Building Learning Power

Building Learning Power is an approach to learning that is taught across our school and it helps children to:

 Building Learning Power helps children develop skills to be able to face challenges calmly, confidently and creatively, skills they need for their journey through school and into the real world.  We want our children at our school to be lifelong learners.

What do we want to achieve?

We want the children to see learning as a process. We want them to know that they are all good at something and that they can get better at the things that they find a challenge.   We call these behaviours our learning muscles and explain to the children that they need to be exercised in order to get their learning fit.  Each muscle is broken down into groups of behaviours: Resilience, Reciprocity, Reflectiveness and Resourcefulness. 

What the school does?

Teachers talk to the children about which learning muscles they are using and encourage them to use these with each other and on their own.  The children are encouraged to talk about their learning.  When there are challenges, the teachers don’t  step in too quickly but give the children time to ‘exercise their learning muscles’.  The teachers also show the children that they themselves are trying to be good learners, sometimes saying that they don’t know an answer but model how to find out.  We praise the process of learning rather than just the academic outcome.  We want our children to know that making mistakes is not a failure but means you are learning something new.

What the children do?

Children use the language of learning in their classrooms.  You may hear them say things like “I was resourceful today…” or “I was resilient when I…” or “ I managed my distractions when…..”  We encourage parents to talk to their child about these achievements. Children are taught to see mistakes and challenge as a normal part of their learning and that they can overcome these challenges for themselves. Our children are becoming better at facing challenges and uncertainty in a calm, confident and creative way.  This is the start of a lifelong journey and each journey begins with small steps.