Learning without limits

‘Success through Challenge’ how we learn at Cranmore

Here at Cranmore we take an innovative and powerful route to successful learning. All children here are self-motivated and strive upon previous best, we focus on the ‘can do’ attitude and this reflects in our end of year outcomes.

We believe that every child should be given the right to succeed, and that every child should have the opportunity to do better than they thought they could. Our positive and open ended way to learning is based on our ‘success through challenge’ learning ethos.

Every child is given the opportunity to choose a learning challenge that best suits their needs or reflects how confident they feel about the learning objective that is being taught. A child can choose their own challenge based on confidence and previous experience, they can use this as a guide to help push themselves forward to achieve higher. Therefore, building upon a child’s self-esteem and independence.

As we all know that every child is unique and different to the next. Our learning ethos supports this uniqueness by putting the child at the fore front of their learning. Teaching at Cranmore is not based on grouping by ability, it is in favour of children being taught to reflect on their own abilities and choose the challenge of work that they think is correct for them. If a child is feeling confident about an objective then they are encouraged to push and challenge themselves forward in their learning.

This approach has helped children to become honest about their learning and has helped them to hold important discussions with their teachers about the support they need.

The children absolutely love the approach and have made wonderful comments about their learning such as:

“At Cranmore we challenge ourselves every day.”

“Sometimes a challenge is a little bit hard but we have to focus and concentrate. We never give up!”

“It is the right challenge for you if it is a little bit tricky. We don’t learn if it is too easy.”

At Cranmore we believe we have a school of children who are learning that their learning is limitless and who often surprise themselves – and us – at how much they can achieve when they believe they can be successful!

We have shared our best practice with other Primary, Infant and Junior schools in the local borough. Staff that have attended our school training made the following comments about the way we learn and succeed:

“A different approach to learning which focuses on empowering children and aiding independent thinking and working routines.”

“How a new approach to teaching and learning can have such an impact on learners. Useful to listen to and see the ways in which children make their own choices and are motivated and empowered by it.”

“It was inspiring-just made me think about my own practise-fresh look at things!”