BLP

Building Learning Power (BLP) is an approach to learning that we teach throughout our school, as it helps children:

Become better, lifelong learners
Develop a growth mindset

BLP enables our children to understand how they learn. It helps them learn how to face challenges confidently and creatively as well as promote inquisitiveness and a thirst to know more. BLP equips our children with the skills and attitude to learn in all situations in their lives, both now and in the future.
BLP is based on the work of Professor Guy Claxton. Firmly rooted in science and research, it suggests that there are several broad dispositions that need to develop in order to become successful lifelong learners.

At George Fentham we think of the learning dispositions as being like groups of ‘learning muscles’. Just as we can build our physical muscles by the right kinds of exercise, so we can exercise our learning muscles to develop their strength and stamina.
The four learning muscles of;

Resilience,
Resourcefulness,
Reflectiveness and
Reciprocity

are each made up of a range of smaller learning muscles. Further information about each of these can be found below and are summarised in this handout below - BLP Handout.

Click on the images below to find out more information about each disposition:

RESILIENCE
'Rosie the Spider'

RESOURCEFULNESS
'Rover the Dog'

RECIPROCITY
'Ruben the Bee'

REFLECTIVENESS
'Ruby the Owl'

Teaching BLP
Teaching BLP does not change the curriculum content we teach. However, the teachers will tell the children which learning muscles they will be developing and encouraging the children to use these with each other and on their own. The children will be expected to talk about their learning. When there are challenges, the teachers will not step in too quickly but give the children time to ‘exercise their learning muscles’.

The teachers will also show the children how they are learners, by modelling and sometimes saying that they ‘don’t know’ but showing how to find out. We will praise the process of learning rather than just the academic outcome. Having made a good mistake and learning from it will be celebrated - it is excellent to have the skills to analyse a problem, the creativity to think of another way to tackle it and the resilience and confidence to have another go.

Children and BLP
Children will learn to use the language of learning. They will say things such as “I was resourceful today…” or “I was resilient when I…” Children will be taught to see mistakes and challenge as a normal part of their learning, and they will be expected to try hard to overcome these challenges for themselves.

Over time, children will become better at facing challenges and uncertainty in a calm, confident and creative way. They will also become better at understanding how they learn well, and they will be able to recognise what they need to do to move their learning on.

Please watch this video of Guy Claxton talking about BLP:
https://petersugden.wordpress.com/2014/11/23/building-learning-power-from-the-grassroots-level-up /

‘Term on term, year on year, a BLP school breeds young people who are more curious, more willing to take a risk and give it a go, more imaginative, more creative, more thoughtful, more ready, willing and able to learn with and through others. It’s developing this adventurous spirit that counts’.
(Guy Claxton)

All information contained on this website is available, free of charge, in paper format from the School Office.

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