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High Performance Learning (HPL) Pedagogy: Enhancing Teaching and Learning at the BSN
Starting in September 2023, the BSN officially became part of the High Performance Learning (HPL) global community of schools. HPL is a research-based educational philosophy that believes everyone is capable of being a high performer when they are explicitly taught the necessary skills, behaviours and mindset required for top learning potential.
Essentially, HPL teaches students ‘how to be’ and ‘how to think’. The BSN has always prided itself on the high quality of its academic provision. With HPL, we aim to teach our students to be consciously competent by introducing them to and naming the ingredients required to make them successful and high-performing life-long learners.
As we come to the end of our first year on our HPL journey, we asked a few of our Senior Leaders to tell us what HPL looks like so far in our Junior and Senior Schools.
What does HPL look like at the Junior schools?
In Junior School, we have very quickly linked the Values, Attitudes and Attributes (VAAs) that HPL promotes to our existing BSN Character profile. The BSN Character Profile tells us ‘how to be’ as a learner, developing skills such as perseverance so that we can keep on trying even when we face difficulties, or collaboration so that we know how to share our ideas in a team and listen to others when working together. The language of the BSN Character Profile is familiar to us all, and we have been working hard to identify examples of it in our learning.
Exploring the ACPs (Advanced Cognitive Performance Characteristics) has been new learning for all our students and staff this year. The ACPs tell us ‘how to think’ as a learner. We will continue to develop our understanding and integration of these skills in the coming year(s). So far, staff have been trialling and incorporating different thinking skills, such as meta-thinking and analysing, into their lessons. Some smaller groups of staff have also been carrying out action research to trial different implementation strategies.
We have focused on aligning the language we use with children to make their ‘thinking’ skills explicit and to ensure that staff across different year groups and departments use the same vocabulary.
We look forward to continuing our HPL journey next year. Stay tuned for parent-engagement opportunities like an HPL book club.
What does High Performance Learning look like at the Senior Schools?
It has been an exciting year as we introduce HPL in the senior schools. Our focus has been on: 1/ establishing the mindset shift in students that all learners are capable of high performance, and 2/ building the practical steps in our teaching that are needed to support students in achieving high performance. We have been using the ACPs and VAAs of HPL to build the tools and language that students need for success.
At SSL, subject departments have been focussing on developing a small number of the ACPs and VAAs that are particularly pertinent to them. For example, in Mathematics, we have highlighted strategy planning (an ACP skill) and courage (a VAA characteristic) as valuable components of success. This has helped students gain familiarity with the vocabulary of HPL in the context of a lesson and allowed them to relate their own learning experiences to how High Performance Learners think and behave.
Meanwhile, staff at SSV have been participating in a collaborative enquiry. In small cross-department groups, we have been investigating the different ACPs with a focus on how they translate to classroom practice and the impact they have on the learning and thinking of our students. Staff presented their findings in short workshops, providing a great opportunity to learn from one another and see best practice around the school.
As at the Junior Schools, we are keen for the next steps in our HPL journey at the Senior School level. There are many interesting and effective learning tools for us to continue to develop in our students.
