Thursday 31 May 2012

Teaching SOLO taxonomy through SOLO taxonomy


When I first started this blog, I was always quite keen to stay away from writing 'How to guides' or give detailed theoretical explanations of particular aspect of learning & teaching.  Mainly because there are so many amazing educators out there who have already explained it and probably in a much better way than I ever will.  I also like to 'tinker' with ideas and normally what I deliver in my teaching is an adapted version, usually pitched to the students that I learn with.  But, I feel I am about to buck the trend and go against my initial aims.  I am about to join the dark side!

I first read about SOLO in 2009 but at the particular point I wasn't ready in my theory teaching to implement it.  As a PE teacher, trained primarily in practical learning, I wanted something simple to develop my classroom practice.  Instead I merged the 'Accelerated Learning Cycle' and Andersons revised taxonomy as a way to structure progress, differentiation and challenge in my lessons (there I go tinkering with strategies again).  In my head, SOLO seemed far beyond me and my simple four part lesson which got harder as it went on seemed to do just fine. 

So now, back in 2012, I seem to have caught the SOLO bug and went on a big secret trial with my Year 10 & 11 GCSE PE theory groups.  A link to these trials can be found here.  What I found is that SOLO did everything I wanted from the ACL+Andersons but even better.  Wierdly, a month or so into the trial, I shared some of the stuff I had done with our LTG group (which I am part of).  All of a sudden my Director of Learning perked up and said that he had looked at some SOLO stuff briefly and was also interested.  A collaboration of great minds began.  Since then we have opened it up to a few staff but kept it quite quiet but the bug seems to be spreading.  Even today I had a colleague e-mail me saying they were looking up SOLO online and had seen my name and blog mentioned and wondered if I could help.  I now have interest from English, PE, Science, Business studies and Music.  I have therefore decided to have a SOLO staff meeting.

So, whatever I do, whether leading sessions for staff or teaching in lessons, I always think 'What could I do that helps people really get what I am talking about'.  If I was to be sat in a SOLO meeting, what would help me understand it?  So, I decided to structure my SOLO session using SOLO taxonomy.  If I do it with them, surely they can see how to transfer it?

To begin with, I have planned to have staff come in and using a 'Teachers guide to SOLO' rubrics, get them to self level themselves at the start.  This I hope will allow them at the end to see the progress that they have made.  I am guessing many of the will be somewhere between pre-structural and multi-structural



I then plan to take them through the various elements of SOLO taxonomy explaining the various stages, key terminology and highlighting the significant benefits of this taxonomy.  To aid them with this, I have created a SOLO notes sheet that they can scribble on as I take them along the SOLO journey.




In the second element of the session, I will try and get them to relational level by sharing examples of practice that has gone on within school.  My Director of Learning has recently trialled this in a rewritten scheme of work with the Year 7 Gifted and Talented group (Integrated Curriculum students).  He's planning to show how easy it was to adapt the existing unit into the rewritten SOLO template.  I will then share my experiences from PE theory using examples, resources and giving feedback from students (which has all been positive so far!).


A simplified version of how Music have extracted key parts of the original scheme into the SOLO structure

To finalise, and simply to get them to Extended Abstract, we plan to have an open discussion session where I can help them transfer some ideas they have into the SOLO structure.  This is where I can make suggestions on how to take their existing schemes and lessons and adapt it to SOLO.  An e-mail I have already drafted with links to various inspirational blogs and grouped by topic (see below) will then be e-mailed to them.

Finally, I will get them to go back to the 'Teachers guide to SOLO' rubrics and get them to self assess themselves again, giving feedback to a peer, to see if they have made progress.  Then I will introduce the most amazing word that I have found through my SOLO trials, 'FEEDFORWARD'.  I'll get staff to see what it is they need to do to get to whatever next level they have identified and provide support (through links to blogs etc) to help them get there.

In my head this works, in practice who knows.  Any thoughts and comments would be appreciated.  Anything you'd add or really highlight?  If so, please leave a comment or tweet me at @davidfawcett27

Inspirational Blog links

http://pedagogicalpurposes.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/solo%20taxonomy Darren Mead - SOLO Guru and Science

http://taitcoles.wordpress.com/ Tait Coles - SOLO Guru and Science

http://reflectionsofmyteaching.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/SOLO%20Taxonomy David Fawcett - Direct link to my SOLO posts and PE teacher

http://learningspy.co.uk/solo-taxonomy/ David Didau - SOLO Guru and English

http://lisajaneashes.edublogs.org/ Lisa Jane Ashes - SOLO Guru and English

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4h1nOdnXDI David Didau explaining SOLO at Teach Meet Clevedon

http://pamhook.com/free-resources/ Pam Hook - Amazing resources for free and a really clear explanation

Friday 18 May 2012

Raising the Profile of L2L

From September 2012, our school is planning to take the next leap with Learning to Learn by embedding it across the whole of Year 7 in all lessons.  There are more details on this strategy here.  In a very simplified explanation, here (I think) are some of the main things you might want to know. 

