At DMAT we believe that a child’s education is precious. This is because they only get one chance of a great education and a great education opens doors.. It is our core purpose to ensure that, whatever their starting point, children will thrive, achieve and succeed in our schools. This is particularly important for children who have experienced socio-economic disadvantage, additional needs or disabilities. Having a Research School at the heart of DMAT, means that we are at the forefront of evidence informed teaching and staff development – for all staff . This matters because our staff are our greatest asset. Schools build people and people build communities. This is a responsibility we take very seriously. Through working together we will:
- Ensure excellence from all, for all.
- Transform the life chances of young people and their community
- Raise aspirations by believing that together we can all achieve beyond our expectations.
At the heart of this educational vision are these six fundamental pillars:
Strong & Relentless Leadership
Every leader at a DMAT school has the drive and commitment to achieve our educational vision.
This comes from a strong belief that every child deserves the best education, because education opens doors. This is what inclusion means to us, here at DMAT.
So to achieve this, our leaders drive for consistency, fidelity and excellence in all that we do.
At DMAT, we live our values.
A Knowledge Rich Curriculum
DMAT schools have an ambitious curriculum for all. This will nurtue children who are inquisitive and reflective learners, with a depth and breadth of knowledge. Personal development will also be threaded through our curriculum.
In order to do this, the curriculum in our schools will be:
- Rigorous – so that all children have to think deeply across the curriculum.
- Cohesive – so that the links across the curriculum are explored.
- Sequenced – so that the layers of knowledge are built upon and developed over time
Evidence Informed Teaching
In order to implement the curriculum, we use the best available research evidence to inform our teaching. This is based on six pedagogical principles:
- Challenge
- Explanation
- Modelling
- Practice
- Questioning
- Feedback
This is a ‘tight but loose’ approach. ‘Tight’, because teaching must be shaped by these principles. ‘Loose’ because they are contextualized to phase, subject etc.
Robust Formative and Summative Assessment
Learning is like a journey. Children need to know how they are getting on with their learning, where they are in terms of their destination and what feedback they need in order to stay on track.
This is why we put so much focus on formative and summative assessment. This tells us how children are doing, in terms of learning the knowledge laid out in our curriculum.
This matters because it ensures that all children will have the best possible chance of experiencing academic success.
Consistent Routines and Standards
At DMAT we understand that if children are going to learn and thrive, they need to do so in a calm, ordered and safe environment. Clear and consistent routines are essential for this and are a key feature in our schools.
Similarly, we want children to be proud of themselves and their school. Having the highest standards in terms of uniform, behaviour, attendance and punctuality are key to this.
These qualities help to build character and prepare children for life beyond school.
Strong Personal Development
The journey through school, as it is in life, can be full of ups and downs, for many of our students. We help our students navigate this, through key staff being there to support and care for them.
We work alongside families, carers and external agencies, so that we are all working together, to ensure children in our schools thrive and feel that they belong.
A key part of personal development is ensuring that there is a great range of extracurricular activities on offer to build character and confidence outside of the classroom.
In order to support leaders with enacting these pillars in their schools, there are a number of key DMAT documents that explore them in more detail:
The aim of this policy is to ensure that children in all DMAT schools will:
- Make significant progress over their time with us..
- Develop and retain the knowledge (declarative i.e. knowledge you can think about and say and procedural i.e. knowledge you can do) and cultural capital (including relevant tier two and tier three vocabulary) that will enrich their experience and empower them to access, the next stage of their education, find suitable employment and participate in a democratic society.
- Value learning for its own sake and develop a range of skills, aptitudes and personal qualities to take into life. These will include non-cognitive skills (such as resilience, working with others, acceptance of feedback and kindness), metacognitive skills (such as planning, monitoring and evaluation) and study skills (such as retrieval practice, spaced practice and dual coding).
It is a moral imperative that decisions about curriculum, teaching and assessment (CTA) are informed by the best available evidence and the practical wisdom of the most effective teachers. This is what shapes classroom practice at DMAT schools. This policy articulates some key, evidence-informed principles that leaders in DMAT schools use to shape their curriculum, teaching and assessment. This is supported by a CTA audit that leaders can use to pinpoint their strengths and development areas.
This document, written by DMAT leaders in 2024, articulates what exceptional leadership looks like. It is for current and future leaders at Durrington Multi Academy Trust. It sets out a practical framework for what effective leadership looks like for our leaders.
We know strong and effective leadership is essential for all aspects of school life but is often not explicitly articulated in terms of what it precisely entails. We have produced this guidance to support leaders in building an armoury of effective leadership behaviours based on our core leadership principles.
- Moral Purpose
- Communicating the vision
- Growing their team
- Being organised and strategic
- Implementing change
These apply across the trust and are not phase specific. This document breaks these principles down and explores different ‘plays’ that can bring these principles into practice. Plays are suggested ways of successfully handling situations. They may include a sequence of behaviours and actions.
At DMAT we use a number of plays that ensure we are doing a good job as leaders. Our plays are not exhaustive, but they are effective when used well.
Each section of this document focuses on one principle. It will look at:
- What the principle is
- Why it matters
- A checklist for each principle
- High frequency errors
- Different plays for that principle.
As well as looking at what works effectively, it’s also important to know what the ‘high frequency errors’ are. These are the things that can easily go wrong in leadership. If we know what they are, we can plan to avoid them.
The ‘Teaching: Principles in Practice’ (PiPs) guidance document is for current and future teachers at DMAT schools. It is designed to support the implementation of our six teaching principles. The document has been developed by primary and secondary leaders in DMAT schools.
The principles in practice are a series of teaching routines that support, and do not replace, the delivery of rich phase/subject specific pedagogy. Essentially, if we all use these principles as our core teaching routines, it will allow our phase/subject specific pedagogy to flourish. Pupils will understand expectations in aspects such as how they start lessons, attend to our explanations and experience questioning. As a result, lessons will be smoother, calmer and allow learning to take place effectively and efficiently.
Not all of the PiPs are designed to be all used in every lesson. However, it is the expectation that DMAT teachers rehearse the PiPs, both inside and outside the classroom, to the point of automaticity. In essence we believe these are the 15 most useful tools teachers have at their disposal, and we want to support all our teachers in becoming experts with them. As a result, much of our professional development is focused on all our teachers, no matter their level of experience, getting better at our PiPs. This means the core of our professional development are all informed and shaped by them.
The ‘Behaviour and Systems Principles in Practice’ document is a template for DMAT schools to communicate “what we do here and how we do it”. This is not a generic document, it is a scaffold for DMAT schools to adapt to their own systems and processes – but framed by some common, underlying principles. The PIPs codify and explain to all staff what our core routines are and why they and why they are effective. These are the core routines/systems that, when implemented consistently, ensure we have a calm, safe and positive learning environment every day.
The document is not aimed at creating a militaristic approach to behaviour and routines in DMAT schools.. However we do expect staff to implement these agreed routines and systems, so that each school can be as consistent as possible. Not all of the PiPs are designed to be used all of the time and/or apply to every situation. However, it is the expectation that staff read and rehearse the PiPs (applicable to their role) to the point of automaticity. In essence we believe these are the most useful tools staff have at their disposal, and we want to support all our staff to become experts in them.
Why are routines so important?
As Pep’s Mecrea highlights “Routines have the potential to be powerful tools for student learning and responsive teaching. However, their power is only unleashed once they become automated. It can take anywhere between 20 to 60 repetitions to achieve automation… which could be weeks or months, depending on how often the routine gets run. However, we can accelerate the adoption and power of a routine by running it in multiple classrooms”.