During our recent Innovate and Express week to conclude our topics of Me and My Community, Tribal Tales and Off With Her Head! Our pupils took part in designing and making emergency services vehicles, Made clay beakers inspired by the Bronze Age beaker people and created and performed our own Tudor Dances and created shields and rules.

Autumn 2 sees the following Topics:

• Robins’ Class (formerly Kingfishers Class) – Dinosaur Planet
• Woodpeckers’ Class – Scrumdidlyumptious
• Owls’ Class – Hola Mexico!

The Cornerstones approach to teaching and learning

The Cornerstones pedagogy is based on four distinct stages and built on a variety of different aspects of educational and cognitive research.

These stages are Engage, Develop, Innovate and Express, also known as the Four Cornerstones. These four distinct stages give clear direction for both teaching and learning. However, while the Four Cornerstones provide schools with a basis on which to deliver the curriculum, the beauty is that the finer details of content can be adapted to meet a school’s context and any research they have undertaken.

Engage

Engage is a short stage in which children take part in a memorable experience to stimulate their curiosity, ask questions and make links to their prior learning. In some cases, children are invited to reflect on prior knowledge and reflect what they know already about any key concepts or thematic content. Where necessary, introductory knowledge sessions are taught to equip children with new knowledge they need to engage in the deeper learning of their project.

Develop

Develop is a longer stage of learning, where children delve more deeply into the knowledge and skills required to understand and build their conceptual understanding. Learning is well-sequenced and interconnected and builds over time through a series of sequenced and interconnected lessons. Children are provided with opportunities to work in different ways, in small or large groups, or as individuals. In this way, children continue to build their social skills, oracy, tolerance and co-operation.

Innovate

The Innovate stage provides crucial opportunities for children to retrieve previous knowledge and skills in order to apply them in new contexts. In the thematic curriculum, the Innovate stage takes a more practical, problem-solving approach where children can work together to invent, create, use and apply their learned knowledge and skills. In the sequenced curriculum, children are provided with a provocation or challenge and a more structured Innovate Journal to record their thoughts and ideas.

Express

In the Express stage, children are given opportunities to reflect on their learning, test their knowledge and celebrate their achievements. During this stage, there are many opportunities for speaking and listening to others and articulating understanding. In the sequenced curriculum, low-stakes quizzes or more formal tests are provided to help teachers to assess children’s learning.

Asking Questions

Asking the right questions is a vital part of the pedagogical process. Listed below are just some of the question types you may find in lesson and project plans as a result of the Cornerstones pedagogy.

Engage

• What do you know about…?
• What do you already know about…?
• What have you previously learned about…?
• What do you want to find out more about…?
• What interests you about…?
• What would happen if…?
• Why do you think that…?
• Can you explain why…?

Develop

• What do you already know about…?
• What is…?
• Why does?
• Can you explain why…?
• Why is that important?
• How does that link to…?
• How does that relate to…?
• How does that compare with…?
• What do you think, so far, about…?
• What have you found out about…?
• Why did that happen…?

Innovate

• What is the problem with…?
• What do you know about…?
• How can you apply what you already know to this situation?
• What do you need to do first?
• What do you recall about…?
• Can you think of ways to solve this problem?
• How many ideas can you think of?
• Which is your best idea?
• What resources will you need?
• What is your plan?
• Why do you think that?
• How can you improve…?
• How might you change…?
• Is it working…?
• What happens next…?

Express

• What do you know now that you didn’t know at the start of this lesson/project?
• Which part of the project did you find most challenging?
• What progress have you made during this project?
• Which skills have you mastered?
• How was learning connected in this lesson/project to what you have learned previously?
• How would you like to share/present what you have learned?
• What do you think you need to revisit?