Amanda Hubball, Deputy Head and More Able Lead at Alfreton Nursery School, explores the power of metacognition in empowering young people to overcome potential barriers to achievement.  

Disadvantage presents itself in different ways and has varying levels of impact on learners. It is important to remember that disadvantage is wider than children who are in receipt of pupil premium or children who have a special educational need. Disadvantage can be based around family circumstances, for example bereavement, divorce, mental health… Disadvantages can be long-term or short-term and the fluidity of disadvantage needs to be acknowledged in order for educators to remain effective and vigilant for all children, including more able learners. If we accept that disadvantage can impact any child at any time, then it is essential that we provide all children with the tools they need to navigate challenge.    

More able learners are as vulnerable to the impact of disadvantage as other learners and indeed research would suggest that outcomes for more able learners are more dramatically impacted by disadvantage than outcomes for other children. A cognitive toolbox that is familiar, understood and accessible at all times, can be a highly effective support for learners when there are barriers to progress. By ensuring that all learners are taught metacognition from the beginning of their educational journey and year on year new metacognition skills are integrated, a child is empowered to maintain a trajectory for success.       

How can metacognition reduce barriers to learning?         

Metacognition supports children to consciously access and manipulate thinking strategies, thus enabling them to solve problems. It can allow them to remain cognitively engaged for longer, becoming emotionally dysregulated less frequently. A common language around metacognition enables learners to share strategies and access a clear point of reference, in times of vulnerability. Some more able learners can find it hard to manage emotions related to underachievement. Metacognition can help children to address both these emotional and cognitive demands.

In order for children to impact their long-term memory and fully embed metacognitive strategies, educators need to teach in many different ways. Metacognition needs to be visually reflected in the learner’s environment, supporting teachers to teach and learners to learn.   

How do we do this at Alfreton Nursery School?

At Alfreton Nursery School we ensure that discourse is littered with practical examples of how conscious thinking can result in deeper understanding. Spontaneous conversations are supported by visual aids around the classroom, enabling teachers and learners to plan and reflect on thinking strategies. Children are empowered to integrate the language of metacognition as they explain their learning and strive for greater understanding.

Adults in school use metacognitive terms when talking freely to each other, exposing children to their natural use. Missed opportunities are openly shared within the teaching team, supporting future developments.

Within enrichment groups, metacognition is a transparent process of learning. Children are given metacognitive strategies at the beginning of enhancement opportunities and encouraged to reflect and evaluate at the end. Whether working indoors or outdoors, with manipulatives or abstract concepts and individually or in a group, metacognition is a vehicle through which all learners can access lesson content.

We use the ‘Thinking Moves’ metacognition framework (you can read more about this here). Creative application of this framework supports the combination of metacognition words, to make strings of thinking strategies. For example, a puppet called FRED helps children to Formulate, Respond, Explain and Divide their learning experiences. A QUEST model helps children to follow a process of Questioning, Using, Explaining, Sizing and Testing.

Metacognition supports children of all abilities, ages and backgrounds, to overcome barriers to learning. Disadvantage is thus reduced.

Moving from intent to implementation

Systems and procedures at Alfreton Nursery School serve to scaffold day to day practice and provide a backdrop of expectations and standards. In order to best serve more able children who are experiencing disadvantage, these frameworks need to be explicit in their inclusivity and flexibility. Just as every policy, plan, assessment, etc will address the needs of all learners – including those who are more able – so all these documents explicitly address how metacognition will support all learners. To ensure that visions move beyond ‘intent’ and are fully implemented, systems need to guide provision through a metacognitive lens.  

Metacognition is woven into all curriculum documents. A systematic and dynamic monitoring system, which tracks the progress and attainment of all learners, ensures that children have equal focus on cognition and emotion, breaking down barriers with conscious intent.

 

At Alfreton Nursery School, those children who are more able and experiencing disadvantage receive a carefully constructed meta-curriculum which scaffolds their journey towards success, in whatever context that may manifest itself. Children learn within an environment where teachers can articulate, demonstrate and inculcate the power of metacognition, enabling children to be the best that they can be.

How is your school empowering and supporting young people to break down potential barriers to learning and achievement? Read more about NACE’s research focus for this academic year, and contact us to share your experiences.

