At Alfred Street Junior School we are a Visible Learning school. Visible Teaching and Learning occurs when teachers see learning through the eyes of the pupils and helps them become their own teachers. We believe that it is vital that our pupils can confidently talk about themselves as assessment capable learners and are armed with a ‘toolbox’ of strategies to help them learn.

At Alfred Street Visible Learners can:

• Articulate what they are learning and why
• Talk about how they are learning and strategies they are using
• Identify their next learning steps
• Understand assessments tools used and what the results mean
• Ask questions and clarify
• See errors as learning opportunities
• Actively seek feedback
• Set learning goals
• Have a growth mindset

My Learning Tool Box

These are the learning tools we use at Alfred Street Junior school to help us become successful learners.

Learning Intentions (What am I learning?)

Learning intentions are a clear statement that explains to the pupils what concepts, skill, strategy or approach they will be learning. Learning intentions allow the pupils to know what to focus on. By concentrating on a specific goal they understand that this enables them to become successful learners.

Success Criteria

In order for the pupils to be successful learners, they also need to know what they have to achieve to be successful with the learning intention. The success criteria explains the pathway in simple terms for the pupils to gain new concepts, skills or attitudes. Understanding what it takes to be successful in a learning task enables pupils to develop their confidence as learners and set themselves higher expectations. This encourages confident, motivated pupils.

Knowledge Organisers and Working Walls

At school, we use our Knowledge Organisers and Working Walls to help us know what we are learning and what we will learn next.

Scaffolds and Prompts

Scaffolds and prompts are used to support our pupils to access and succeed in their learning. They are evident in questioning used by staff; resources on tables/walls or through how understanding is recorded in books.

Feedback

Feedback informs where we are going in learning, how we are doing and where to next. We tailor our feedback to support children individually. Staff support children to respond to their achievements in learning. These verbal or written prompts demonstrate awareness of how to support our pupils to progress in their responses. We recognise these stages as ‘task level’; ‘process level’; self regulation level and adapt our comments accordingly.

Learner Qualities

Learner qualities are ‘life skills’. These are the same qualities that are essential for success at school and in everyday life. By learning these behaviours now, students will be preparing for a successful future throughout the school and beyond. These are the critical skills/attributes our learners will need in the future to be able to utilise the technologies that don’t exist yet, be employable for jobs that don’t exist yet and to solve the problems of the world that don’t exist yet. We want our learners to know how to take charge of their own learning and to ‘know what to do when they don’t know what to do’. To support this process we have identified eight dispositions that can be further developed to help our learners be the best they can be. These dispositions are explicitly taught at Alfred Street Junior School and learners are supported to use and grow them. At ASJS we focus on the learner qualities of R.E.S.P.E.C.T - resilience, empathy, self awareness, passion, excellence, good communication skills and team work all under the overarching quality of respect.

Growth Mindset

At Alfred Street we have developed a Growth Mindset Culture where we focus on changing our words to change our mindset. ‘I can’t do this’ becomes ‘I can’t do this yet’. With a growth mindset, pupils understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort, persistence and learning from our mistakes. We believe that challenge, struggles and learning from our mistakes are necessary parts of the learning journey. Breakthrough moments and growth come after pupils tackle The Learning Pit!

Learning Conversations

We encourage the children to regularly hold conversations about their learning and prompts are visible in the classroom

• I wondered about …
• When I don’t know how to …I …
• Today I learn’t …
• Something tricky for me was …
• A great strategy I used was …
• I thought about what I already know and …
• I find it helpful to …
• A question that help my learning was …
• I was able to persist with …
• I tried a new strategy of …