Most schools sort learners early. A few are identified as high achievers, the rest are taught to a reasonable standard, and expectations settle accordingly.
What is High Performance Learning in education is the framework that rejects that assumption entirely.
What is High Performance Learning? The Idea Behind It
The framework was developed by Professor Deborah Eyre, drawing on evidence from neuroscience and psychology.
Its central claim is that advanced cognitive performance is not a fixed trait held by a minority, but a set of thinking skills and behaviours that can be taught deliberately to every learner.
The phrase used across HPL schools is high performance “for the many, not the few”.
The Two Building Blocks
Answering what is High Performance Learning in practice means understanding two named components. They are the difference between a slogan and a method.
ACPs: How Learners Think
Advanced Cognitive Performance characteristics are the thinking skills that distinguish strong learners.
They include meta-thinking, linking ideas across subjects, intellectual confidence, creative and critical thinking, and precision in analysis.
VAAs: How Learners Behave
Values, Attitudes and Attributes are the behaviours that make those thinking skills usable.
They include hard work, resilience, adaptability, empathy and collaboration. HPL defines what each looks like in a classroom, which makes character development measurable rather than aspirational.
What Changes in a Child’s Day
This is the part parents care about most, and it is rarely explained.
Learning Becomes the Task, Not the Answer
In a problem-solving week, learners tackle a real-world challenge across several days. Resilience and adaptability are not encouraged in passing; they are written into the learning objectives.
Every Learner Is Included
A learner podcast is a common example: learners research a topic they care about, write a script, and present to peers and teachers.
It is not reserved for confident speakers. Every learner develops research, structuring and communication skills through the same task. Schools that have embedded High Performance Learning (HPL) use activities of this kind throughout the year rather than as one-off events.
Teachers Use a Shared Language
When ACPs and VAAs are named consistently from Early Years to Year 13, learners can identify which skill they are building and why. That shared vocabulary is what turns a framework into daily practice.
Using HPL Is Not the Same as Being Awarded It
This distinction matters when comparing schools.
Any school can adopt HPL principles and begin the journey. The High Performing School Award is a separate achievement.
It follows a six-term programme of whole-school professional development, with defined stages a school must pass before assessment. The award confirms the framework is embedded in teaching, planning and culture, not simply announced.
So when a school mentions HPL, the useful question is whether it is working towards the award or already holds it. A school’s Why Us page will usually make that clear.
Does High Performance Learning Affect Results?
HPL is not an examination strategy and does not replace curriculum content.
What it changes is how learners approach unfamiliar problems, which tends to show in the gap between predicted and actual attainment rather than in a headline grade.
It is applied in schools across several continents, which is worth knowing when judging whether a framework is locally invented or internationally recognised.
Seeing It in Practice
What is High Performance Learning on a website looks much the same everywhere, which makes it difficult to evaluate from a distance.
The reliable test is observation. On a campus visit, ask learners what ACPs and VAAs mean to them.
If they can answer in their own words, the framework is embedded. If only staff can explain it, it is not. That single question, asked during a scheduled Book a Tour , tells you more than any brochure.
In Short
What is High Performance Learning? A research-based framework that teaches thinking skills and learning behaviours explicitly, on the premise that high performance can be developed rather than merely identified.
Its value depends entirely on how deeply a school has embedded it, which is why the award, and the classroom, matter more than the label.