NACE Associate Amanda Hubball, Deputy Head and More Able Lead at Challenge Award-accredited Alfreton Nursery School, shares five key approaches to embed metacognition in the early years. 

At Alfreton Nursery School metacognition has been systematically embedded across the whole curriculum for the last three years. Through the use of an approach constructed by Roger Sutcliffe (DialogueWorks) called Thinking Moves, we’ve successfully implemented an innovative approach to learning.

When we talk about the progression of mathematical understanding we have a shared language. We all understand what it means to engage in addition and subtraction. Phonics, science . . . all areas of learning have a common linguistic foundation.

However, when it comes to the skills of thinking and learning, there is no common language and the concepts are shrouded in misconception. Do children learn visually, kinaesthetically . . . ? Are there different levels to learning? Based on the belief that we are all thinking and learning all of the time, Thinking Moves has been implemented at Alfreton Nursery School. Thinking Moves provides the language to explain the process of thinking and has thus provided a common framework on which to master learning.  

1. Develop and model a shared vocabulary

A shared vocabulary, used by all staff and children, has provided the adults with a tool to explain teaching, and the children with a tool to aid learning.  Crucially, the commonality in language means that learning is transparent. For example, when children explain what comes next in a story, they are using the A in the A-Z: thinking Ahead. During the story recall children are using B: thinking Back. The A-Z of Thinking Moves supports children to consciously choose and communicate the thinking strategies they intend to use, are using, or have used to achieve success.  

Teaching staff build on the more commonly used Thinking Moves words, whilst subtly introducing less familiar terms. The use of synonyms within conversation, to accompany the language of Thinking Moves, supports both adults and children to use the words in context.     

“I’m going to think ahead, cos I need to choose the bricks I need to build my rocket.”

2. Embed metacognitive concepts in the learning environment

The learning environment critically supports the children’s use of metacognition. With each word comes a symbol. These symbols are used to visually illustrate Thinking Moves. Children use these symbols to explain what type of thinking they are engaged in and what they need to do next. 
The integration of the symbols into the classroom environment has ensured that there is conscious intent to implement metacognition within all areas of the curriculum. Teachers use the symbols as prompts. Children use the symbols to help them articulate their thinking and as an aid to knowing what strategies will help them further. 

Through immersing children in the visual world of metacognition, all children – regardless of age and stage of development – are supported in their learning.

3. Break it down into manageable chunks

The A-Z includes some words which slide easily into conversation. Other words are less easily integrated into everyday speech. In order to ensure that a variation of language is incorporated throughout the curriculum, specific areas of the curriculum have dedicated Thinking Moves words. For example, Expressive Art and Design have embraced the metacognitive moves of Vary, Zoom and Picture. This ‘step by step’ strategy gives teaching staff the confidence to learn and use the A-Z in small chunks.  

Over time, as confidence grows, the use of metacognitive language becomes a natural part of daily discourse. Whether in the staffroom over lunch, planning the timetable or sharing a jigsaw, metacognition has become a part of daily life.

4. Use to support targeted teaching across the curriculum

Metacognition is embedded throughout continuous provision and is accessed by all children through personalised interactions. Enhancements are offered across the curriculum and metacognition forms a vehicle on which targeted teaching is delivered. For example, by combining thinking moves together, we have created thinking grooves. By using certain moves together, the flow of thinking is explicit. 

Within our maths enhancements we use the maths QUEST approach. A session begins with a Question, e.g. “How many will we have if we add one more to this group?” Children Use their mathematical understanding and Explain what they will need to do to solve the problem. The answer is Sized, “Are there more or less now?”, and then this is Tested to establish the consistency of the answer. Maths QUESTs now underpin our mathematical enhancements, allowing children to consciously use maths and metacognition simultaneously.  

5. Embed within progression planning

When looking at the curriculum and skill progression across the school, it has been helpful to consider which Thinking Moves explicitly support advancement. For children to progress in their acquisition of new concepts, they need to know clearly how to access their learning. Within our planning and assessment systems, areas of metacognitive focus have been identified.  

For example, within literacy we have raised our focus on the Thinking Move Infer. For children to gather information from a story is a key skill for future progression. Within science we emphasise the need to Test and within music we support children to Respond. Progression planning now has a clear focus on cognitive challenge, as well as subject knowledge.

Embedding metacognition in the early years supports children to master their own cognition and gives them a voice for life.  

