Blog: Learning to Learn; a pupil’s perspective

In her last blog, Learning Skills Coordinator, Mrs Hartley, introduced the key aspects of Learning to Learn and talked about the aims of the programme.

This time, Mrs Hartley speaks to two pupils in Removes, the first year group to benefit from timetabled Learning to Learn lessons and asked Lucy and Leila to tell us about the practical skills they are learning and the positive impact the programme has had on their learning.

Mrs Hartley: Tell me about your Learning to Learn sessions and what you have learned.

Leila: One of the main things we have learned is how to organise ourselves and our time. The Learning to Learn sessions help us work out how to fit everything in. For example, if we have a lot of tests to revise for, or more than one piece of homework to be handed in at the same time, we can manage it without getting stressed.

Lucy: There’s always lots of discussion in the lessons and it’s helped me realise that not everyone does things in the same way as me. It’s been useful to hear how other people in my class organise their work because I can learn from that. We learn from each other.

Mrs Hartley: Would you say that you know how to manage your time now?

Lucy: We were given desk planners at the beginning of the year. When I have a lot to do at the same time, I use the planner to organise my time. Once I’ve planned it in my planner, I don’t have to think about it anymore.

Mrs Hartley: What have you learned about the best way to revise?

Lucy: That it’s best to revise little and often, rather than trying to learn everything in one go. By repeating, you make the connections in your brain stronger.

Leila: Yes, for things like end of unit tests, there’s always a lot to learn and without the Learning to Learn lessons, I don’t think I’d know where to start.

Mrs Hartley: So, if you had a test next week, how would revise for it?

Lucy: I like using Cornell Notes, especially if it’s a test with a lot of information to learn like Biology or Chemistry. They really help me.

Leila: I like to make Quizlets, and I really enjoy Blooket, which is an online quiz that gives you lots of different ways of learning the same information. It helps it to sink in.

Leila and Lucy have perfectly illustrated how what we teach in our Learning to Learn sessions has a real impact on pupils’ learning. 

When they use tools like online quizzing, they are doing retrieval practice and strengthening their neural pathways so that they retain information more easily. It is vital that they do this as well as spacing their learning, so they are able to hack the way their brains work.

In little more than one term, Lucy, Leila and their classmates are really thinking about how they learn as individuals. We have given them the tools and they are using them to lay a solid foundation for their future learning.