Building Better Learners

Overview

Primary

When children learn how to learn their enthusiasm for learning is a joy to behold, their achievement levels rise and behaviour is simply not an issue. As learning how to learn re-establishes its rightful place in the primary curriculum, schools are relishing the opportunity to rebalance traditional content acquisition with the development of pupils’ learning habits.

Building Better Learners is a blended package of learning resources and consultancy support, offering schools an affordable, guided, do-it-yourself start to developing pupils’ learning habits. This package allows the school to build expertise through an in-house professional learning programme. You can learn your way forward, working at your own pace, and save yourself the cover costs often incurred by externally led training days. Use of these materials will secure the early development of pupils’ learning habits right across the school, and create a common language for learning. The materials and consultancy ensure staff:

feel confident that the approach is relevant, worthwhile and manageable.
base their own development on a self-review.
introduce key learning habits into classrooms.
experience and share success in the approach quickly.
observe the growth of pupils’ learning capacities.
enjoy their teaching more.

And pupils make a confident flying start in becoming independent learners!

We all learn in different ways so the pack contains books, film clips, animations, and classroom practice resources to help everyone get to grips with the philosophy and practice of building pupils’ learning habits.

The content ideas are drawn from the well-respected learning-how-to-learn framework created by Professor Guy Claxton. This framework incorporates the emotional, social, cognitive and personal responsibility aspects of learning. As such it is all-embracing and fits snugly with SEAL and Assessment for Learning.

Consultancy support is included in the package. However, if a minimum of four schools wish to join together the consultancy support can become two days’ training for in-school learning champions. This helps schools to plan the use of the materials to best effect. This way of using the consultancy support has worked well in Milton Keynes and Bradford. Please contact TLO for more details.

The important things

This blended pack of resources enables the school to

Introduce a research-based approach to learning across the school
Establish a common language for learning
Use a character-based approach to learning to give coherence to the curriculum
Feel confident that their plan for developing pupil learning is robust and soundly based.
Build the learning capacity of staff

For staff

Embarking on a carefully scaffolded do-it-yourself school development project means that staff will:

Grow in confidence as they become learning coaches
Assist each other in re-balancing the curriculum
Learn at their own pace, based on their readiness to learn
Save hours of time on designing learning activities
Learn from what other teachers have done
Feel ready to deepen the approach having had success in the early stages

For pupils

Our experience across the country shows that by using these materials pupils will

Quickly develop a learning vocabulary
Come to understand themselves as learners
Be able to stick at things even when they are difficult
Work more collaboratively with their peers
Become more flexible learners; monitoring what they are doing and changing tack if necessary
Take a questioning approach to learning - wanting to explore the why’s and wherefores
Enjoy their learning and
Become more independent as learners

Yes! It really does happen.

The treasure chest of Building Better Learners is made up of a range of resources.

Books – Offering a reservoir of information and ideas on the what, why and how of learning power

	Building Learning Power by Professor Guy Claxton Three copies
	Learning Power Heroes By Raegan Delaney & Leanne Day Full of practical ideas from schools Five copies
	Building Learning Power in Action By Sarah Gornall, Maryl Chambers and Guy Claxton Practical ideas for all the learning capacities Five copies
	Building 101 ways to Learning Power By Maryl Chambers, Graham Powell and Guy Claxton Helping teachers make a step change in their practice Five copies
	Learning to Learn – the Fourth Generation By Guy Claxton A canter through previous Learning to Learn ideas, and the important step change into the fourth generation approach in helping young people become better learners Two copies
	The Learning Powered School by Guy Claxton, Maryl Chambers, Graham Powell and Bill Lucas An inspirational new must-read book One copy
	At a Glance Cards (series 2) A set of five cards which explain the five of the Learning Power capacities, together with practical examples of classroom practice.
	Four sets of five posters to assist classroom displays.

The CD-ROM

The materials on the CD-ROM will help the school to

Understand
Introduce and
Implement

the early stages of a dynamic approach to learning and teaching: where teachers become learning coaches and pupils become self aware and independent learners.
Illustrations of learning-how-to-learn in action are drawn from schools across England and Wales where learning power has been thoroughly infused into the curriculum and is having a transforming effect on pupils’ demeanour, behaviour and achievement.

Section 1 Making the most of the materials – covers the purpose, content and use of the pack.

Section 2 Why build learning power?

Materials in this section have been drawn together to help build a picture of:

What learning power is about
Why the development of learning power is important in 21st century learning
How pupils’ understanding of their own learning power benefits them and their learning
How the philosophy and practice of learning power blends with and makes sense of SEAL, AfL and the primary curriculum
How building learning power is an underlying BIG IDEA that brings coherence to the curriculum and its delivery.

This section contains

A three minute video made by ITN news summarising the point of learning power A digest of What’s the Point of School for busy teachers A seminal paper by Professor Guy Claxton Two short video interviews with headteachers who are leading the development of learning power in their schools A table to cross-reference learning power and national initiative ideas

Section 3 Finding out where you are now Contains suggestions as to how you might organise a learning review across the school together with two review tools.

	The Supple Learning Mind – statements describing the learning-powered learner The Teacher’s Palette – statements describing how teachers build learning power

Section 4 Learning your way forward – resources to help the school clarify what needs to be done in starting the journey to becoming a learning-powered school. It includes details of one school’s journey and a series of questions that will help steer the school forward.

Section 5 Professional Learning – twelve CPD units designed to:

Introduce staff to key aspects of learning power
Offer examples of how these key aspects of learning might be introduced to pupils
Encourage staff to try things out in their classrooms, observe what happens and note the impact on pupils (mini learning enquiries)
Share and learn from each other’s experiments
Consider further development based on shared knowledge of new practice

The units are designed to scaffold, steer and model good practice in professional development.

Each unit can be used either with the whole staff or a group of staff. Some will be useful for governors too. Each takes about 45 minutes to an hour, but they can be combined and sequenced to fit the school’s needs.

Each unit has a scaffolding Powerpoint presentation, complete tutor guidance notes, and resource materials. There is enough material for a whole year’s CPD.

Section 6 Classroom Activities – a wide range of classroom-based activities that will help teachers to introduce and embed the four learning capacities introduced in the CPD units. These include specially written stories for younger children, starter activities and longer stretching activities. There are animations which capture the essence of learning capacities and progression statements that explain what you are trying to develop in young learners. A wealth of material for teachers and pupils to play with and enjoy.

Section 7 Where to next? This short section offers ways of thinking about the next strategic moves in the school’s learning journey. The ideas are distilled from the experiences and reflections of schools who have enjoyed success in building learning power across the school.

Consultancy

Building Better Learners includes a half-day consultancy visit to the school.

The visit can be used in several ways; for example

To help you make the most of the materials
To assist you in analysing your data on current practice and plan your way forward
To discuss the approach with staff, based on their analysis of practice
To deliver one of the CPD units
To discuss where next

A Learning Power coach is assigned to the school when you order Building Better Learners and will contact the school to arrange a visit, about a week after the materials have been despatched.