Core Learning Skills

Intent

At Brunel Field Primary School, we use our Core Learning Skills (CLS) as an integral part of teaching and learning throughout the curriculum. In conjunction with our school values of respect, commitment, compassion and joy, this approach allows us to revisit and develop, each year, the essential skills our children need to learn to become confident, independent, resilient and resourceful learners. In addition to this, the children learn to develop their understanding of others, their critical thinking and teamwork skills.

Implementation

In Reception, the children are introduced to the ‘learning characters’ which support their understanding of the more abstract learning concepts. ELLI (based on the Early Lifelong Learning Inventory) is the elephant who supports the children to develop their understanding of effective ways of learning. ELLI is a well-researched set of ideas about how people learn most effectively. In essence, these ideas are:

• holistic and relational - looking at the ‘whole child’ and how the learner and the curriculum are inextricably linked;

• developmental - seeing learners as ‘on a learning journey’;

• drawn from research that consulted widely, amongst learners and practitioners as well as experts and research literature (University of Bristol).

Each term the children are introduced to the new learning character related to the new learning skill or ‘puzzle piece’. The animals from the ELLI approach help to reinforce the key messages of the learning skill in a child friendly way, bringing it to life for our younger learners. Through stories, ELLI, Toucan and the learning characters overcome challenges which enable the children to develop their own resilience and creativity in learning. The Core Learning Skill focus is the same in every year group each term throughout the school. This spiral curriculum enables pupils to learn and develop together using a shared language which evolves as the children’s skills develop.

The ideas explored through the skills are summed up in whole school ‘I can…’ statement which is chosen by the School Council and introduced through class meetings and/or key stage assemblies. In Phases 1 & 2, the children explore the learning skills through the use of the ELLI characters and make links to their own learning through understanding the attributes of these characters. Weekly lessons explicitly teach the learning skill and enable children to explore, apply and reflect upon their use of learning skills in a variety of contexts. CLS also provide a framework for reviewing learning in other lessons and a language for understanding what to do to become better at learning. By Phase 3 children have considerable understanding of themselves as learners and are in a position to use and develop their learning skills through application in specific subjects.

At the beginning of each term the core learning skill is revisited. This gives the children an opportunity to deepen their understanding of the puzzle piece, reflect on how they have applied it in the past and decide on what aspects of it they need to develop. The teachers will use this initial lesson to decide which subjects and lessons provide the best opportunities to work in more detail on improving specific aspects of the CLS each week.

At the end of the term children are given an opportunity to reflect on their application and development of the CLS, all the time being aware of and identifying how they are becoming better learners either by pin pointing skills and knowledge they have gained or by articulating the process by which they build their capacity as a learner.