Values

__**What I Value**__
 * Creativity
 * Integrity
 * Inclusion
 * Communication
 * Wisdom

__**What I believe should be taught**__

I believe that school should not just be a place where you learn isolated facts and formulas. Knowledge is only worthwhile when it is underpinned by, or adds to, understanding. My planning always explicitly identifies the knowledge, skills and understanding that is the focus for any unit of work.

School should also be a place where students learn to:
 * 1) research what others have said and make judgements on it.
 * 2) work well with others, be reliable and considerate.
 * 3) challenge themselves and take calculated risks.
 * 4) be intrinsically motivated, proud of their achievements and able to learn from their own mishaps.
 * 5) think about thinking and question their beliefs

__**My Pedagogy**__

Motivating my actions is a strong commitment to develop my students to become life-long learners. This commitment is met through a proven pedagogy founded on three core principles. The first is to increase knowledge, learning and achievement. I have high expectations for each student and individualised learning goals. Inspiring this is the second principle, to increase students’ interest. I ensure my planning connects to students’ lives and deals with relevant issues, taking into account geography and cultural diversity. Increasing my students’ confidence is the final principle. I am adept making the complex understandable and focus my expectations on quality rather than quantity. I love seeing my students succeed and I have created a learning environment in which their achievements are celebrated. Through the use of a range of thinking tools, De Bono’s Habits of Mind and Bloom’s Taxonomy I am able to explicitly teach and model good learning practices.

My pedagogy is based on three pillars knowledge interest and confidence. Like a tripod, if my planning is not designed to provide all three, the learning will be unsupported and the learner's potential unfulfilled. For example, if students are only provided with knowledge that is not made meaningful they will remain unproductive. Similarly, a student that is very confident in their abilities, but has no understanding or interest in the wider ramifications, is, to put it bluntly, unsafe. And so it continues as my diagram below illustrates.

An Ideal Learner will continue to learn for their entire life. .