At Wheatfields Infants’ and Nursery School we are a team who regularly discuss the skills and characteristics of good learning. Through the development of Learning Heroes, we have given children vocabulary for talking about the learning process. Pupils at Wheatfields have been taught to ‘Build their Learning Power’ for many years. Building Learning Power is all about helping pupils to learn better, both in and out of school.

From Nursery to Year 2, children are taught to approach their learning with confidence by practising skills to enable them to approach tasks systematically by using different ‘learning muscles’. Research by Guy Claxton has shown that children who apply their BLP skills to the tasks they undertake, can think more deeply, concentrate more effectively and enjoy their lessons more. This results in pupils making more progress across all their learning.

Why do we have Learning Heroes?

We know that children successfully identify with these visual, tangible aids. From Nursery to Year 2, the Learning Heroes are part of every child’s day to day life both at school and at home. The Learning Heroes live in every classroom and promote daily opportunities for children to demonstrate the values of learning and recognise them in one another. Learning Heroes enables us to become better learners.

Nearly all our pupils need to be prepared for careers which do not yet exist. Building Learning Power prepares youngsters better for this uncertain future by developing the skills needed to become lifelong learners. By developing the 4 R’s, Reciprocity, Reflectiveness, Resourcefulness and Resilience, Wheatfields children are learning to work collaboratively or independently, to persevere and have the confidence to approach new learning with enthusiasm and imagination.

Ore Owl

Ore Owl represents Wheatfields' 3 guiding principles: Being Ready, Being Respectful and Being Safe. 

The Building Learning Power Heroes

Doris Dog is Resourceful

Resourcefulness is being ready, willing and able to learn in different ways - using both internal and external resources effectively, calling on different ways of learning as appropriate.

Your Resourcefulness is made up of...

Questioning - asks questions
Asking questions of yourself and others

Being curious and playful with ideas

Delving beneath the surface of things.

Making Links - makes links
Seeing connections between disparate events and experiences

Building patterns
Weaving a web of understanding.

Imagining- wonders "what if ..."
Using your imagination and intuition to put yourself through new experiences or to explore possibilities

Wondering 'what if...?'

Reasoning- thinks and explains why
Calling up your logical and rational skills to work things out methodically and rigorously 

Constructing good arguments and spotting the flaws in others.

Capitalising - chooses and uses the best resources
Drawing on the full range of resources from the wider world - other people, books, the Internet, past experience, future opportunities....

Tallulah Ted is Resilient

Resilence is being ready, willing and able to lock onto learning - knowing how to work through difficulties when the pressure mounts or the going gets tough.

Your Resilience is made up of...

Absorption - getting and staying involved in your learning
Being able to lose yourself in learning - becoming absorbed in what your are doing; rapt and attentive, in a state of flow.

Managing Distractions - managing distractions
Recognising and reducing distractions; knowing when to walk away and refresh yourself 

Creating your own best environment for learning.

Noticing - looking for detail
Perceiving subtle nuances, patterns and details in experience.

Perseverance - keep going
Keeping going in the face of difficulties, channelling the energy of frustration productively

Knowing what a slow and uncertain process learning often is.

Rufus Rabbit is Reciprocal

Reciprocity in learning is being ready, willing and able to learn alone or with other people - using a sense of independent judgement together with skills in communication and empathy.

Your Reciprocity is made up of...

Independence - taking responsibility for my learning
Knowing when it's appropriate to learn on your own or with others

Being able to stand your ground in debate.

Collaboration - sharing and learning together
Knowing how to manage yourself in the give and take of a collaborative venture 

Respecting and recognising other view points 

Adding to and drawing from the strength of teams.

Listening & Empathy - listening to others and thinking about how they feel
Contributing to others' experiences by listening to them to understand what they are really saying

Putting yourself in their shoes.

Imitation - mirroring what other people do well
Constructively adopting methods, habits or values from other people whom you observe.

Krishna Cat is reflective

Reflectiveness is the ability to think about what you have learnt.

Your Reflectiveness is made up of...

Planning - thinking about where you are going, how to get there & what might be challenging
Thinking about where you are going, the action you are going to take, the time and resources you will need to help you

Revising - changing your plans to make it better
Being flexible, changing or adapting your plans along the way

Distilling - what have I learned, why is it important and how can I use it again
Looking at what is being learned - pulling out the essential features and using them to move forward to achieve the task