ASPIRE – Learning for Life @ RPS

At Roundwood Park our learning, which is at the heart of all we do, recognises the need to equip our young people for life, to be flexible, adaptable, resilient and to relish a challenge. We call this ASPIRE: Learning for LIFE @ RPS.

ASPIRE is a clear framework of learning habits for all members of the Roundwood Park community; students, staff and families, as life-long learners, to develop and inculcate whilst at school and beyond.

As educators we believe in a love of learning in all its forms and appreciate its importance to human achievement. As professionals we appreciate that our students will enter a rapidly changing world. A global economy where the jobs and technology will continue to move at such a pace that all young people will need to be equipped to embrace the change and innovation, which they will undoubtedly face.

Students who make learning their priority and apply themselves well at Roundwood Park already leave our school with outstanding qualifications, regardless of their starting points. We believe however that these qualifications are only the ‘keys to the doors’ of each students chosen destination. Although very important their chances of future success in their chosen field is unlikely to be influenced by these high quality credentials, but far more so by the learning habits they have formed, which equips them to work independently, collaborate in teams, be highly reflective and to lead.

When the voices of our community came together in groups as parents, as governors, many of whom are employers, as students, as support and teaching staff, we gathered responses and distilled our ideas through two main questions:

What are the desired characteristics of the Roundwood Park Leaver?
What are the learning habits we will need to develop in our young people, primarily in their lessons, if they are to achieve those attributes?

The attributes summarised on our word-cloud, entitled “The Roundwood Park Leaver:”(found here) are those which our community felt were most important for our leavers to possess. All around the school you will see this word cloud as a reminder of what we are, of why we are here. We would hope students enter our school with some of these attributes starting to take shape already. But for all students to achieve all of these is the real challenge for us all, and one we believe everyone will ASPIRE to achieve.

We believe the “learning habits” (found here) will achieve this for your children. To be successful, to acquire and retain knowledge, to be skilful in what we do, all of us, adult or teenager, need to be in the habit of:

Learning to understand:

To recognise how we learn, where we are strong and where we need to address our weaknesses.

Individuality:

To learn how to learn independently, as well as with the teacher and with others.

Focusing:

We need to focus, to enjoy learning, approaching it enthusiastically and with a smile and to have the self-discipline to avoid the many distractions modern life can bring in order to meet deadlines.

Evolving with others:

To establish strong friendships and working relationships based on trust and understanding.

*Please click on the ‘App-buttons’ to see the mini Powerpoint Presentations about each of the learning habits under these four areas and questions which naturally flow from them, for us all as learners.

All of this is about instilling a life-long love of learning so that by the time our students are ready to leave school and move on to the next challenges in their lives they are ready to take on more, adapt and grow as people, not to stand still, or worse go backwards, because learning has become a chore or even a fear.

Whilst your children are with us, it is our pledge to you that Roundwood Park will prepare your child for any challenges a changing world will provide and it is through these habits that we will succeed. Building on our present successes and good practice, we have only just begun using this framework as our way forward, but it builds on the bedrock of what has made us successful over the years.

If we are to serve our students well as a school, as parents, as a society, we need to create a framework for education which goes beyond the important qualifications they achieve and creates a generation who are ready to meet the challenge of this dynamic world.