Personal Responsibility Model

Design principles

Adults understand what children want to learn, and children understand what adults want them to learn. Time is made for both.
Regular reflections, target setting and teacher learning conversations.
Children develop a growth mindset about the potential of their own abilities – which creates a positive attitude towards achievement and reduces fear of failure.
A semi-democratically run school. Young learners are given freedom and responsibility and vote on many school decisions, in line with the community agreements.

Learning Conversations

Bringing our Personal Responsibility Model Together

Teachers and teaching partners support up to 20 young learners and are always on hand to support and challenge learners.

Teachers document young learners learning and keep notes for discussion in the 1:1 learning conversation that takes place regularly with every young learner. This is where young learners set their own goals and evaluate their own progress with the help of their adult mentor, who is also one of their class teachers.

One of the aims for our school is for our young learners to develop the Big 6 Learnable Intelligences:

Guy Claxton’s Learning Power Approach (LPA)

Guy Claxton is a cognitive scientist and prolific education author of the past two decades. He is also the Patron of Atelier 21. Our bespoke Personal Progress Diaries used by young learners and their teachers have been co-designed and written by Hayley Peacock, our Head of School and Becky Carlzon, Guy’s co-author of Learning Power for the Primary Classroom. Guy and Becky are both consultants at Atelier 21 who help train teachers and staff on inset days.

What is the LPA?

A celebration of the grapple and effort required to achieve
Understanding Learning Mode VS Performance Mode
Deconstruction of the LEARNING PROCESS so children understand the habits of mind which make them good learners
Shift of attitude to ‘MISTAKE MAKING’ to distinguish fear of failure.
LEARNISH – the language that children and adults speak in when developing a GROWTH MINDSET.

Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm

Winston Churchill