Building Learning Power

MEET OUR ANIMAL SUPERHEROES!

DYNAMIC DOG	HEROIC HEDGEHOG	MIGHTY MOUSE	SUPER SQUIRRELL	WONDER OWL

 Building Learning Power Booklet

WHAT IS BUILDING LEARNING POWER?

Lifelong learning is our birthright. We can continually develop our capacity to learn in new and

challenging circumstances throughout our life.

Building Learning Power is designed to help children learn how to learn.
Learning power involves building and developing particular habits of mind to enable young people to face difficulties calmly, confidently and creatively and so be better prepared as lifelong learners.

Learning about learning has an impact on children's achievements.

What do good learners do?
Question
Show enthusiasm
Embrace the task
Explore alternatives
Take risks
Have confidence
Have different strategies to tackle tasks
Articulate their thinking
Are creative
Develop collaboration

The 5 Rs
In the developing field of learning to learn, research suggests that there are several broad characteristics that we need to develop in order to become successful learners. Professor Guy Claxton suggests that there are four key learning characteristics to help us become lifelong learners:
Resilience
Reflectiveness
Resourcefulness
Reciprocity - Relationships

We have added a fifth key learning characteristic which is:
Risk Taking

We call these the 5 Rs.
We have adapted these to use at our school or home and to practice them in our learning everyday.

LEARNING POWERS
We have introduced these characteristics to the children as groups of learning powers which each of our
Superhero Animals possess. These characteristics are in all of us.
They are not fixed at birth or when we leave school.
They can be developed in everyone regardless of current ability or age. 
There are no limits to extending our power to learn. Just as we can build our physical muscles by the right kind of exercise, we can also exercise our learning muscles to develop strength and stamina. Developing the characteristics that make for success as a lifelong learner equates to  achieving a good level of
all-round learning fitness. All staff will encourage these skills in all aspects of school life.
Our Superhero Animals come from the countryside around our school which we are calling Learning Land.