Teaching and Learning at The Vineyard - Soft Starts
This week, we have kick-started Spring term with our new approach to soft starts. Soft starts happen between 8.35 and 8.45 as soon as the children enter the classroom. They focus on an area of knowledge that has already been taught in class. This time gives children an opportunity to practice their memory retrieval and share what they remember. It’s great insight for your child’s class teacher to see what your child has embedded or hasn’t embedded, yet. The stimulus is always presented in the same format (see examples below). The task design is the same each time, so your child’s working memory is not having to work too hard. Instead, your child’s brain is being exercised to retrieve previous knowledge to move the knowledge into their long term memory. Retrieval practice is a vital component to your child’s learning.



Soft starts also provide consistency and predictability, whereby children can feel successful from the beginning of their school day. Therefore, we strongly encourage that your child/ren arrive at school at 8.30 to be in class for 8.35 to take part in the soft start.
Teachers also use this time to provide emotional check-ins for those that need this, read with children, select children to respond to marking and provide spelling/times table practice for specific children.
Here’s a link to the research that supports our approach based on Rosenshine’s Principles.
Ms Reilly and Mrs Dempster
Assistant Headteachers for Teaching & Learning