Further reading:

• How to model metacognitive skills in your classroom
• Metacognition for higher-attaining learners: “the debrief”
• How can a focus on metacognition lead to more effective assessment?
  

Plus:

• Explore NACE’s early years resources

Dr Keith Watson, NACE Associate

I recently provided guidance to a NACE member school about provision for a very able child in the early years. This conversation confirmed in my thinking the importance of an individual education plan (IEP) for more able learners, just as we would create for SEN children.

At my previous school for many years the teachers wrote half-termly plans for all more able pupils, but this became too time-consuming and didn’t fit well with workload. However, we decided it did make sense to retain the plans for exceptionally able learners. So why was this, and what should be considered when using IEPs for exceptionally able learners? Here are some points to consider:

Look beyond labels: focus on the individual

If we think of exceptionally able students as those attaining significantly above their peers and being perhaps in the top 3-5% nationally then it provides a starting point. We need to be mindful of early labelling, of course, and indeed any form of labelling. We are dealing with an individual here. The point is we recognise extra provision, enrichment or approaches are needed. 

Establish key aims and priorities

Having what I call the “game plan” is crucial. A plan could not list all the activities and nor should it, but it needs to establish the aims of the next half term or so in a broad sense. Is it to develop paired work? Is it to develop resilience? Or is there a specific curriculum focus such as cross-curricular writing? It may be all of these things but what is the priority? Knowing the priority helps take a little pressure off the teacher who may feel they have to achieve “everything” with this “amazing” pupil. It also helps when talking to parents and carers about what is being worked on.

Consider social, emotional and learning mindset needs

In creating a plan, the social and emotional aspects must be considered. There is a danger of isolation in both learning and socialising for the exceptionally able pupil. How well do they work in a group? How do they relate to others? This could be a priority. 

Growth mindset can also be a consideration in writing an IEP. If the student is always succeeding, what happens when they fail? Do they go into their comfort zone and only attempt what is easily achievable? This led to a school with very high attainment giving their sixth form students problems that were unsolvable – not to trick them but to explore failure and the response to it. These wider learning elements and dispositions should be considered in IEPs for exceptionally able students.

Allow time and space for exploration

The IEP will also need to consider particular curriculum strengths. Where a learner’s knowledge is already significantly above their peers, thought needs to be given to how much the learning goes upwards or sideways. It is vital to ensure the student applies their learning. They need to create: books, blogs, vlogs, models and maps, and even a museum for the budding historians. This will need time and the IEP must reflect this. When do they get to take their passion and interest further? By the way, early years can teach everyone about that!

Takeaways…

So, what are my takeaways? Thinking through the game plan for the half-term helps everyone – including the student and parents/carers who should be involved – know where they are going. It gives purpose, intent and direction. The More Able Lead may also be involved as a mentor to help ensure the plan does not get lost in the busy life of a school. Most importantly, the IEP is a map of possibility and a source of celebration when progress is made. Who wouldn’t want that for their exceptionally able students? 

Member view

“I found Dr Watson to be extremely helpful around my concerns about an exceptionally able pupil who has just entered our Reception class. First and foremost, he allayed our concerns that we were providing a suitable curriculum for him by reminding us that more than anything it was important for the child to be happy, healthy and enjoying his learning. He encouraged us to consider following the child's individual interests and to create a flow of broad experiences to challenge and deepen learning. We also valued his suggestions to provide lots of creative experiences such as making books, maps and models. In terms of numeracy, the pupil is already confident is using numbers to 1,000 and Dr Watson suggested resources such as NRICH or Rising Stars Maths for More Able to provide sufficient challenge. The child has a reading age of 11 years and we were concerned about taking him on too quickly through reading schemes. Dr Watson helpfully suggested to consider using poetry or resources such as 'First News' to provide broader reading experiences.” - Paula Vaughan, Headteacher, Pendoylan Church in Wales Primary

Additional support

• Log in to the NACE members’ site and visit our leading on more able page for guidance on the use of individual education plans (IEPs) and an example IEP template to adapt for use in your school.
• For additional guidance on support for exceptionally able learners, and growth mindset, log in and visit the NACE Essentials page, where you can download our guides on these topics.
• For 1-2-1 support on a specific area of policy or practice for more able learners, book a free support call as part of our next “Ask NACE” day.