At the beginning of the year we shared our focus for the year on learning to learn. In our current “...complicated, fast changing world, the intelligent path is to let go of being a knower and embrace being a learner,” Guy Claxon. This quote sums up one aspect of what drives us to better prepare our learners for their rapidly changing world.

At Tauranga Girls’ College our aim is for all our learners to own their learning and understand how they can improve on their learning daily. We do this by focusing on high expectations teaching, building learning focused relationships, the process rather than the product of learning and allowing learners to lead their own learning.

Hearing from our learners

This week we have been checking in on learners in their classes. We have been asking them the following questions about their learning - “where are you at with your learning?”, “where are you going with your learning?”, “how are you going to get there?” and “how will you know you are there with your learning?” Asking these questions allows us to understand how we can have greater impact on valuable and positive learning in classes.

We’ve had wonderful conversations that help us as teachers understand how we can improve the learning experience of our learners. Here’s some of what they shared

“I’m learning an important life skill so I can make accurate judgments.”

“The class discussions are good when something is new because then it helps everyone understand.”

”It’s rewarding when you can do something you couldn’t do before.”

“We were talking about real life and real life examples about anything really helps me to understand.”

What we believe about our learners

We have also been talking with our learners about the shared set of beliefs we as staff have agreed on.

We believe all learners -

• have potential and can learn

• should experience whanaungatanga

• should have equitable opportunities

• can be agents of their own learning

• have the opportunity to understand and develop their own self worth.

Making these known to learners is important to us so look out for their visibility around our kura.

Your support of learning

As we focus on learning in our classrooms, we hope that you can have conversations about learning at home with your young person. Asking some of the questions above and talking about our beliefs could be great starting points for you.

Ngā mihi nui for your support as we all focus on learning.