Terminology

I have tended to write the terms in the topic section where they are most likely to be found. However, some terminology is more generic.

WALT: This stands for 'We Are Learning To'

BAT: Be Able To

LO: Learning Objective

Some schools use BAT which stands for Be Able To. This is accompanied by K, A and U. The K stands for 'knowledge'; what does the child need to know? The A stands for 'ability'. What the child should be able to do by the end of the lesson. The U stands for 'understanding'. Can the student apply the knowledge and skill in contexts.

Discrete - This is used to describe subjects being taught separately. Distinctly separate lessons are used to teach each subjected.  Read 'creative curriculum' too. Both methods have their advantages. Often a combination is used with some aspects of maths and English being taught discretely while a topic is used to teach geography, history, art and design and technology.

Creative curriculum: This is sometimes called a 'topic based', 'theme-based' or 'skills based' approach to delivering the curriculum.  The teaching of topics involves many skills that fall under the headings of different subjects. For example: A topic of chocolate might involve researching where it comes (geography), when it was discovered (history), how it is grown (science), how profitable it is (maths). Posters might be designed to sell it (English and art). The packaging could be reviewed (technology.) 

Closed questions: Closed questions  lend themselves to being answered with one word answer.

Open questions: Open questions cannot be answered with one word answers. Teachers try to use open questions because answering them well demonstrates understanding. 

PISA - You may have heard politicians and educators use this term. It stands for: Programme for International Student Assessment. Often countries with lower PISA scores will try to copy the methods used in countries that score well in the PISA tables. This is one of the reasons why 'Singapore maths' is a teaching method that has been adopted by so many schools.

Level 4b: Level 4 is the minimum standard that the government wanted pupils to achieve in their Key Stage 2 (Year 6) SAT. This has now changed with schools now using their own system of assessing whether children are achieving age related expectations but the new versions used by schools are generally similar to what was Level 4b