As a method to slowly introducing it, we will be promoting 5 learner attributes with all Year 7's and encouraging them to develop them (similar to the 5R's).  Each half term, we will promote one of these attributes whole school and two departments will specifically champion them, teaching learners how to specifically improve their abilities within them.  This is a great way to famliarise both staff and students and should help people find their feet before developing it again in the following academic year.

What I am looking for now are some further ideas that are easy to set up but will have a big impact in promoting L@B, raising the awareness of the 5 learner attributes, promoting 'Growth Mindset Learners' and add to the positive ethos of learning at our school.  From reading some amazing things on Twitter and spending hours scratching my head, I have come up with some ideas that could help support our L2L project and push learning to the forefront of our Year 7's minds.  But, as always, I'm sure that there are a million better ways to do this and wondered if you could help.  I've listed my ideas below and have intentionally kept each of them simple to make them easy to run whole school.  Your feedback on these ideas would be great.  Would they work or help promote learning and effective learners or not?  More importantly, from reading the list, if you have anything that you think would be good to run, please share (either by posting a comment or tweeting me at @davidfawcett27).  So, here goes:

Additional ideas to help promote L@B (L2L) with our Years 7's next year

  • L@B launch night with parents early in September -  to introduce the 5 learner attributes to parents and show how they can support us in developing effective learners.
  • L@B learner pages in the Year 7 organisers - to highlight what we want to develop with our learners.  Teachers/parents can refer to them with students.

  • Year 7 L@B assemblies - We have a house system so all assemblies are a mix of Year 7 - 11.  Maybe have specific Year 7 assemblies every half term to raise awarness of learner qualities and L@B with students.  Highlight what's coming up and reflect on what we've just done.
  • L@B half terms - where we make a big fuss about one of the attributes each half term.
  • L@B attribute posters around the school and main ones in each department - so departments can refer to them and highlight what type of learners we expect at our school.
  • Year 7 Focus Days “with added L@B” - We have a number of Year 7 days next year (Tech day, Languages day) which we are combining with and embedding our learner attributes into as a focus.
  • RRRRRvengers - Another idea collaborated with @totallywired77 is to have student champions for the various learner attributes who can speak to parents, staff and other stakeholders about the benefits of L2L.  Because of the 5R link, we named them the RRRRRvengers!!  Either that or David and the RRRRRgonauts.
  • Staff morning briefing/Staff meetings - Get our L@B champions or RRRRRvengers to come into meetings and feedback on how L2L is developing in their lessons.  Share evidence of good examples and areas where L2L isn't being embedded as well in their opinions.
  • Competitions each half term for Year 7's which focus on developing L@B attributes (e.g. In the first half term, is there a Responsibility competition such as 'organising an event' that we could run in school?)  Maybe get departments to help come up with ideas for these?
  • L@B learner rewards – certificates for nominated students who display the specific learner attribute we are looking at in that half term.  Publicly show these to recognise good learners.
  • L@B learner rewards – Giving things like wrist bands to the top 20 Responsible, Determined, Resourceful, HOThinkers & Reflective learners each half term?  Thanks @totallywired77 for the idea.

  • L@B learner rewards – A trip to somewhere like an activity centre in the last half term for students who have really demonstrated L@B qualities?  Nominated by teachers?
  • L@B learner rewards – add ‘L@B quality’ to our merit system on SIMS?
  • Learning exhibitions (thanks @thebenhorbury and @BebbPEteach) - Exhibition of learning which we will have a big emphasis on L2L.  Parents invited to come in and see the work of their children and how they have developed their L@B learner attributes.
  • Apart from refering to the 5 learner qualities as needed, how can the whole school continuously support the main ‘championing’ departments?  Is there anything we can all take on board e.g. In the fifth half term (which is Reflectiveness), maybe have all departments display students work publicly so they can be reflected on by peers?  Doesn’t have to be on a department display board where the worry could be vandalism, maybe on teachers display boards in their classrooms?  Just an idea to promote the importance of Reflection.  Taken from @JamiePortman's visit to High Tech High.


