Learn to Learn

Learning to Learn is a new course, written by our own staff, that equips pupils with transferable skills to improve their learning in all other subjects. Heavily based on group and pair work, the course is designed to make explicit how we learn, why we learn and the many different approaches to learning.

Taught once a fortnight, pupils are actively involved in thinking about their own learning environment and preferred learning styles. Pupils are shown how to work in teams by adopting specific roles and are required to appreciate that people have different strengths that need to be nurtured through collaboration, encouragement and support. Emotional intelligence is explored with a view to helping pupils develop better willpower, perseverance and motivation. We also look at the way we manage information through revision and research techniques, as well as how we organise information through summarising and note-taking skills. Communication and thinking skills are developed through the two year course. 

Learning to Learn is delivered in a specially designed room with integrated cameras that allow us to review learning and to build up a bank of resources for teacher training. Pupils are taught in dynamic ways that model the principles of the course giving opportunities for visual, kinaesthetic and auditory learners.

Above all, the strength of the course is in how it is applied elsewhere. Pupils are made to think about how they can improve their learning in other lessons and the very best learners are those that can take on the ideas, both implicit and explicit, to explore what it means to be an effective, independent learner.