Launching Metacognition Learner Ambitions

The challenge that we uncovered last year was incorporating the existing language of the IPC Personal Goals, alongside the Learner Ambition language. The goals themselves matched in sentiment, for example, the Learner Ambition of ‘committed’ was a direct correlation to the IPC Personal Goal of ‘resilient.’ However, we identified that streamlining the language was going to be an important step forward to ensure children were able to really deepen their understanding of the Learner Ambitions.

The transition began from Personal Goal language to Learner Ambition language in our August teacher INSET through a staff training session. It started with a staff quiz where we provided the Personal Goal language and staff had to match it to the correct Learner Ambition. We learned valuable insight from this training and the staff earned some prizes too! The next step was to launch this with the primary students.

At BISC-SL, we hold year-group assemblies, and Year 6 was the first to participate in September. Prior to the assembly, we had already introduced the Year 6 students to the language of the Learner Ambitions as part of our IPC Brainwave Topic. We then leveraged these concepts to create the foundation for our Year 6 assembly.

To showcase their understanding of the Learner Ambitions, we tasked the Year 6 students with hosting quizzes, plays, raps, and poems. This provided them with a valuable opportunity to not only learn more about the goals but also to demonstrate their knowledge by teaching others.

We also extended an invitation to parents to attend the assembly, offering them a chance to gain a deeper understanding of the Learner Ambitions and the Metacognition Project as a whole.

One of the benefits we have seen by taking part in the Metacognition Project is the student’s abilities to talk about these transferable skills of commitment, creativity, curiosity, critical thinking, collaboration and compassion, and how they apply both inside and outside of the classroom. The children in Key Stage 2 (Year 3 – Year 6) have access to an electronic Learner Profile where they can document their learning and experiences. It has helped us to get to know our students on a more personal level through the common goals associated with the Learner Ambitions and this is a huge benefit to our school community. For teachers, this has allowed us to have a window into how our students are applying their learning out with school,  for example, to see how they have applied the ambition of committed, to deep sea fishing on vacation!

As a school, we're nearing the end of our Primary division's first Learner Ambition, "Curious." We're also excited to introduce Metacognition lessons to our Middle School students, starting with Year 7. These students already have a foundation in Metacognition and the Learner Ambitions from their time in Primary.

At BISC-SL, we're fully committed to Metacognition, and it's proven to be a valuable tool for individual student development. The language used in our Metacognition lessons has also created a strong connection between parents and students, fostering open conversations about learning from Nursery through Year 6. We eagerly anticipate the exciting discoveries that our next Learner Ambition, "Creative," will bring!