  • Staff room display - A way to share the roll out process and key terminology with staff.  Keep them up to date with the L2L programme and ways in which they can support.
These are just some ideas of things that I hope could raise the profile of learning and our Learning to Learn strategy next year.  Obviously, I can't run them all but would like to have some inspirational suggestions to choose from.  Any ideas you may have, please either comment below, or Tweet me at @davidfawcett27

Thanks!

Tuesday 15 May 2012

The Secret SOLO'ist Part 4 - SOLOstations!!

As I venture through my secret trial of using SOLO taxonomy, I am always looking for new and exciting ways to implement its use in the classroom.  A few weeks ago I stumbled across something that really caught my attention and thought would tie in nicely with SOLO.
As my Year 11 GCSE PE students prepare for the run up to their exam, I am always looking for new ways to embed revision into the remaining lessons.  Now I’m not the biggest fan of gimmicks or shallow learning.  I am though quite interested in the way the brain learns new information and have read many books/articles on basic neuroscience.  I therefore stay well away from a number of revision activities which simply develop shallow learning or don’t make learning memorable.   With this in mind, I stumbled across an amazing post from @dvplearning.  In his post, he talked about observing a PE teacher delivering a theory lesson using something called ‘Teach, Do, Review’.  Immediately, I loved the differentiation and independence of this idea.  In a nutshell, at a specific point in the lesson, the teacher offered students the opportunity to revise a topic in one of three ways.  If they were unsure of the topic or needed help, they went to the ‘Teach’ table where the teacher would be and could help them through the topic.  If they were ok with the topic but needed to develop their understanding further, they would go on the ‘Do’ table and complete a number of tasks.  If they felt they were comfortable with the topic, they would go to the ‘review’ table where they carried out a number of tasks including answering exam questions to test their knowledge.
I immediately thought that I could combine this with my ‘secret SOLO’ trial and try and incorporate different taxonomy levels into the activities.  With this in mind I decided to merge the two ideas and came up with this:
The ‘Teach’ table would sit with me and I would guide them with direct instruction and a few activities through uni-structural to relational.  The ‘Do’ table had a number of tasks loosely designed to take students from multi-structural to relational independently.  The ‘Review’ table took students from relational to extended abstract (finishing up by using colour co-ordinated hexagons to create links between topics).  I have to say that when I allowed the students to choose, they spread themselves out really well and went to the tables that my data would have guided them to if I did.  My level 4 boys sat with me (without being told to) where as my C’s & B’s went to the ‘Do’ table and my A-A*’s went to the ‘Review’ table.  One did buck the trend and chose higher than their target grade but I really liked their determination to do this.
The session went really well. Between helping the ‘Teach’ table, I managed to get round and see how the others were getting on.  All students were getting on independently and making good levels of progress.   One did do the tasks in the wrong order but said they still developed a better understanding of the topics.  Those on the ‘Review’ table had managed to move right on to the Hexagons and were trying their hardest to have as many multi-coloured links as possible in an effort to draw various topics together.  When I asked them, they were able to explain how many of the topics overlapped and could link it all back to the pre-released material.



So, an overwhelming success?  Well I thought this was a pretty good collaboration of SOLO and Teach, Do, Review.  Every student was engaged and they really developed their depth of knowledge as I went around and questioned the work they had produced.  That was until I read @totallywired77’s post on ‘SOLOstations’.  Inspired again by @dvplearning’s post on Teach, Do, Review, Tait had created a masterpiece!  It had taken the idea of these SOLOstations but to an all new level!!  To see this genius post, click here (but after you’ve read this!)

