Helping Children Take Responsibility For Learning

If we can’t help children to take responsibility for their own learning, they will feel lost at secondary school, says Sebastien Chapleau...

As a teacher, I’ve always been determined to help children take control of their education. At my previous school – a 250-pupil juniors in south London – many of our children found it difficult to talk about their learning; they couldn’t identify how they might advance their work to the next level. As a Year 6 teacher, it was devastating when those who had moved on to Year 7 came back and told us about the shock of secondary school life – that we hadn’t fully prepared them for the change in culture. So in 2012 when I joined Future Leaders (an intensive leadership programme for inspiring heads of challenging schools), I wanted to find a way to help children become leaders of their own learning, preparing them for KS3 and beyond.

We began work at the school by sharing our aims with the children. It was made clear we would be asking them to talk in more detail about their work and targets, and that we would be supporting them to do this.

An easily understood assessment strategy using a four-step mind map was introduced at the beginning and end of each teaching cycle. Under the new system, children mapped their knowledge and understanding of a topic before discussing their ideas with a partner. The conversation then widened out to include the rest of the table, after which the teacher guided pupils to produce a class mind-map.

Our students soon began to identify gaps in their learning. We had one child in particular who struggled to come to school feeling motivated and often didn’t know what she wanted her work to look like. Using this approach, she was able to jot down key words, concepts and examples at the beginning of every topic and thus clearly answer the question, ‘What do I know?’. With continued support from her teacher, she could then pinpoint how to improve her learning.

Her progress was immediately noticeable. She referred to her mind-map throughout the term, checking to see which areas she had to concentrate on and adding to it as new learning took place. As a result, she soon became articulate about what ‘success’ meant. She knew she had to push herself in those areas she’d picked out for development. As a teacher, I felt I could step back and observe her grow in confidence.

Using mind-maps was also more enjoyable for teachers, enabling them to focus on their main priority: teaching. The assessment sessions provided the opportunity to listen in on children’s conversations and so identify areas on which they might need to work. As a result, our staff became better facilitators of learning and AfL tightened across all subjects.

What was the impact of this work? Progress accelerated for most children, particularly those who had not been reaching age-expected levels. In Year 6 – a group we’d targeted from the start – about 40 per cent of the children had been ‘behind’ in writing, but after two months we noticed a 20 percentage point improvement.

Previous Y6 students began to tell a different story when they came back to visit, saying secondary school wasn’t quite as tough as they’d been led to believe. Their new teachers backed this up, commenting that children had been “prepared to hit the ground running from day one”.

“How can I prepare children to be successful in life?” is a question that’s often kept me awake at night. What does and should ‘success’ mean for a primary school child at the age of 11, especially when they are about to transfer to secondary? Ultimately, these techniques have taught me and the children that learning is a two-way process. You can bring ‘success’ to children, but you can’t give it to them. They have to be prepared to grab it with their own hands. They have to be encouraged to take charge of their learning. And that’s where we as teachers can make a huge difference.

Future Leaders is a fully-funded leadership development programme for aspiring headteachers of challenging schools. It offers a residency year, personalised coaching and peer-support through a network of more than 300 Future Leaders. Find out more at: apply.future-leaders.org.uk/register- interest

About the author

Sebastien Chapleau was appointed headteacher of La Fontaine Academy (part of the STEP Academy Trust) in south London in January 2014. The school will have a strong focus on the learning of French.