Metacognition

At Petersfield School we continue to develop our approach to learning that will help to boost the children’s learning and progress.

Metacognition and self-regulation strategies are about the children thinking about thinking, knowing what learning means and taking charge of their learning because of that knowledge.

We use the ‘Learning Jungle’ and ‘Learning Powers’.

Last year, we introduced the learning powers through animal characters and their associated behaviours. This is to help the children to make links and remember the learning powers explicitly. For example, ‘Albert the armadillo’s’ learning power is to be resilient. We have been teaching the children lessons linked to the animals and their learning powers and then we refer to these regularly in other lessons and subjects.

Mrs Bonfield, a skilled Puffin’s play worker, kindly worked with some of the children to create soft toy puppet versions of the different animal characters which will be used across the school to further engage the children into the Learning Jungle.

We have been very impressed with how well the children have taken on board the different learning jungle characters and their associated ‘Powers’. We will be introducing the different characters onto the website regularly.

Kelly the koala – To be curious • Asks questions • Notices things • Looks for patterns and connections • Thinks of possible reasons • Researches • Ponders – What if…?

Please discuss with your child/ren – e.g. How could you be like Kelly the koala?

At Petersfield, we encourage the children to be able to reflect on their metacognitive knowledge of the task they face, the strategies they will need and an understanding of their strengths and next steps in their learning. We will be introducing ‘Learning Jungle’ character stickers, so if your child come home with one, please ask about how they had been demonstrating that learning power.

We refer to the Learning Jungle characters in our everyday teaching and learning. It is a powerful and visual way for the children to think about their learning and how they learn. Our next character to introduce is ‘Emily the elephant’, and her special learning power is ‘To Concentrate’.

To be more like Emily, you could try: • Managing your distractions, • Getting lost in your learning, • Breaking things down into smaller steps, • Focusing on one thing at a time, • Looking for patterns and connections, • Planning and thinking things through, • Jotting things down to help you think

These learning powers are not just to be used in school, we can use these in many aspects of our daily lives, including with our home learning. Please share how you have been ‘like Emily’ with your parents/carers and class teachers.

What the children said:

The Learning Jungle has animals which have their own unique traits that tell us about their personality and their character. Kelly the koala’s learning power is to be curious – by learning about it, this encourages us to be curious in our own learning. We discuss the animals and their powers in class and then the teachers refer back to them when we are learning. For example, ‘in this lesson we are going to need to concentrate like Emily the elephant, some of her skills are to manage distractions, break tasks down and focus on one thing at a time.’ It has helped me in my learning because if I am stuck I can look on the wall (at the Learning Jungle’ display) and get help from the traits of one of the animals. I can use the learning powers to be more like one of the animals in my learning.

Some recent pupil voice from across the school: • “The characters help me to keep going because I like to be resilient.” • “If it is hard then I can ask a partner and they can help me.” • “I learn the better because I know how to be a good learner.” • “…because you know what their superpowers are, it can push you and challenge yourself.” • “The monkeys tell us to look back at our work and use our purple pens to improve our work.” • “I think the Koala encourages me to be more curious and it makes me question things more.” • “If there is a word you don’t know what the meaning is, you can think about strategies how to find it out.”