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ALl	Caerffili	Enw'r Ysgol	Pontllanfraith Primary School

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This work is from Pontllanfraith Cluster

What was the focus for improvement?
Developing thinking skills through collaborative learning.

The focus was to develop higher order thinking skills and group work, leading to better standards in writing (supports the LEA focus on improving standards in writing). A range of subject contexts will be used. We were aiming to improve the following standards:
• higher order learning skills
• working with others
• quality of writing

What did we do?
• Teach group work skills explicitly
• Used mind mapping as a strategy to develop thinking and learning

What were the outcomes?
Improved thinking skills and higher standards of writing

What evidence have we collected to demonstrate improvements?
• Classroom observation of small group work
• Discussion with pupils
• Pupils’ written work
• Teachers’ planning
• Photographs

What have we learnt about teaching practice and pupils learning?
• How graphic organisers can be used as a tool to develop pupils’ thinking and information processing skills e.g. collecting ideas, sorting, classifying, comparing, contrasting and analysing.
• Introducing group work to the class. Further teaching needed to develop pupils’ skills and group self evaluation
• Using web and Venn diagrams, and ‘post it notes’ pupils are able to develop their reasoning skills. The sorting and classifying of the ‘post its’ causes great debate and raised many questions with the pupils.
• During the group work, pupils found it beneficial to have specific roles with expectations clearly defined at the start.
• Improved pupil participation, interaction and enjoyment

What we aim to do next
• To further develop group work skills with the pupils including group self -evaluation, rules and roles.
• To view good practice.
• To link with CCBC’s development plan for oracy.

Supporting Documentation
1. Project Evaluation
Full project evaluation
2. Presentation
Presentation of the work carried out

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