Dean of Middle Years 

A strengths-based approach to academic growth 

During this week’s Personal Best lessons, Year 8 and 9 students engaged with Dr Andrew Fuller’s work on Learning Strengths. Fuller’s research posits that there are eight brain information-processing systems that, when optimised, can lead to limitless learning growth for students. All students have all eight strengths to varying degrees, their strengths are not static, and they can be developed through deliberate practice. 

The eight learning strengths are (perhaps think about your own child – what are her top strengths? What does she think hers are?): 

1. Spatial reasoning (thinks well in images, shapes, diagrams; can visualise relationships rather than just words) 
2. Language and word smarts (strong with words, language, explanation, critical thinking and communication) 
3. People smarts (good interpersonal/emotional skills, able to communicate, collaborate, read others, regulate emotions) 
4. Thinking and logic (enjoys reasoning, problem-solving, evaluation, similarities & differences — turning information into knowledge) 
5. Number smarts (comfortable with numbers, patterns, flow-charts, blocks and concrete quantifiable thinking) 
6. Perceptual and motor skills (learns through doing, integrating senses, movement, coordination) 
7. Concentration and memory (able to focus, notice fine distinctions, detect patterns, recall information) 

8. Planning and sequencing (good at organising, planning, weighing alternatives, decision making) 

    

Whilst students grasp the content and skills that are needed in individual subjects, it is typical for middle years students to often underestimate how universal so many of their learning strengths can be. For many students, they rarely even think about what they are good at beyond subject names (e.g. “I’m good at science, but I’m no good at English”). When deliberately harnessed, students can draw on their strengths to learn anything; they will find their study to be more purposeful, effective and gratifying. Our first step is to support students with understanding their strengths, and this will then help them to implement high impact learning techniques. An example of a high-impact learning technique is below: 

Want to help your child improve their concentration and memory? Encourage them to Brain Dump – a deliberately sequenced 15-minute study technique. 

1. Write everything (in blue) you know about a topic you are studying on the page (7 mins) 
2. Review by adding ❔and ✅ next to your ideas, showing what you are confident/not confident about (1 min) 

3. Use your notes / Class Page to add (in red) anything you missed or misunderstood 

    

Year 8s will be explicitly taught how to do this during their Personal Best lesson next week (Week 4). 

At home, it is important to support your child to make good study choices, but you are not their tutor. You can assist them by: 

• Prompting them to make use of techniques like Brain Dumps 
• Create an environment of timed focus 

• Challenge the idea that “I didn’t get any homework for that subject” – a Brain Dump is always a great use of 15 minutes of study time 

   

We look forward to continuing to explore the learning strengths that make our students strong, aspiring learners, and welcome any thoughts, feedback or observations you make about the strengths in your own child. Perhaps you could even work out your own strengths here! 

Yours in learning, 

Sam Yeats 

Dean of Middle Years