Learning Skills
Independent Creative Resilient Emotionally Intelligent
Though-out 2021 -2022, we have reflected on the strengths of our children as learners and considered what we need to do in-order to equip then for their future. Through our curriculum, we aim to develop the following Learning Skills to aid children's metacognition. These skills are taught throughout the year and are not linked to any particular learning experience or term. We want our children to be: independent, creative, resilient and emotionally intelligent.
We have introduced Learning Skills as a way of helping children to develop metacognition. Metacognition is about thinking about thinking and having a greater understanding of ourselves as learners. Studies show that children who are taught to use metacognitive strategies are more resilient and more successful both in and out of school.
To develop as learners, children need to make the transition from, “I can’t…” to “How can I…”. To do that they need to think about why they are stuck, what it is that is causing the frustration and what they need to do to move forward. Our Learning skills will support the children in doing this.
To achieve the greatest impact, our Learning skills will be integrated into lessons and included in a variety of contexts. For example informing, a child who has persevered and solved a difficult maths problem that they are showing persistence will illustrate the skill of resilience with a greater impact than exploring resilience in isolation.
In order to have a shared and consistent approach through-out the school, we have assigned colours and characters to our Learning Skills and selected vocabulary that will support and challenge development and growth. The animals were chosen as they embody the characteristics we want the children to develop.
The Learning skills are part of our vision for our school and will continue to develop overtime. We believe that these are skills which can be applied to all learning that takes place in school, at home and in all aspects of life.
From Autumn 2022, children will be awarded for demonstrating any of our learning skills.
We believe that this is equitable system which will give every child an opportunity to achieve an award through learning and applying a skill rather than relying solely on work in books. It will also make our learning skills more of a focus.
Acknowledging and Recording Achievement.
Each pupil has a card to show how they have demonstrated each learning skill. Where work in books demonstrates one of the learning skills, persevering with a maths problem for example, these can still be acknowledged and identified using LS.
For the system to be as purposeful as possible, children will need to know what is being acknowledged: “ ...I am recognising your creativity/ resilience/independence/ emotional intelligence because I could see that you took your time to think of the most efficient solution to that maths problem.”
Once the child has demonstrated an individual learning skill ten times they will receive a certificate for that Learning skill. These will be awarded in assembly.