Staff at Court Fields School in Wellington have moved into a new phase of their development of teaching, learning and lessons.

The school has invested heavily in terms of time and money over the last two years in developing its approach to teaching and learning, working with educational professionals and researchers from outside the school.

This year, all lessons are based on six principles for excellent teaching and learning, with each one a focus for all teachers and students for a half-term. The school’s focus this half-term is on ensuring high levels of challenge.

Deputy headteacher Martyn Dudley said: “When we talk about challenge in learning, we don’t necessarily mean every lesson is extremely difficult, complex or impossible to grasp.

“Challenge, at its best, means that students are continually working at a level that is just beyond where they are now, so they are continually developing and moving forward.

“We believe that students should not spend any lesson time repeating work they are already expert at, but should instead be taken slightly out of their comfort zone and be tackling new but achievable learning.

“We strive to ensure every student is challenged at the right level for them, and we ‘teach to the top’ scaffolding work to ensure every student is successful.”

In lessons, students have been looking at different ways they can challenge themselves and how to ensure they are always striving to achieve the best they possibly can.

In Modern Foreign Languages, GCSE students Josh and Riley have been challenging themselves by looking at A-level standard responses. In English, in the build up to their PPE (mock) exams, students have been focusing on what grade 9 students do and how they can apply that to their own extended writing.

Year 11 students said: “This year has been quite hard, coming back after so much time off, and knowing we have our GCSEs in the summer was difficult to begin with, but the focus on challenge and how we can move forward a little bit at a time has really helped. I feel much more confident now about the PPE exams”.

Assistant headteacher Lisa Martin said: “In order to fully benefit from challenge in their lessons, students must ensure they have a growth mindset. If students expect to be expert in a topic immediately, or give up if they perceive something as difficult, they will never progress.

“As teachers and as parents we can support the students by encouraging them to challenge themselves and deal with mistakes positively. Our students have really shown us how positive their mindset is this term and the progress many are making is astounding.”