The Teesside High School Learning Difference – Our approach to education
Wednesday 10 September 2025 | By Erin McKeownAt Teesside High School, our approach to education goes beyond just ‘teaching’ information; we focus on ensuring students truly learn and understand the new information they are exposed to. We believe learning is an active process: a consequence of thinking and talking, not just passive listening.
THS Learning Experience
Our unique ‘THS Learning Experience’ provides a framework for all lessons that enables deep, meaningful learning and excellent student progress.
The cycle begins with the ‘Big Picture,’ where teachers assess prior knowledge to guide the lesson and explicitly share learning objectives. Students are encouraged to ask their own questions to foster independence.
Next, in the ‘Interact with New Material‘ phase, students are introduced to challenging content through active engagement, not just lectures. Teachers present new material in various ways, such as through videos, demonstrations and group discussions, keeping explanations concise to maximise active learning time.
The ‘Construct Meaning‘ phase is where students earn their understanding. They work together on challenging tasks, talking and thinking through difficult concepts in order to reveal, confront and correct misconceptions. This encourages students to wrestle with concepts and see the value in grappling with challenges.
Finally, students ‘Apply Understanding‘ by using their new knowledge in more demanding, unfamiliar contexts, such as through presentations, debates or extended writing.
The cycle concludes with ‘Review‘ allowing students to reflect on their learning, the progress they have made and identify their next steps for taking this learning deeper.
The ‘Learning Experience’, coupled with our ‘Thinking Curriculum‘, helps students become passionate, active and independent learners. It’s a school-wide commitment to teaching students how to think, not just what to think, preparing them for a world that values independence, initiative and adaptability.
The Thinking Curriculum: Preparing Minds for Tomorrow’s Challenges
The Thinking Curriculum is an engaging approach to education designed to equip students with the skills they will need for a rapidly changing world. It is completely unique to Teesside High School.
We believe that education should empower students to be independent, adaptable and self-sufficient learners. Our curriculum goes beyond traditional subject teaching to provide students with the tools for effective learning habits, deep personal awareness and a repertoire of technical learning skills.
At the heart of our philosophy is the concept of metacognition, or ‘thinking about your own thinking’. We explicitly teach learning skills so students are aware of the techniques they are using, enabling them to analyse, improve and apply them in different contexts. This means all our staff serve as Learning Coaches, as an additional and explicit role beyond their subject area. This ensures the skills taught in the Thinking Curriculum permeate all lessons, showing students how good learning underpins all subject areas.
All pupils from Year 1 engage with one lesson of age-appropriate Thinking Curriculum built into their two week timetable where they are taught these skills explicitly, outside of the demands of any factual subject content demands. It is built around three distinct modules: Developing My Thinking, Working With Others, and Developing Myself as a Learner.
Through this consistent and regular work, students are exposed to a common learning vocabulary and are equipped with strategies to make sense of information, understand their unique strengths and areas for improvement and develop the collaborative skills which will allow them to contribute effectively to the teams they are part of.
By the end of Key Stage 4, our students will be able to think for themselves, question, evaluate and collaborate effectively. The ultimate goal is to empower our students to take more responsibility for their learning, make informed choices and become independent of their teachers.
The Thinking Curriculum is not just about what students learn, but developing an understanding of how they learn, preparing them for a future where adaptability and initiative will not only be highly valued, but an absolute necessity.
Mr Meyerhoff, Assistant Head, Teaching and Learning
Want to find out more about The Thinking Curriculum. Hear from Mr Meyerhoff here.
