Learning at Preston Lodge

What is education for? Most of us would agree that it’s about preparing students for life and work. Giving those students the qualifications they need to get a “good” job. Many of us would also agree that it’s also about socialisation and developing a shared sense of values. Curriculum for Excellence focuses on skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work

Developing the Young Workforce (DYW), is a programme that aims to better prepare children and young people aged 3–18 for the world of work, which is now having an impact on the daily curriculum of our schools. Formal qualifications and certificates are, and will remain, an important function of education. However, ensuring that students are supported and encouraged to develop and demonstrate “soft skills”, is also high on the agenda!

Google has reinforced the importance of these soft skills in the eyes of employers:

“In 2013, Google decided to test its hiring hypothesis by crunching every bit and byte of hiring, firing, and promotion data accumulated since the company’s incorporation in 1998. Project Oxygen shocked everyone by concluding that, the seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas.”

(From “The surprising thing Google learned about its employees and what it means for today’s students” by Cathy N Davidson)

So how do we nurture and develop these skills in PL’s young people? How do we support them in gaining not only the qualifications that will open the door to their future, but the essential attributes and capacities that employers are looking for?

There is no single answer to this but at Preston Lodge, we believe our approach to Learning and Teaching is a key factor (https://www.edubuzz.org/pllearning/our-learning-teaching-model/).

 Before planning the learning activities, staff collaborate on the learning purpose and the evidence required for a piece of learning.

 We are increasingly using an Accelerated Learning Cycle approach to planning our lessons.

 We also develop key learning, thinking and studying skills in S1-3, and support students to access the planned learning activities.

 The 6Rs form the basis of our classroom agreement and set out the expectations we have of all staff, students and partners in our community.

 Mindset is at the heart of everything we do, striving to develop and display a growth mindset, in and out of class.

 Our school is developing a Culture of Thinking in which thinking is valued, actively developed and recognised.

We have come a long way in adapting, improving and evolving our curriculum in order to meet the needs of our young people. The nature of preparing young people for a future in flux is such that this process of modification and improvement will, and should, never stop