Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Book Nook: Powering Up Your School - The Learning Power Approach

In our developed world, young people spend the majority of their formative years in school. Within these schools there seems to be more of an emphasis on preparing young people for the next stage of formal education, rather than achieving a fulfilling and satisfying life. Policymakers are focused on raising conventional indicators of school performance – “getting more poor kids into good universities”, for example – rather than thinking carefully about the well-being of all those who will not get into university, or who may not want to go.

A vast majority of educators know that schools need to change their way of thinking and catch up with the demands and opportunities facing young people in the 21st century. It is a whole different ball game out there now, and schools must adapt or become an anachronism.
There are thousands of school principals who are working hard and smart to develop their school cultures. And there are many others who would like to be doing more, but who need ideas about exactly where they are heading and how to get there. That’s where Powering Up Your School comes in.

I had a chance to review this book, which is designed for those who know that something needs to be improved with the learning environment in schools, but can't quite figure out what. It has a focus on education that is more than just conventional metrics like tests, awards, and well-mannered children. It aims to facilitate a culture change throughout a school.

The LPA means that a collective understanding of outcomes in character strength and academic success drives everything. The book is written by authors who are working with the LPA, and share questions to guide education as well as how they themselves went about finding answers. It's helpful to see the viewpoints from these different authors, because it's not going to be identical for every school. Even if a school isn't looking to fundamentally change its culture, the questions can still be thought-provoking ways to make sure that faculty, staff, and parents have a similar vision for the school - a vision that will help create a more cohesive community, lead to stronger buy-in, more unified teaching goals, and in many ways, less staff burnout and a stronger sense of cooperation within the school building.


Guy Claxton is a cognitive scientist specialising in the expandability of human intelligence – bodily and intuitive as well as intellectual – and the roles schools play in either growing or stunting these capacities.
A prolific author, his practical programmes for teachers are influencing children’s lives in Ireland, Spain, Poland, Dubai, South Africa, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, and Brazil, as well as across the UK.

Jann Robinson has been in post as principal of St Luke’s Grammar School in New South Wales, Australia, since 2005. Jann holds a master’s in educational leadership, is a member of the Australian College of Educational Leaders (ACEL) and the Australian College of Educators (ACE), and is a strong advocate of developing resilience in young people so that they can meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world.

Rachel Macfarlane is the Director of Education Services at Herts for Learning and has previously served as head teacher at three contrasting schools over a sixteen-year period. Between 2009 and 2018 Rachel was project director of the London Leadership Strategy’s Going for Great (G4G) programme, which involved working with leaders of outstanding schools to share good practice and produce case studies for dissemination to London schools.

Graham Powell has over forty years’ experience working in education – holding various posts including head teacher, Ofsted inspector, and local authority adviser – and has throughout his career maintained a passionate concern for the ways in which young people learn. He has worked with numerous schools, both across the UK and overseas, that have chosen to place the LPA at the heart of their vision for 21st century learning.

Gemma Goldenberg is a former assistant head teacher who led on curriculum design and professional development at Sandringham Primary School in Newham, East London. She is currently studying for a PhD, investigating the influence of the environment on how children learn, play, and interact.

Robert Cleary has been the head teacher of Sandringham Primary School for nine years. Robert strives to ensure that school improvement work is underpinned by educational research, and in recent years he has built partnerships with organisations such as Whole Education, National Literacy Trust, London Teachers’ Reading Group, and Maths No Problem. This approach has helped develop pedagogical understanding and create a professional, shared language about how children learn.

The Learning Power series
As ‘traditionalists’ fight for rigour and knowledge, and ‘progressives’ defend the increasing focus on character and well-being, the Learning Power series brings resolution to this unnecessary war by offering educators a win-win way of teaching. One that delivers good academic results while also turbocharging students’ independence, initiative, and love of learning. This groundbreaking series provides a wealth of practical strategies which teachers and school leaders can use to boost their learners’ learning dispositions and attitudes.


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