What is Purple Zone?  

Purple Zone is a Teaching, Learning and Assessment initiative used to encourage independent thinking and access the metacognitive processes without the assistance of adults. It is designed to help learners BELIEVE in their own ability to solve problems independently, so they feel equipped to ACHIEVE excellent outcomes, and SUCCEED in life beyond school.   

 Purple Zone provides opportunities for learners to work on difficult concepts, independently from the teacher, to prepare them for success in linear examinations.  We also believe that the ability to work successfully in this way, with resilience, is a core skill in undergraduate and postgraduate study as well as a gift that will stay with a young person as they move forward into adulthood. ​   

​​​ Why do we use Purple Zone? 

 Through a consistent implementation of Purple Zone, we help our learners to:  

• ​​​   Build resilience through independent study​   

• Prepare for linear examinations through silent, sustained application of learning​   

• Demonstrate individual progress​   

• Maximise behaviour for learning ​through active listening  

• Question their own misconceptions  

• Take responsibility for consolidating and extending their learning  

How do we deliver Purple Zone in a classroom?  

When we set a Purple Zone task, we have a procedure in place to help them succeed in their task. This procedure is as follows:  

1. We establish active listening, so all students are focused on the task.  

2. We explain the task and set the success criteria.  

3. We remind them that once Purple Zone starts, students will not be able to ask questions. 

4. We then ask students to re-explain the task to us and ask any clarification questions.  

5. Once we are ready, a timer is set and students work through their Purple Zone independently and in silence (unless it is a practical subject, in which case the work is not always silent).  

What happens when a student is struggling with Purple Zone?  

There is deliberately no communication between the teacher and the learners during Purple Zone but this does not mean that we leave students to fail.  

In the pre-Purple Zone interaction, students should take responsibility to ask any questions they have so they are ready to start when the timer is set. This should be sufficient to assist a struggling student but if more help is needed, scaffolds are set to help students get started (except for the Purple Zone Assessments which are designed to review learning under exam conditions).  

While students complete Purple Zone, a teacher circulates the room and monitors progress. If a student is not completing the task despite the measures put in place, they need to analyse why they are finding completing the task beyond their capability. If this happened, a student would receive a flowchart directing them to self-reflection.