Re-imagining childhood and enabling children to be resilient agents of their own learning

In 2014 we contrived some elegant re-imaginings of childhood under the guidance of Carla Rinaldi and Jan Millikan together with our own impressions from visiting Reggio Emilia. In 2015 we are moved to catapult these learnings into action

Some people may recall that Holy Family used ELLI (Effective Life-Long Learning Inventory) developed at Bristol University to provide learners with a language to describe their own learning. One of developers of this framework Ruth Deakin-Crick, now based at the University of Technology Sydney, has developed a contemporary version called CLARA which reports on learning powers of Optimism and Hope, Mindful Agency,Sense Making, Creativity, Curiosity, Collaboration and Belonging. Holy Family is now deploying this new framework to empower learners to measure their own learning.

Concurrently, we are working with Ruth, the team from UTS and the staff of Holy Family to investigate how we might engender amongst our learners the following qualities: Mindful, Creative, Curious, Sense of Belonging, Sense of Identity and Purpose, Collaborators, Sense-makers, Hopeful and Optimistic, Open and Ready to Learn, Knowledge Creators, Justice Seekers.

These are the qualities which enable children to be RESILIENT AGENTS OF THEIR OWN LEARNING. We believe that this change can be achieved using five key DRIVERS:

  • Negotiating learning with students
  • Students constructing new authentic knowledge
  • Teachers engaging in professional enquiry
  • Engaging parents and carers in learning
  • Leaders designing of change

An exciting innovation in 2015 is a series of Enquiry Days conducted in three vertically grouped Houses of Learning on consecutive days each week

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