The Friary Framework provides a basis for everything that is essential to high-quality teaching and learning at The Friary School. We have our own model of teaching and assessment and believe this provides the bedrock of our school’s success.
Each Autumn term, all staff participate in CPD training which revisits and develops aspects of The Friary Framework, drawing on school context and knowledge, as well as recent pedagogical research.
This term, the theme of ‘Who We Are’ has underpinned all of our Friary Framework sessions.
We have evaluated recent examination performance and reflected again on the changing nature of our key student groups, to ensure we can continue to secure high achievement for all of our students.
We have reviewed on our school culture, driving the message of the Friary ETHIC and supporting staff to expand their de-escalation and class room management strategies, particularly to support students who come from very challenging and difficult backgrounds.
This session dovetailed with the following training which focused on a core group of students, those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to devise more ways of engaging and supporting this specific cohort who, as a group, statistically and nationally, perform less well than their peers in external examinations.
Other training sessions have focused on developments in teaching practices. One included training on making the best use of AI tools to support teacher workload, along with appropriate ways to educate students in how to use AI tool productively.
Another session focused on the use of critical thinking skills as a tool to engage students in learning, and to fully prepare them for the wider world. Part of this session was a reflection on the variety of different opportunities the school offers to students (debate competitions, involvement in House charity weeks, assembly participation, trips etc.) and a big ‘thank you’ to staff for all they do to make these opportunities happen.
We’ll follow this term’s training with a final session in January focusing on retrieval and retention strategies to support students in their exam revision. We will then evaluate and reflect on the training for this year, with a view to preparing pertinent, (and occasionally exciting!) CPD training for 2025-26.
Matt Allman, Headteacher, said; “Our training model is very much based around our bespoke approach to teaching, learning, and assessment and we continually refine and develop our offer. Our staffing team are 100% on this and they play the leading role in supporting our children to academic and wide success.”
