After our recent shortlisting in Talk Education’s National Awards for Innovation in Education,Head of Adventure and Learning2Learn teacher, Tom Anderson, explains the valueof our unique Learning2Learn curriculum.

Teaching Learning2Learn (L2L) is always one of the highlights of my week, and when I show parents and teachers from other settings what we are doing here, they are consistently amazed by the scope and value of our curriculum. We currently start this course in Year 3 and continue all the way through to Year 11, but plans are already afoot to extend the curriculum through our Pre-Prep classes from next September. At the core of Learning2Learn are three main strands: metacognition, self-regulation andoracy.

Now those may seem like grand words for a Year 3 pupil, but the way we approach them looks very different across the school. A Year 3 pupil, for example, may be exploring how their emotions affect their day and the strategies they can use to put themselves in the best place for learning. Jump forward to Year 6 and students may be looking at the concept of “The Learning Pit” and how embracing difficulties can help them tackle new challenges. While in Year 9 we may be studying the research of Hattie and Skinner on operant conditioning and how habits are formed. As students progress into Year 10 and 11, they channel what they have learned into a long-term project, selecting their own area of interest and working towards their HPQ (Higher Project Qualification). This holds the equivalent value of aGCSE and allows students to explore their own passions and interests, showing independence and taking responsibility for their learning while developing life and study skills.

Giving students the tools to monitor, direct, discuss and review their own learning and behaviour is exceptionally powerful and equips them to tackle not only the full breadth of the school curriculum, but also the very real challenges of life beyond Great Ballard. Indeed, the Education Endowment Foundation recently found that the average impact of the use of metacognition and self-regulation strategies in school amounts to an additional seven months’ progress over the course of a year. We see it as our duty to give our students every advantage they can as they move on to face a complex and ever-changing world.

And there’s more! Learning2Learn is all about learning through doing and we weave strands such as Enterprise,Outdoor Learning, horticulture and cooking into our curriculum. Our senior classes all run their own businesses – a fiercely fought competition amongst pupils here – learning about the ups and downs of enterprise and the value of money. They all create CVs and apply for jobs for which they are interviewed by real employers who offer feedback and advice. We also spend a valuable percentage of time in the great outdoors, learning practical skills, problem solving and building, but also preparing students for residentials and Duke of Edinburgh expeditions. While these things are options in some schools, they are part of the core curriculum here. We prepare young people for life by taking them out of the bubble and bringing the real world in. Nothing captures Great Ballard’s desire to educate the 4Hs (Head, Hand, Heart and Health) more aptly than Learning2Learn.

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