This blog comes from our Deputy Head, Mr Walton McBain.  

The Importance of A2L at High Storrs

Secondary School is a big step in the lives of young people. Students join us as excited and enthusiastic 10- and 11-year olds and leave us as young adults. In between they sit GCSEs and possibly A-Levels which will have a massive influence on their futures. There is so much to experience and learn at High Storrs, and although academic success is of course important, there is so much more to being successful than just practising for tests and exams. Our school ethos reflects our desire not only to help students succeed in exams, but also to help young people grow and develop in all aspects of their education – “We are here to learn, succeed and thrive”.

It is for this reason we place such importance on Attitude to Learning throughout all years from Y7-Y13. This approach is probably very different to what students have experienced at primary school, or if they have moved from another secondary school, so it is really important that students and families understand what we mean by this. Attitude to Learning is about how students approach tasks and challenges and, even more importantly, how they learn and develop each week to become better and better at their chosen subjects.

Regardless of their academic ability, our most successful students are those who really master strong learning behaviours. Those students learn faster and learn better. They concentrate more, think harder, and find learning more enjoyable. Ultimately, they do better in their tests and external examinations.

The purpose of Attitude to Learning at High Storrs is to help students develop the learning habits and behaviours they need to succeed not only in school, but beyond High Storrs and into adult life.

Great learning habits require practise every day and attitude to learning is something which starts in Y7 and 8, continues through GCSE and builds further into Y12 and Y13. As Aristotle once stated “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit”.

The Attitude to Learning descriptors are different in the different Key Stages. In Y7 and 8, A2L is “Building Great Learning Habits” and focuses on Behaviour, Engagement, Responsibility, Feedback, and Independence. These are the same strands with different descriptors in KS4 (Developing Great Learning Habits) but the strands are slightly different in KS5 (Mastering Great Learning Habits), where there is a greater focus on the skills required to succeed at A-Level and beyond. In order to help families and students understand Attitude to Learning better, we have created a series of short video presentations, which can be accessed on the High Storrs website under Learning / Reporting, Trackers and A2L.

When a tracker is published, we would always recommend that students and families sit down to discuss the information that has been shared regarding Attitude to Learning. It is at this point that some students show they really do not understand attitude to learning at all. Mistakenly, they will think “because I did well in that test, my teacher has given me a good Attitude to Learning score”. This is wrong and somewhat backwards. Actually it is “because I have a strong attitude to learning …. I read widely, I engage and try hard in class, I listen to and discuss topics with my classmates, I read through my notes, and I act feedback to improve my work, I have planned my work to make sure I am preparing to the best of my ability … that is the REASON I got a good mark in my test”. There is a clear connection between those students who are on or above target in each subject, and those students who are really working to the very best of their ability to improve every day. Success in school (and life) is not luck. Excellence is not an act, but a habit.

Towards the end of last year, we asked a group of Y13 students who were about to sit their A-Levels what they really thought of Attitude to Learning. They all agreed that using the Attitude to Learning descriptors to help them develop strong learning behaviours was vital for their success. All of them agreed on the same point – that by the end of Y13, when the pressure of exams is really on … they can see that Attitude to Learning is the most important part of their preparation, and the A2L descriptors tell the students exactly what they need to do to succeed. They all said however, that they wish they had really read the A2L descriptors properly early in Y12 and started working that way much sooner! It was only at the end of Y13, looking back, they realised that these descriptors were describing what a successful A-Level student looks like!

This applies to all students in all years – attitude to learning is the key to success. Please do take the time to read the A2L descriptors and watch the A2L videos on the website and as always, if you have any questions, please do get in touch.