So based on Tait’s post, I created a SOLOstation lesson that was designed to let students independently decide their entry level and work their way up the taxonomy to develop their deeper learning. I decided to do it in a Year 11 revision session focusing on two topics that my class has found quite confusing: The PESSYP & PESSCL system and school sport.  I created a number of different stations, starting at pre-structural with the highest tables working at extended abstract.  Because I am still working on SOLO in secret, I replaced the SOLO levels with rough grade levels (based on some of the things our exam requires). 
Brief explanation of stations:
A* (E.A) - Because of their expert understanding, help teach/support as many other students as possible
A – (E.A) Answering long answer exam questions which draw in deep knowledge.  I also added some abstract questions which asked what would happen if x or y weren’t available.
B – (Relational) Linking topics together and applying them to the pre-released scenario.
C – (Multi-structural) Gathering all the information for the topics.
D – (Uni-structural/multi-structural) Developing finite knowledge by reading up on the topics before commencing.
I also used Tait’s idea to create a class protocol which I really emphasised, and success criteria for each level so students could judge progress and decide to move on.  After explaining the protocol to the group, I let them loose.  Again, many of the student’s accurately chose a station based on their prior knowledge.  Some of my level 4 boys chose to start at the D grade task and began to furiously read through some factual resources.  They even began to test each other!  No one went past the B grade station which was good to see as I knew that they had previously struggled.  As the lesson progressed, so did the students.  Many made 3 jumps up, some made 4.  All were completely engrossed in their learning and move independently of others.  As I went around and questioned them, once again their knowledge had improved and they were really showing that they could not only remember the two topics in detail, but they were able to manipulate this information and apply it to the pre-released material.



So what were the biggest plus points for me?  Well first thing has to be the engagement.  They were deeply locked into their learning.  The lesson lasted 2 hours and there were no issues whatsoever.  There was nobody off task and the ususal 'distracted boys' weren't distracted at all.  The second thing has to be the progress.  Everyone moved up two levels, most three and some four.  One of my level 4 boys who started at the D grade task, made it to the A grade.  Amazing!!! The third thing was the deeper understanding.  We had covered this topic twice before and this is the first time they have got it.  Fourth thing was the exam question answers.  They were amazing.  They showed such an understanding I feel so confident for them with the exam coming up.  And lastly, and probably most importantly, were the quotes of the day.:

 
"I was worrying about the exam. I now feel really confident with myself because I feel I know the topics a lot better. I'm not worried anymore”
"I've looked at this topic 20million times and this is the first time I actually fully understand it”


 
Brilliant!  So good I did it with my Year 10's this week before their unit test.


Saturday 12 May 2012

The Secret SOLO'ist part 3b

If you haven’t already read the first part of this post, click here (or it might not make sense). 
After teaching my class the aerobic system and watching them fully understand it, it was time to move onto the anaerobic system.  Traditionally, it is at this stage that students begin to get confused and mix the two systems up.  Looking back through my old lesson resources, this is probably due to the way I taught it!  Because of my role within the T&L group at our school, I also invited our head of dept to come in and see SOLO in action.

Anaerobic Respiration System SOLO
Powerpoint that I used for the SOLO lesson.
I began the lesson again with a prompt question based on Usain Bolt which asked students to explain how the respiratory system was at work when he runs.  Quite quickly, students were able to see that the aerobic system which they learnt about yesterday couldn’t be the primary way of producing energy as a 100m race contradicts many of its key principles (aerobic system is used when there is a continuous supply of oxygen, when the exercise is low-medium intensity… Everything a 100m sprint isn’t).  This instantly got their curiosity going whilst allowing a number of students who are currently studying biology, the opportunity to bring that knowledge into the room.
The discussion this created got the students really engaged.  Some students had no idea what form of respiration was taking place (pre-structural).  A number of students were able to pull out the word ‘anaerobic respiration’ with no meaning – they had just heard it somewhere (uni-structural).  Some could add to this and talked about knowing lactic acid and other key points were involved somewhere ( mulit-structural).   It was a great starting point and allowed me a benchmark for which to measure progress.
I then began the ‘5 minute challenge’ in which I would teach the class all of the key points and terminology related to the anaerobic system.  Essentially, what I wanted here was to get everyone up to multi-structural and familiarise themselves with definitions or words that they needed to know.  It was brief and very shallow learning, only because I knew the next tasks would allow them a chance to independently work with the topic and dig deeper into its structure.  I just wanted to give them the confidence that when they set off to learn, they were researching the right key words and information.  After this 5 minutes (which in teachers terms actually lasted 10), I allowed them time as a table team to develop their notes and read up on the system using various resources.
With their knowledge (hopefully) up to multi-structural, I began stepping up the SOLO power.  I brought in a ‘Double Bubble’ graphic organiser also known as a ‘Compare & Contrast’ HOT map.  After explaining how it worked, the students had to show how the aerobic and anaerobic system had similarities and differences.  This was a huge success and students were very quickly engrossed in their learning and mapping out key points.  My role became that of a facilitator who shouted out good examples/points as I walked around the class.  This is probably the clearest that one of my classes had ever been about the two different systems and how they interlinked.
Using a Comprae & Contrast HOT map for the aerobic and anaerobic system.

