Building Learning Power

Last year we introduced ‘Building Learning Power’ at our school.

What is ‘Building Learning Power’?

 It can be described as ‘knowing what to do when you do not know what to do’.

Building learning power is about helping young people to become better learners, both in school and out.

It is about creating a culture in classrooms - and in the school more widely - that systematically cultivates habits and attitudes that enable young people to face difficulty and uncertainty calmly, confidently and creatively.

Students who are more confident of their own learning ability learn faster and learn better. They concentrate more, think harder and find learning more enjoyable. Building Learning Power prepares youngsters better for an uncertain future. Today’s schools need to be educating not just for exam results but for lifelong learning. In order to succeed,  pupils/students need to learn how to be tenacious and resourceful, imaginative and logical, self-disciplined and self-aware, collaborative and inquisitive.

Last year we taught children 4 Rs of Building Learning Power (BLP): RESILIENCE, RESOURCEFULNESS, REFLECTIVENESS, RECIPROCITY.  These are the four key learning dispositions. Research suggests that they can be developed, we can think of them as ‘learning muscles’. Each of the dispositions is made up of a number of learning behaviours, which we call learning capacities.

Children in each class discussed how to become better learners. They created ‘stuck posters’ which helped children to decide what to do when they found work hard or if they misunderstood something.

This year we will continue working on Building Learning Power helping all children to become more reflective, resourceful, resilient and reciprocal in their approach to learning.