Building Learning Power

We have begun this journey to help our children build their learning skills. We reflected that although our children’s behaviour in lessons is excellent they often struggled to fully engage with the learning. The BLP programme has enabled us to have a consistent, school wide approach to developing pupils’ learning behaviours.

Our first 3 learning behaviour units are: Perseverance Collaboration Questioning Each one takes one term to develop and embed. Our teaching staff work on the theories behind each behaviour and introduce these in a variety of ways to suit their classes.

In the following year we will move through other behaviours more quickly: Imagining Listening Reasoning Revising Noticing Making Links Resourcing Learning Me Learning

In the summer term we introduced the idea of perseverance. Each class looked at elements of this including: Why being stuck is good. How to manage distractions. Being emotionally tough. Dealing with challenge. common beliefs that learning ought to be easy. If learners think that they will either understand something straight away, or not at all, then there is simply no point in persisting and struggling.

How can you help your child at home? Talk to your child about their school day with a focus on the learning. Ask them where they found learning hard and how they worked through it. (Everyone finds learning tricky sometimes!) Tell them how proud you are that they persevered with their learning, even though it was difficult. Praise your child’s effort rather than just their achievements.

How can you help your child at home? Encourage perseverance in everyday situations: “Keep going, you’re nearly there!” “What can you do differently?” “Don’t give up!” Step back where you might have previously have helped: “You can do this on your own.” “Why do you think that didn’t work?” “Let’s try and see what happens”

We have introduced a whole school icon for perseverance We have introduced a whole school icon for perseverance. He was the winning design from a competition – won by Rida (now in Year 7). As you walk around our classrooms look our for Percy and see if you can spot the classes Stuck Prompts. common beliefs that learning ought to be easy. If learners think that they will either understand something straight away, or not at all, then there is simply no point in persisting and struggling.

Additionally, we have had Percy made into a stamp and children may have a stamp in their work books (or on a post-it note) to show that they have persevered with their learning.