Primary School HPL Term 1 Review

by Lee Hawkins, HPL Coordinator

As HPL Lead, I often speak with staff and students about what High Performance Learning looks like in school and how we can use the values, attitudes, and attributes to our advantage. With this in mind, I thought I would share some of those conversations with you. Each of these have taken place this academic year, since September.

What better place to start than the beginning?

I take you back to Week 1, when Sofia Peli, Eva Popescu and I, discussed exactly what ‘HPL’ is and how it is used.

What is HPL?

Sofia Peli (6M): HPL stands for High Performing Learning and it helps us reach our potential.

Eva Popescu (6M): HPL helps us understand the qualities, skills and attitudes that people use when they are learning. It’s something that all learners do without knowing.

Sofia Peli (6M): But when we know what it is and we learn about these things, it helps us progress and become even better learners.

What does HPL look like around the Primary School?

Sofia Peli (6M): It’s everywhere! We have Star of the Week assemblies and students are always rewarded based on how well they have shown some of the HPL qualities, skills and attitudes.

Eva Popescu (6M): Oh yeah, and then we have monthly HPL awards to celebrate students that have been really good.

Sofia Peli (6M): and we use it in almost every lesson, too. We choose one of the qualities, skills and attitudes and reflect on how we used it in the lesson.

Eva Popescu (6M): Yeah, we write it in our books beside the objective for that lesson.

I really enjoy catching up with the students and picking their brains to see how it is that they learn and to hear a student’s perspective. However, it is equally important to her from those that teach, even more so when the setting is not the classroom. In October I spoke with Mr Wilson & Mr Morrison about how the student’s displayed the HPL values, attitudes, and attributes, while on a residential trip to the mountains…

Below is an excerpt from a discussion with Mr Wilson (Y6), just after returning from the residential:

During the trip to Aventura Park, I saw bravery and confidence as some children faced the challenging ziplines. There were also many children showing selfregulation, especially being away from their home for 2 nights! I was impressed with Antoniu and Alex V. for showing concern for society by looking out for others when they were feeling homesick or missed their family and friends back home.

Mr Morrison (Y6) also shared his views and observations…

Throughout the trip I saw so many examples of independence and resilience skills from the children. I was even more impressed with Sonia, who showed empathy towards other students when they were unable to grasp the task in hand, giving explanations (which helped their fluent thinking), meaning, they were able to reflect on the activity and re-approach it in another way to improve or succeed.

These opportunities, to witness student’s outside the classroom, are hugely beneficial and help the teachers see the students holistically, especially when they are able to see them flourish as ‘all-round’ learners in an unfamiliar setting.

At this point in the term, the holiday was fast approaching. However, that doesn’t mean that the use of HPL values, attitudes, and attributes would be taking a break. I spoke with Patrick Turcanu & Luca Wahler from Y5 to see what they would be up to and how HPL will influence their time away from school…

Luca had a plan to go skiing over the break and this was his take on how HPL will be present with him on the slopes:

Luca Patrick

When I first began skiing, I was not confident in myself. Then when I saw my sister and my Dad ski so well, it encouraged me to practice and work hard to become better. Now, I think I am better than my sister at skiing, but not quite as good as my Dad. These days, I don’t need to focus too much on skiing because of all of the practice I have done. I use automaticity and speed & accuracy when I’m skiing, now.

In a completely opposite plan for the holiday (and one very similar to mine) Patrick discussed how HPL will influence his chill days, while playing video games:

I play games online with my friends and when I first began, I used to lose a lot. This was because I wasn’t collaborating or communicating with my teammates. Now, we collaborate and work as a team and we have won over 600 games together. Most of the time we have to strategy plan, to beat a level. However, when it is difficult we will need to solve problems together.

With the holiday’s over and everyone back in school, it was time for everyone’s favourite event… Parent-Teacher Meetings. This year, however, would be different to the past couple of years. We returned to a forgotten, but popular, format from way back when we were all allowed to share the same space. I think that’s enough from me for now, let’s hear from Eva Popescu, Maria

Farmache & Ingrid Gherghe - All from Y6.

Maria: This year the first parent/teacher meeting is different from last year because we’re in person and the students are leading the discussion. That means we are in charge!

Ingrid: We began to by planning the meeting and the format. We completed a reflection sheet and planned how the meeting will be structured and what WE would like to talk about with our parents and teachers.

Eva: As part of the reflection we were asked to answer 5 questions: ‘What have we tried?’, ‘What have we learned?’, ‘What are we pleased about?’, ‘What are our concerns and what do we need to do next?’.

Maria: When our parents met with the teachers, the students began the discussion by talking through their plan and their reflections on each of the different areas. We shared how we think we have done in term 1. Our parents could ask questions and the teachers could give their opinions, too. I think the parents really enjoyed hearing all of this from the students, instead of the teachers for a change.

So what does this have to do with HPL?

Eva: HPL helped us to plan the meeting because we are used to reflecting on our work after each lesson and this was just like a big HPL reflection of the term. So, we were able to link those skills from lessons and adapt them for this task.

Ingrid: I used intellectual confidence when I wrote my meeting plan because I gave reasons to support my opinions of my learning. For example, when I included something I was proud of, I backed that up with my work and evidence.

Maria: I used connection finding when I was completing the task by using the skills that I have learned in class to link my ideas in learning and connect my reflections on my overall term. This helped me to write out my reflections and share them with my parents.

Eva: I was confident that I was able to plan and discuss my learning with my parents because throughout the year, I have participated in competitions like poetry and I was a successful runner in the House Captains’ elections. Taking part in these has allowed my confidence to expand and I was looking forward to sharing my learning and achievements with my parents.

Why do you think this way of hosting parents’ meetings is beneficial?

Eva: Doing the meetings in this way helps the students realise their achievements and help them reflect on their academics as well as identify areas that they need to work on.

Maria: A high performance learner does all of these things and will be more likely to succeed in anything they try to do. These are all important things to learn and practise.

As you can see, HPL is relevant in many ways, not only in the classroom. It allows us to become the best possible learners we can be.

I have thoroughly enjoyed these conversations with students and staff. There is, however, still a lot of the school year left, which means a lot more opportunities to hone the values, attitudes, and attributes of a High Performing Learner.