Why are we implementing Building Learning Power at Arkholme C.E. Primary School?

School Vision and Mission Inspire… a love for lifelong learning curiosity and creativity imagination and independence each other as individuals collaboration within our community awe and wonder for God’s world

School Aims

“The test of successful education is not the amount of knowledge that pupils take away from school, but their appetite to know and their capacity to learn.” Sir Richard Livingstone, 1941 "prepared for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life“ DfE 2013

Learning for life “ not just for a life of tests but for the tests of life”

BLP encourages children to focus on themselves as learners and to realise that they can learn to be good at learning

‘Term on term, year on year, a BLP school breeds young people who are more curious, more willing to take a risk and give it a go, more imaginative, more creative, more thoughtful, more ready, willing and able to learn with and through others. It’s developing this adventurous spirit that counts’. Professor Guy Claxton

What is BLP? We want our children to be Resilient Resourceful Reflective Reciprocal To do this, we need to strengthen their learning muscles – of which there are 17!

Resilient Absorbed Able to manage distractions Notice things Persevere

Resourceful Make links Ask questions, of others and themselves Capitalise on the resources they have available to them Use their imagination Reason

Reflective Plan their learning Distil what they have learnt and pick out the important or key information Revise what they are doing Can identify themselves as a learner, how they learn and what their strengths and weaknesses are

Reciprocity Collaborate with others Have empathy with others and can actively listen to others Imitate what other people do and learn from them Make informed choices about when to work with others, and who to work with

What we did persevere ? take a questioning approach collaborate

How do you learn? “The teacher tells you something.” “I read books and look on the internet.” “You make us do things like answer questions.” “We do homework.” “I learn things by watching some TV programmes like Horrible History.” “Practice.” “Its good when you get the answer right.”

To get the children thinking about how they learn, I asked them to start their learning log by writing about something they have learnt to do and how they learnt to do it.

collaborate

“I like working on my own – other people bother me and I can’t concentrate.” “I like working with my friends because I know them better.” “I don’t like working with people I don’t know very well because I don’t know them.” “I sometimes like working with other people but I don’t like it when people don’t listen to my ideas.” Do you prefer working with others, or on your own? “I like working with John because he always knows what he’s doing.” “I just like working on my own because then I can do it my own way.”

Forest Schools

“I used to just want to do my own thing, but now I like sharing ideas with other people.” “I’ve worked with some people I wouldn’t usually work with and it was good fun.” “Its not copying, its imitating!” “I thought he just messed about, but actually he worked really well in our group.” How do you feel about Collaboration? “I was really surprised when they made me the leader of the group! But I think I was good at it because I listened to everyone.” “Everyone is good at something different.” “I really liked being the expert! Everyone was listening – that never happens!”

? take a questioning approach

Observed behaviours Can I have....? (insert variety of classroom equipment!) What do I do with this? Do you mean the thing we did yesterday ? Does ‘force’ have a C in it? What are we going to do next? Are you going to football after school? Is this like a fact file? ?

Questioning Wheel ?

Question Box Rules set by the class Can ask any question Children decide if it is a silly/rude question If we don’t know the answer we will find out. ?

What are you having for tea? What is your name? Do you like ice cream? How do you drive a car? How are rocks made? How do you make chips? How do staligtites and staligmites grow? ?

Wonder Wall (before BLP) ?

Wonder Wall (after BLP!) ?

Learning logs Questioning Making links CapitalisingAbsorption Planning Distilling Listening

Questioning Wheel ?

persevere

How do you feel when you are stuck? Frustrated Worried Angry Confused Nervous Sad Jealous of others

How do you feel when you work something out? Tired “What was I worried about?” Relieved Satisfied Surprised Delighted Pleased with myself Happy

Stuck Strategies

How do you learn? “I ask questions – I think I’m good at asking questions.” “I learn from my mistakes “Having a go.” “By using the equipment in the classroom like displays.” “I learn from other people.” “BEING DETERMINED!” “I learn by trying different strategies when I’m stuck.” “By asking questions like in the question box.”

What is building learning power Building up your learning like bricks on a wall. We know we don’t just learn from you, but we collaborate and learn in different ways. The four R’s we need to be a good learner. It makes us better learners. Being a good learner. I’ve learnt what those 4 R words mean!

BLP would be a good thing to use across the country. I though you told me something and that’s how I learnt it but actually I have to ask myself questions to keep me learning. We should start BLP at a younger age so you’re doing it from the start. It helped me because I thought you were just telling me things. I want to get to the orange so I know I’m stretching my questioning muscle. I’m persevering in maths more. I think it has made me a better learner because I really think about BLP and questioning. It’s made me stronger because it make me really think. I’m making up my own questions like ‘What should I do next?’ It’s given me more options for what I can do, like when I’m stuck. What are your thoughts on Building Learning Power?

Successes Attitude to learning improved Increased Independence – no longer see me as the go to person when they are stuck, and are actively engaging in their own learning though independent research, questioning and homework. The children seeing and commenting on the overlap between the capacities. “I used maths to present my information in RE. Thats making links isn’t it?” Homework

Successes The language the children use “I need to persevere at this”. “Oh I forgot about that one, lets revise what we’re doing!” “I think I use my questioning muscle a lot!” “I think we should collaborate on this.” “RECIPROCITY!”

What can you do at home? Ask your children about their learning muscles they have been using at school. Use the language of learning when undertaking tasks at home. If your child becomes stuck in their learning ask them to think of what they would have to do at school to get “unstuck”. Welcome and foster your child’s questioning spirit as much as you can. Involve them in your own learning activities. Try to “think aloud” as you try a new recipe or struggle with a bit of DIY. It helps children grow if they see that you too can struggle with uncertainties and cope with them.