Building Learning Powers

Building Learning Powers (BLP) is a whole school focus that flows through assemblies, classroom talk, lessons, environment and marking with a view to positively impacting the children's learning and ability to face the many challenges that life throws at them!

See below for an overview of the learning 'muscles'.

Teams will choose a learning muscle to focus on, dependent on the needs of the class. 

Resilience The emotional aspects of learning

Feeling

Absorption
Being able to lose yourself in learning – becoming absorbed in what you are doing: gripped and attentive in a state of flow.

Managing Distractions
Recognising and reducing distractions; knowing when to walk away and refresh yourself. Creating your own best environment for learning.

Noticing
Recognising subtle differences, patterns and details in experiences.

Perseverance
Keeping going when things are difficult, challenging the energy of frustration productively. Knowing that learning can be a slow and uncertain process.

Resourcefulness The cognitive aspects of learning

Thinking

Questioning
Asking questions of yourself & others. Being curious and playful with ideas – looking beneath the surface of things.

Making Links
Making connections between different events and experiences – building patterns and weaving a web of understanding.

Imagining
Using your imagination & intuition to put yourself through new experiences or to explore possibilities. Wondering what if?

Reasoning
Using your logical and rational skills to work things out methodically and thoroughly; constructing good arguments and spotting the flaws in others’.

Capitalising
Using the full range of resources from the wider world – other people, books, the internet, past experiences, future opportunities….

Reflectiveness The strategic aspects of learning

Managing

Planning
Thinking about where you are going, what you will do, the time you will take, the things you will need and the problems that you may come across.

Revising
Being flexible, changing your plans when needed, monitoring and reviewing how things are going and seeing new ways to do things.

Distilling
Looking at what is being learned. Pulling out the important parts and using them to help further learning; being an independent learner.

Meta-Learning
Knowing yourself as a learner; how you learn best and how to talk about the learning process.

Reciprocity The social aspects of learning

Relating

Interdependence
Knowing when it’s appropriate to learn on your own or with others, and being able to stand your ground in a debate.

Collaboration
Knowing how to manage yourself in the give and take of a collaborative project, Respecting & recognising other people’s views, adding to them and drawing from the strength of teams.

Empathy & Listening
Contributing to others’ experiences by listening to them to understand what they are really saying and putting yourself in their shoes.

Imitation
Usefully copying methods, habits or values from other people who you watch.

Files to Download