Excellent Learner Behaviours
At Churchfields we recognise that children start school with widely varying skills as learners. Some
children start with many of the attributes of excellent learners , but for many these will need to be
taught, encouraged and learnt. There is a wealth of evidence suggesting that children’s capacity for
learning is not fixed, for example Carol Dweck’s work on “Growth Mindsets.”
At Churchfields we actively teach all our children how to be excellent learners. We have identified
10 behaviours that are typical of excellent learners.
Excellent Learners:
1 Don’t stay stuck
2 Listen well
3 Ask questions
4 Don’t give up
5 Can learn by themselves
6 Like a challenge
7 Can learn with others
8 Are not scared to make mistakes
9 Make Links
10 Use their environment
There is an Excellent Learners poster in every classroom and all teachers make sure that when
children are using Excellent Learner Behaviours their name is displayed on the poster on a post it
note so that other children understand that these behaviours will also help them to be excellent
learners. Teachers also build these behaviours into the objectives for their lessons and use them to
set personal targets for individual children. We also use them to structure mainstream integration
for pupils from our Additionally Resourced classes during specialist teaching sessions.
