In September 2004, Morpeth launched an initiative within school aimed at making pupils’ learning more active and at creating more independent learners. This involved appointing two Learning Co-ordinators within school and employing an external consultant to guide our way. All staff were involved in training and the development of active learning has remained on our School Development Plan.

Morpeth’s Learning Cycle

One of the methods for driving this initiative forward and for sustaining consistency across the school was the development of a ‘learning cycle’ for lessons that is based on how learners learn and on ways of maximising that learning.

We often start lessons with a ‘Connect’ activity that reminds pupils of their previous learning, connects with the learning they will do in the lesson and gets them interested and engaged. This might mean: ‘lights off / fairy lights on’ start to a Science lesson to get pupils thinking about series and parallel circuits; pupils being separated on the basis of eye colour as an introduction to Nazi Germany; a crime scene creation for the first lesson on ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Whatever the activity, the aim is to get pupils interested and therefore motivated.

The next stage of the ‘learning cycle’ is to ‘activate’ pupils’ learning. In practice this means that rather than simply giving pupils information, we aim to set up situations or problems whereby they ‘discover’ that information for themselves: from something as simple as a series of questions about a text; to a role-play where pupils act out different means of heat transfer; groups become ‘experts’ on different areas of information ready for sharing in the…

…‘Demonstrate’ phase. This is the pupils’ opportunity to show their understanding: perhaps presenting their ideas to the class; making a written response; or answering test questions. It is also an opportunity for the teacher and other pupils to give constructive feedback.

In the final ‘Consolidate’ phase of the lesson, teachers and pupils focus on the learning covered – but not just what has been learned, but also how it’s been learned i.e. what skills they’ve been developing e.g. group work, questioning, evaluation…

Developing Pupil Skills

When we first looked at improving pupils’ learning at Morpeth, we focused on developing teachers’ skills in making it happen. Our focus now is also on developing the pupils’ understanding of their own learning.

In Year 7, all pupils study a ‘Learning to Learn’ course in which they cover areas such as: how the brain works; their learning preferences; motivation and thinking skills. In Year 8, pupils spend almost a day a fortnight working on self-chosen projects (e.g. film-making, sports leadership, forming a rock band, and art, science and ICT-based projects). A central focus of these is on developing pupils’ insights into how they can become better learners through contributing to a team. In Year 9, pupils have day-long experiences that focus on study skills. Our aim throughout the whole programme is to enable pupils to develop the skills required to be successful long-term learners in the twenty-first century.