Head of Faculty for Learning Support and SENDCo Mrs Seed provided staff with a very timely reminder on Monday morning at our Staff Briefing meeting in the main hall about how to support students with their working memory in lessons.

Working memory is a cognitive system inside our brains that provides us with a limited capacity to hold information on a temporary basis. Working memory is important for all of us as it supports our reasoning and guides our decision-making and behaviour.

1. Establishing clear links to previous learning.
2. Making things visual through the use of mind-maps and photographs etc.
3. Giving an overview of what the lesson is about at the start of the lesson.
4. Keeping things clear and simple.
5. Breaking down any information or instructions into shorter chunks.
6. Structuring the lesson into short bursts.
7. Carefully considering the working memory demands of the tasks set for children – so they only have to hold 1 or 2 pieces of information in their head at one time.
8. Providing guides, step-by-step instructions and visual prompts to support learning.
9. Supporting writing with personalised word banks, sentence starters, visual prompts and sequencing.
10. Ensuring any reading materials are at an appropriate level.
11. Displaying key information to support topics – using interactive displays.