Powering Up Your School: The Learning Power Approach to school leadership (The Learning Power series)
About this ebook
The LPA is a way of teaching which aims to develop all students as confident and capable learners ready, willing, and able to choose, design, research, pursue, troubleshoot, and evaluate learning for themselves, alone and with others, in school and out.
This approach also affords a clear view of valued, sought-after outcomes of education - such as the development of character strengths and the pursuit of academic success - and Powering Up Your School sets out a detailed explanation of how these can be accomplished.
It distils into a series of illuminating case studies the lessons learned by a wide range of pioneering school principals who have successfully undertaken the LPA journey, and presents a variety of practical strategies which will enable school leaders to make a positive impact on the lives of both their staff and their students.
These strategies are complemented by a wealth of insights into how school leaders can go about gaining clarity on their vision, achieve buy-in from staff, and foster a collaborative effort towards delivering good outcomes. Together the authors share their tips on how to adapt and refine school structures and teaching practices on a school-wide level, and on how to stimulate and celebrate student progress.
They also provide specific ideas for charting and reflecting on the journey towards building a learning-powered culture, framed in an appendix in the form of a detailed self-assessment grid.
Suitable for school leaders in both primary and high school settings.
Powering Up Your School is the fourth instalment in the Learning Power series.
About the author
Jann Robinson has been in post as principal of St Luke's Grammar School in New South Wales, Australia, since 2005. Jann holds a masters in educational leadership, is a member of the Australian College of Educational Leaders (ACEL) and the Australian College of Educators (ACE), and is a strong advocate of developing resilience in young people so that they can meet the challenges of a rapidly changing world.
Graham has over 40 years' experience working in education - holding various posts including head teacher, Ofsted inspector and local authority adviser - and has throughout his career maintained a passionate concern for the ways in which young people learn. He currently works with numerous schools, across the UK and overseas, that have chosen to place the Learning Power Approach - which he developed alongside Professor Guy Claxton - at the heart of their vision for 21st century learning.
Rachel Macfarlane is the Director of Education Services at Herts for Learning and has previously served as head teacher at three contrasting schools over a sixteen-year period. Between 2009 and 2018 Rachel was project director of the London Leadership Strategy's Going for Great (G4G) programme, which involved working with leaders of outstanding schools to share good practice and produce case studies for dissemination to London schools.
Gemma Goldenberg is a former assistant head teacher who led on curriculum design and professional development at Sandringham Primary School in Newham, East London. She is currently studying for a PhD, investigating the influence of the environment on how children learn, play and interact.
Robert Cleary has been the head teacher of Sandringham Primary School for nine years. Robert strives to ensure that school improvement work is underpinned by educational research, and in recent years he has built partnerships with organisations such as Whole Education, National Literacy Trust, London Teachers' Reading Group, and Maths No Problem. This approach has helped develop pedagogical understanding and create a professional and shared language about how children learn.
Guy Claxton is Emeritus Professor at Winchester University and Visiting Professor of Education at King's College London. He has previously taught and researched at Oxford University, Bristol University, and the University of London Institute of Education, and is an internationally renowned cognitive scientist. Guy's books include Hare Brain, Tortoise Mind; Wise Up: The Challenge of Lifelong Learning; The Wayward Mind; and Intelligence in the Flesh. Recent books on education include What's the Point of School?; Building Learning Power; and, with Bill Lucas and others, New Kinds of Smart; The Learning Powered School; and Educating Ruby. Guy's Building Learning Power approach to teaching is widely used in all kinds of schools across the UK, as well as in Poland, Dubai, Indonesia, India, China, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, and Argentina.