I then asked them to relate this to sport (as it’s GCSE PE) and got them to see how there are times when the two systems overlapped and worked together.  I used a stimulus image in the form of Lionel Messi who as a games player, regularly uses both systems.  This was also a prompt for the final task – Hexagons!!!!  Hopefully at this point, we were at relational.

The final task took a minute to explain using a couple of slides that @TheBenHorbury sent me.  It was time to get to extended abstract using the beloved hexagons.  As usual, I had a number of prompt hexagons which were colour co-ordinated and had key words on them.  The task was to use Lionel Messi as the stimulus and map out how the whole respiratory system linked together.  I also had hexagons with key words from the other physiology topics (circulatory etc) so that they could go beyond this learning experience and draw in previous knowledge.  I made a big fuss about multiple connections, linking different topics and adding their own information using the blank hexagons.  The results were amazing.  Even though we only had a short time to do it, students were mapping out the links and could clearly explain how one tied into the next.  I am confident we had made it to extended abstract (please correct me if I’m wrong!)
Students linking the respiratory system to an individual and other physiology systems.

So, what are my overall thoughts?  Well the learning speaks for itself.  I asked students as I went around if the way I delivered the lesson and the tasks they used were beneficial or not.  All comments were massively positive and the students said it definitely helped.  The head of dept was also impressed and although it wasn’t meant to be an observation, he wrote it up and gave it an outstanding.  But that’s not the important thing for me.  For the first time, on my first attempt, students had fully learnt all of the respiratory system in 2 lessons.  Not just that, but they had become skilled at manipulating it and applying this knowledge.  They had also been able to link all of the physiology topics together which is a first for me.  The fact I am still buzzing about it as I’m writing it up (even though it was a few weeks ago) shows how powerful SOLO taxonomy is.  Amazing!

The Secret SOLO'ist part 3a....

For those of you new to this series of posts, I have recently taken more of an interest in SOLO taxonomy since becoming part of the Twitter community.  It was something that I read about a while ago in Geoff Petty’s Evidence Based Teaching but have only recently felt ready to develop this element of my teaching further.  I plan to launch it fully with students in September, but in the meantime I am going on a secret trial to test out the structure and activities, all of the time evaluating the impact and effectiveness.

On my third attempt, I decided I was going to try using the SOLO structure all of the way through and even try one of the HOT maps which I had seen on Pam Hooks website.  I have used many of these before during the Year 9 L2L lessons I run, but thought I’d try it as part of SOLO’s structure. 
The lessons I chose were two from our Year 10 Physiology unit.  The topic was the Respiratory system, focusing specifically on the aerobic and anaerobic system.  Typically in the past, many students find these a little confusing as there are a number of similarities yet some very significant differences.
I started off looking at the aerobic system and as usual started with a ‘Pre-topic task’ to see what level they were coming in at.  Many students knew nothing about the aerobic system (pre-structural) where as some students knew a few facts that they had heard in Biology (multi-structural).  This was really important for me as it would allow the students, and me, to see the massive levels of progression that I was hoping they would make (hoping!!).
I then began teaching all of the relevant subject information using a variety of independent learning and direct instruction tasks.  Table teams had a variety of resources and pooled together their knowledge of the system.  From all of the information they gathered, I even asked them to rank order the facts they found out in order of importance and highlight any particular components of the system that they were amazed by.  This was developing their multi-structural understanding.

One of the Multi-Structural task where they had to independently
 reseach key principles from the Aerobic Respiration system.
We then started looking at how all of these aerobic respiration components linked together, specifically focusing on how they react to exercise.  From the information they had, they went about mapping these components in relation to an athlete (Mo Farah) on a stimulus sheet.  They had to include a number of keywords that I had listed.  They also had to highlight when components linked together and put a brief explanation stating how they linked.  I was now moving them into Relational. 


Here they began to link the many components of the Aerobic system
together and bring in how it changes when exercising.

Finally, because the aerobic respiration ties into many of the other body systems (circulatory, muscular etc), they then had to link this system to them as well.  Again I gave them keywords to include and asked them to highlight these extended links and connections (Beginning to move towards the top end of Relational).  Many students were really beginning to develop and map out a cycle that included all the physiological systems from circulatory to skeletal, specifically identifying how they adapt or work when involved in physical activity.  I’ve never had a group do this so clearly before!


Finally getting them to link ALL physiological systems together.


