What are Learning Powers?

“An approach to help young people to become better learners both in school and out… it’s about creating a culture that cultivates habits and attitudes that enable young people to face difficulty and uncertainty calmly, confidently and creatively.”
-Professor Guy Claxton, founder of BLP

At Nascot Wood Infant and Nursery School, have started a Building Learning Powers journey with the children that will support them in developing the skills needed to become life-long learners. BLP identified seventeen key characteristics which are organised under four main learning power dispositions – Resilience, Resourcefulness, Reflectiveness and Reciprocity.

As a school we identified what we felt were the key learning characteristics, of paramount importance, to young learners and created the 8 mascots who each represent one of the characteristic:

• Challenge – Cheetah
• Curiosity – Cat
• Choice– Chimp
• Collaboration – Caterpillar 
• Concentration – Crocodile
• Confidence – Camel
• Creativity – Chameleon
• Perseverance – Penguin
• Listening – Ladybird

These characteristics are found throughout all aspects of school life, and are celebrated during a weekly assembly.