ACADEMICS

Overview

At Archbishop McGrath Catholic High School we seek to develop an innovative and engaging learning environment, whilst working tirelessly to maximise the learning potential of every individual, and pride ourselves on consistently delivering high quality lessons, that embed the breadth and depth of our curriculum.

Teaching and learning at Archbishop McGrath aims to be exciting and engaging. Subjects should be brought to life with innovative teaching and resources. We aim for excellence in every area of school life. We recognise the gifts of each student and strive to ensure that all engage in their learning and reach their full potential. As a school we recognise and celebrate the achievements of all pupils.

All pupils are expected to work to the very best of their ability. It is crucial that they are organised, active in their learning and make the most of the many opportunities that are made available to them.

For children to be successful in school they need to be happy, taught by outstanding teachers and motivated to achieve.

We believe children thrive in a secure but challenging setting where they are treated with care and respect, where there are lots of opportunities for personal, spiritual and moral development and where students develop to take responsibility for their own learning.

We seek to equip all students with a variety of key skills during their time at Archbishop McGrath. Central to this ideology is the development of literacy, numeracy and digital competence across the breadth of the curriculum. This allows students to apply their knowledge to real-world scenarios and become resilient learners.

We believe this development of skills gives all students many more opportunities and choices when they move on from Archbishop McGrath Catholic High School.

All of our work is focused around fostering and nurturing the aspirations of our learners, enabling them to achieve successful futures and to become life-long independent learners that are happy and healthy.

ACADEMICS

Learning

We believe that students learn most effectively when they are challenged by high quality and consistent teaching. All learners at Archbishop McGrath will find lessons with appropriate levels of challenge, presented in an environment where learning is praised and their achievements recognised.

We have only the highest expectation for all of our learners and our state-of-the-art learning environment allows the opportunity for all learners to excel. We believe that all learners should be Empowered, Virtuous and Employable and we aim to ensure that the learning experience’s we provide will equip them for the ever changing demands of a modern workplace and world. Our focus on the core skills of Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Competence ensures that every learner has a firm foundation with which to build upon.

 

ACADEMICS

Teaching

Our staff are actively engaged in ‘action research’ to ensure that our teaching is high quality and applies the most effective strategies. Staff development is central to this and our training for staff draws upon the latest in education research. Staff regularly engage in sharing good practice, within the school and in the wider educational community.

Our approach to teaching aim to embed the following elements into our learning experiences:

High Challenge: where lessons are planned so that students have the highest expectations of what they are able to achieve and how their learning can be applied;

Clear Explanation: where subject knowledge is updated and reviewed to address misconceptions and enable further understanding

High Quality Modelling: so that students can achieve high standards by applying techniques to new knowledge and skills

Quality Questioning: To probe each students thought process and to challenge students to think hard about their learning with breadth, depth and accuracy;

Effective Feedback: to provide challenge for students to think about how they can improve their own learning and how they can progress to the next stage in their learning.

Our teaching is underpinned by Welsh Government policy, including The National Literacy and Numeracy Framework (LNF) and Digital Competency Framework (DCF), our teaching provides students with the foundational skills to become successful learners and life-long learners. One of our core purposes is to create a learning environment where students develop into ambitious, capable learners, who are ready to continue to learn throughout their lives.