Our TMS staff have been busy at work again! We have been really keen to explore memory, and how to encourage children to talk about what they have LEARNED, rather than what they have ‘done’.

Memory is so, so important. “The more we know, the easier it is to know more!” Each time we learn something, a physiological change happens in our brains, but it is so important to keep on revisiting the learning, or new facts, otherwise, the connections will be lost. Our staff  have been learning about the forgetting curve, which shows the importance of bringing new information, from memory, to ‘mind’. This curve shows how information is lost over time when there is no attempt to retain it.

To make learning memorable, our teachers use the mnemonic CALM PAST REV. These are 11 strategies to make learning stick.

Once this learning has been made memorable, the challenge is to keep revisiting it in a variety of ways, to cement the new knowledge into the long term memory.

“As children learn more, they have a larger, tighter web with which to catch new pieces of information.”

The teachers at TMS have looked hard at our STAR curriculum planning and have isolated key knowledge which we will be  exploring and understanding this term. We have then translated this into icons and key vocabulary, which then our children will be able to talk about as the term progresses, both at home and school.

Please use these STAR guides at home to encourage your children to talk about their learning. They are also found on the Year group Learning pages.