As an accredited World Class High Performance Learning School we develop an evidence-based set of HPL skills and attitudes.
In 2022, our accreditation as a World Class HPL School was renewed following a formal inspection
HPL, or High Performance Learning, is a framework of teaching developed from research into how young people learn. It reflects what is known about advanced thinking skills and learning behaviours that help us to build 'better brains'.
The founder of HPL, Professor Deborah Eyre, has created a structure for learning excellence that works across different nationalities, cultures and jurisdictions, so it can be shared by schools across the globe.
Room at the top for more
Neuroscience research has shown that there is not a fixed level of ability amongst young learners, and that the brain is more malleable than once thought. HPL provides a style of learning that removes barriers to achievement, by giving children an opportunity to develop intelligence in their own time. This reflects our long-held belief that there is 'room at the top' for more students than traditional approaches suggest.
Nurturing skills and attitudes
We have always strived to develop intellectual and social confidence, encouraging students to show concern for others and to prepare for life's challenges. Success is not limited to exam results, it is about achieving academic excellence alongside a wider set of values and attitudes that sit at the heart of our ethos as a Mary Ward School.
HPL identifies characteristics and attributes that prepare young people to succeed in learning and in life, and categorises these into Advanced Cognitive Performance characteristics (ACPs) and Values, Attitudes, Attributes (VAAs).
Advanced Cognitive Performance characteristics (ACPs)
Metacognition
Reflecting on their own thinking, knowingly using a wide range of thinking approaches, and transferring knowledge from one circumstance to another.
Self-regulation
The ability to monitor, evaluate and self-correct.
Big picture thinking
Working with big ideas and holistic concepts.
Analysis
Critical or logical thinking; the ability to deduct, hypothesise and reason.
Complex and multi-step problem solving
The ability to break down a task, decide on a suitable approach and then act.
Intellectual playfulness
Recognising rules and being able to bend them.
Values, Attitudes and Attributes (VAAs)
Collaborative
Seeking out opportunities to receive responses to work, to present their own ideas to others clearly and concisely and to listen to and act upon the views of others.
Resilience
Overcoming setbacks and remaining confident, focused, flexible and optimistic.
Perserverence
Being able to keep going, to face obstacles and difficulties but never give up.
Creative and enterprising
Being open-minded and flexible in thought processes; demonstrating a willingness to innovate and invent new and multiple solutions to a problem or situation; adapting approaches according to need and being resourceful.
Enquiring
Being curious, proactive and thinking independently.
More about HPL
Junior School - HPL characters
Accreditation as a World Class School
Dr Flint, becomes inaugural HPL Global Lead Teacher