Martin Barker, Headmaster, explains more about High Performance Learning, what it will mean for the children at Westbourne House and the reasons behind the school’s move to this cutting-edge approach.
Having given parents a few days to digest the news of the changes to Saturday morning lessons and Common Entrance at Westbourne House, I thought I would take this opportunity to give you some more information about High Performance Learning.
Firstly, let me say that while we are only going to be sending papers in Maths, English and Science to Senior Schools that use the Common Entrance exam, we are still going to be maintaining rigour every bit as strongly outside of those subjects, with regular assessment. We are not about to dumb down standards in any way (why would we?!), but do feel that our new approach is actually likely to enhance the children’s future performance by developing better learning habits, as well as providing more flexibility in the curriculum which will enable us to align them better to the requirements of GCSE.
Also, I cannot stress enough that High Performance Learning is a structure that will develop the learning of children of all abilities. In our consideration of which path to take in our review period, we were particularly conscious of the fact that while we are a high performing school, we are also a mixed ability, non-selective school catering for a wide range of abilities. We are certain that this new approach will work in the best interests of all the children.
You will no doubt have questions, and I can confirm that the information meeting mentioned in my original letter will take place in the Millennium Hall on Friday 18th January at 7.00pm. Please use the survey link in the original letter to pose any questions for that evening. If you are unable to attend on the 18th, we will send out a summary of the items covered.
What is HPL?
HPL, or High Performance Learning, is a framework of teaching that has been developed based on research into the way children learn. It reflects what is known about advanced thinking skills and learning behaviours to help all children build 'better brains'. Excellent schools are effective in securing exceptional academic standards for all of their pupils, but should also aim to nurture pupils who can think for themselves and who are socially confident.
Westbourne House has always strived to develop well rounded individuals who are confident both socially and academically, who show concern for others and who are prepared for the challenges of life in the outside world. We fully understand that success is not limited to examination results. For us, successful pupils are those who not only achieve academic excellence but who also develop a much wider set of values and attitudes that are at the heart of our ethos.
Research in neuroscience has shown many common characteristics of top performers across a variety of disciplines. These can be grouped into learner “thinking” and learner “behaviour”.
- In the “thinking” group are characteristics such as meta-cognition, strategy-planning, generalisation, imagination, logical thinking, originality as well as the ability to use some skills automatically.
- In the “behaviour” group are characteristics such as empathy, confidence, mental agility, perseverance, practice and resilience.
These skills can be taught to all pupils. There is not a fixed level of ability amongst young learners, the brain is much more malleable than was once thought.
How can we do this at Westbourne?
Much of our teaching already focuses on developing these learning characteristics, however, with the help of HPL this will be a more structured, whole school, approach.
HPL places emphasis on metacognition and target setting: getting children to think about how they think, what strategies to use and helping them to reflect on the progress they have made and take responsibility for their future growth.
We will continue to promote the ‘growth mindset’ philosophy, which is part of HPL, and which teaches pupils that making mistakes is a constructive part of learning and something that we continue to encounter throughout life.
We will also be using big picture thinking, enabling pupils to make connections and links between subjects and allowing them to think creatively about their learning.
In short, we want to educate all our pupils to be better learners not just better at passing exams.
