition to develop children’s critical thinking skills so that they can begin to ask higher level questions themselves.
But if schools want more direct coaching they can opt for the coaching packages which can develop one or two teachers to become Thinking Classrooms Programme Leaders. From there it’s only a small step to being able to coach other schools in your community or MAT.