One of the pieces of work from a LA student
I finished the first part of this two part lesson with a curiosity question (related to the other respiratory system we teach, the anaerobic system) to get them to see we weren’t finished and in fact, this is part of a much bigger topic.

Lesson 2 which focused on the Anaerobic system and included HOT maps is on it's way!!

Friday 4 May 2012

The RRRRRvengers!

As I talked about in an earlier blog post, next year our school will be taking the next step up on our L2L journey.  It’s been one that has been going for around 5 years now and has been an exciting learning journey as it has progressed.
One of the mistakes we have learnt from during its infancy came from not having a framework which we were driving L2L towards.  As a novice to L2L when I took it on, it was understandably a bit of a whirlwind trying to see how the many different L2L champions were doing things.  We looked at many ideas ranging from Guy Claxtons ‘Learning Powers’ to the Habits of Mind programme.  Although I implemented and ran with a few ideas which probably didn’t work very well, it has allowed me to be incredibly reflective in my approach.
I am happy to say that the Eureka moment for my own take on L2L came after having a personalised visit to Cramlington Learning Village arranged by Ken Brechin and Mark Lovatt in 2009.  The visit here allowed me to see a L2L model in action and finally cleared my very overcrowded thoughts.  I realised that simple is always better.   I had also just finished reading Carol Dwecks Mindset book so set about putting together a model that would work at our school.  Weirdly, the plan that I came up with contains something I ran with right at the beginning, the 5R’s.
Now if you haven’t heard of the R’s before, here is a very quick (and brief) introduction.  Basically, an R is a learner attribute or disposition that we want our learners to develop.  There are many versions of the R’s out there.  In my research and evidence gathering, I’ve seen schools or organisations using anything from 3 to 7 R’s.  The next very obvious point is these R’s have to begin with that letter.  It would therefore be no surprise that some of the reoccurring ones I have come across include:
Responsibility
Resourcefulness
Resilience
Reflectiveness
Readiness
Reasoning
For our own L2L model, I decided to go with 5 and stuck with the ones that I had seen being used so effectively at Cramlington (and also part of Alites 5R’s) and had researched so much at the start of my L2L journey.  They were Responsibility, Resourcefulness, Resilience, Reasoning and Reflectiveness.  I’ve had a few trials of them with my Year 9 L2L classes and regularly used them to point out good (or bad) learning.  I believe that these will be effective tools to help learners develop a Growth Mindset and independent learner qualities over Year 7.

So, I have now been tasked with designing the resources that will expose the 5R’s to the Year 7’s next year.  In particular I am trying to design some posters and a page for student organiser/planner which raises awareness and explain these qualities.  I recently asked the Twitter nation if they had any ideas of what catchy hook I could use that would make learners take interest.  One in particular from @Totallywired77 wasn’t directly linked to the posters, but reminded me of some resources I created a few years ago when I trialled the 5R’s (very successfully) with my Year 7 tutor group.  Now in 2012, we have labelled them the ‘Rvengers’.


In preparation for next year, I aim to adapt and amend these resources and tie them specifically into our L2L model which we have re branded L@B (Learning at Brookfield). We also plan to have them as a page in the new Year 7's planners which fully explain these attributes and what they do.  They will also be one of the first things we introduce in our Year 7 assemblies and will be a driving force in the many Year 7 Learning Days we run. 

There will also be a variety of posters for each department to display that highlights the various learner attributes and qualities that we are trying to develop in our learners.  The aim is that all teachers at various stages throughout the year, will champion one of these attributes in their departments and help learners to make progress in them. They can be referred to when modelling good learning and good learner habits, as well as being a scaffold in conversations with students who are not meeting our expectations.  Either way, they will be powerful tools.

I will also take on @Totallywired77 idea and have student champions of these attributes and get them to be the face and voice of them when speaking to staff and parents.  At one of many of our interactions with these stakeholders, I am sure that a first hand message from a learners perspective will help embed these attributes into school life.

We will though have to change them from R's and just refer to them with the Year 7's as 'learner attributes'.  This is due to us already adopting the UNICEF Rights Respecting Schools award and already have some R's from this tied into our behaviour and rewards policy (we could have a lot of R's on our hands if we don't adapt).  Out of interest, our adapted names will be:

I am Responsible
I am Determined
I am Resourceful
I am an effective Thinker
I am Reflective

With having Dweck's Growth Mindset as the aim for our L2L programme, and the '5 Learner Attributes' to support it, I think we have the beginnings of a very exciting programme that should help our students take the step to become independent learners.