Challenge for All and Adaptive Teaching 

Meeting The Needs of All Students

At Deptford Green, excellent outcomes, progress and positive contributions to school life are an expectation for all our students. The school aims to nurture a lifelong love of learning in students within a happy, caring and secure learning community which promotes excellence.  We have high expectations for all students, despite any obstacles they might face.

We believe that appropriate challenge and high expectations both inside and outside the classroom lead our students to demonstrate success and build academic and interpersonal skills for their future endeavours. We are proud of our diverse cohort and ensure our teaching provides support for those who need it, whilst consistently challenging the 'quick graspers' and more able learners in the classroom.

Adaptive Teaching for SEN, EAL and PP Learners 

Adaptive teaching strategies are essential to quality first teaching at Deptford Green.  We use th the ‘5 a Day’ EEF Principles, which are embedded in everyday practice.  These strategies benefit all students in the class but are particularly linked to evidence around raising attainment for SEN learners.  They also link to research about raising achievement for nationally underachieving groups such as boys and Pupil Premium students.  These principles are at the central to our training and the quality assurance of lessons. Specific needs of SEN and EAL students are detailed on Pupil Passports; these include summaries of students’ needs and strategies for teachers to use.  

Careful consideration is taken by teachers when preparing seating plans and planning lessons. Some SMART interventions are provided for students who require additional literacy and numeracy support, and students who are new to the country to accelerate initial language acquisition.   

Challenging 'More Able' students

When talking about students who are 'more able', we are referring to students who are HPA (High Prior Attainers) and also those that show high levels of substantive, procedural and disciplinary knowledge in a particular subject, topic or task.   

It is important that all students are challenged in all lessons.  At Key Stage 3 and 4, clear criteria and descriptors are given and planned into curriculums so that students know what is required for a particular task to get to an advanced level.  At Key Stage 3, we refer to these criteria as ‘GDS’ or ‘Greater Depth Standard’.  STAR tasks are planned in advance to ensure students are exposed to higher order questions and ideas.  They are designed to extend thinking, always ensuring ‘quick graspers’ can develop their knowledge quickly.   Independent tasks are graduated, allowing students to practice fluency but also allowing students to tackle increasingly challenging tasks.  STAR tasks are not exclusively for particular students and an expectation is that they provide further thinking opportunities for all.

Curriculum outside the classroom

Students are provided with a rich extra-curricular programme including reading groups, sports clubs, STEM challenges, a podcast group, University projects, entering debates and many more. Our school Library and Teams Subject Libraries are stocked with multi-subject resources for the more able, including fiction and non-fiction books and research articles collated by our colleagues, for students to independently learn from.

Frequent contact is made with parents to highlight the work being done to support their child, provide a calendar of key (age-related) dates and experiences available to their child.

We have an amazing Careers provision and Enrichment programme at Deptford Green School run by Ms Nembhard with many opportunities for enriching and academic focused learning. Some activities and events include:

• Careers fairs
• University mentors for KS3 students
• Latin lessons at Colfe’s; Duke of Edinburgh Award
• Free music instrumental lessons for all Pupil Premium KS3 students
• Maths Challenge for KS3 and Further Maths GCSE for KS4.
• Visits to universities (including Oxford and Cambridge)