BSN Joins High Performance Learning (HPL) Global Community of Schools

June 22nd 2023

We are delighted to announce that The British School in The Netherlands has decided to join the High Performance Learning (HPL) global community of schools in September 2023.

What is High Performance Learning?

High Performance Learning is a research-based philosophy that believes everyone is capable of being a high performer with the right mindset, skills, and behaviours. The philosophy that underpins HPL is relatively simple.

It is built on research findings from neuroscience and psychology that tell us that intelligence is not fixed and that we can, with the right deliberate practice, improve the brain's capacity for learning. For that reason, young people should never be limited by outdated ideas of genetic potential because almost everyone is capable of high performance.

High Performance Learning is not about changing the curriculum or the way that lessons are taught. Instead, it's about having the highest expectations of what students can achieve and making explicit those features of lessons that contribute to the development of the skills and behaviours that will support advanced cognitive performance in school and in later life.

Those skills and behaviours are categorised in two distinct strands:

· How to think: a set of Advanced Cognitive Performance Characteristics (ACPs), and 

· How to behave: this is through the development of values, attitudes and attributes that contribute to exceptional performance (and which, in our case, will be exemplified through the BSN Character Profile.)

What does this mean for our students and their learning?

The programme will help us to maximise learning for every child by:

•Setting consistently high expectations in every classroom

•Ensuring all teaching staff are highly skilled and qualified

•Setting challenging work but scaffolding learning so that it is accessible to all learners

•Developing students' understanding of how we learn and the behaviours for learning so that they can work harder, remember more and successfully complete independent tasks

•Ensuring the learning environment is calm and well-ordered so that it is conducive to learning

A Community Endeavour

Crucially, HPL involves building on existing good practice in a school (and the bullet points above are things which are already visible in a BSN classroom). However, we are confident that adopting HPL will further strengthen our teaching and learning, improve academic outcomes and, ultimately, better prepare our pupils for life.

Heath Monk, BSN CEO said,

"I am delighted that the BSN will begin its High Performance Learning journey from September. The success of HPL relies on the entire community, including students, staff and families.

I look forward to building on our existing best practice to further strengthen our teaching and learning, improve academic outcomes and, ultimately, better prepare our pupils for life.

What's next?

HPL will be formally launched at a training day for our staff on Wednesday 30 August, with a visit by Professor Deborah Eyre, who has researched this field for more than 25 years.

Further details, as well as optional information sessions for those parents who want to find out more, will be available from September.