Learning Tree

The tree represents our vision statement – our aim is to develop successful learners (learning, thinking and growing), confident individuals (being and becoming) and responsible citizens (belonging and connecting).

The golden thread represents the Christian values that run through our ethos: love, respect and compassion.

Partnership between home and school is a key element.

We are using some of the ideas and strategies from Guy Claxton’s ‘Building Learning Power’ to help the children become really effective learners.

Learning Dispositions or Learning Habits:

• Resilience: locking onto learning; showing perseverance and sticking with challenges; managing distractions.
• Reflectiveness: being self aware; having the ability to think about what you have learnt and how you learn; evaluating your own strengths and weaknesses, adapting, changing and revising work.
• Resourcefulness: questioning, imagining, making links, making good use of resources and equipment; being ready to learn in new ways; having a variety of learning strategies and knowing how to use them; using your imagination to consider possibilities.
• Team working: knowing when it is best to work alone or with others; knowing when to take the initiative or let others take the lead; listening and learning from others; showing empathy and consideration to the views of others.

 What are we doing to enable the pupils at Western to be successful learners, confident individuals and responsible citizens?

EPIC teaching:

Engaging learning activities. The teachers have good subject knowledge; the curriculum is designed to be memorable and responsive to the needs of every child; there is planning for continuity and progression.

Pace and progress. This relies on the teachers having a good teaching repertoire, matching their teaching strategy to the content of the lesson and deploying other adults effectively to support and extend learning.

Involvement. The teachers have a good understanding of how children learn best and involve them fully in the learning process.

Challenge. This is based on the belief that all children have the capacity to grow and develop. Teachers help develop children’s resilience and resourcefulness so they can overcome challenges and learn effectively.

What can parents do?

You can help your child by drawing attention to, and modelling, positive learning habits.

Resilience

• Demonstrate/model sticking at things, even if they are difficult
• Talk about how you feel when you are taking on challenges
• Praise your children when they persevere…but also encourage them to take a break when they have had enough
• Help them to find interests and activities that are really absorbing
• Talk with them about what helps them to concentrate and manage distractions

Resourcefulness

• Encourage questions
• Demonstrate making links between different ideas
• Encourage them to use their imagination and think of possibilities
• Show them how to use resources such as reference books, dictionaries, the Internet
• Help them to organise any equipment or resources
•  Help them to organise their ideas e.g. mindmapping

Reflectiveness

• Ask them what they learnt at school, rather than what they did
• Help them to think about, and plan, activities
• Help them to get started on a task by planning what they need to do first
• Encourage flexibility and the ability to change plan if necessary
• Help them learn from their mistakes
• Encourage them to take time to evaluate their own learning

Team Working and relationships

• Make expectations of turn-taking and co-operation clear
• Work, play and learn alongside your children, enabling them to pick up good habits through imitation
• Listen to each other and extend ideas by your responses and questions
• Undertake projects together
• Go out and about and explore
• Have fun

If you'd like to download a copy of this information in booklet form:

please click here