The core elements of the WLA are those elements that have been proven by over fifteen years of active research to be critical to the integrity and success of the approach; this is why they are considered 'non-negotiable'. Each school and teaching team will have their own culture, personalities, strengths and challenges. However, while these differences will remain between schools, any school that is implementing the WLA should have the core elements in place.

The key components for the successful implementation of WLA are:

• Creating an empowering and student-focussed learning environment
• At least 8-10 learning centres with intentional provocations
• Student-teacher-parent communication boards
• Investigations 4 mornings a week
• 3 focus students each day
• Reporter
• Photographer
• Formal instruction teaching sessions
• Intentional and responsive teaching
• 70% of formal teaching introduced by a relevant activity from Investigations
• Planning, documentation and reporting documents