Growth Mindset at Waltham St Lawrence Primary School
We know that children who have a positive attitude towards their learning will make good progress and be successful. Consequently, instilling all our children with ‘Growth Mindset’ has become a key priority for the school over the last few years.
At Waltham St Lawrence School, we want all our children to relish challenges, embrace their mistakes as part of the learning process, value the importance of effort, respond carefully to feedback and take inspiration from others. This will help them to achieve, not only with us, but also in their future lives as adults.
We are very proud of nurturing a Growth Mindset culture at WSL. We consistently endeavour to challenge and develop the attitudes of all children and staff towards learning by considering what makes a successful learner. This has helped both staff and children consider learning in a different way. The children understand that in order to learn they must be brave and make mistakes, and this allows them to tackle challenges they wouldn’t have attempted before. We always guide and encourage our pupils on how they can positively approach challenges inside and outside the classroom. The school is buzzing with talk of perseverance, challenge, risks and celebrating mistakes.
What matters most, in terms of motivation, is whether we see ability as ‘Fixed’ (an entity learner) or ‘Growth’ (an incremental learner). Those with a ‘Fixed’ Mindset will only tackle tasks which they know, in advance, they will succeed at. Those with a ‘Growth’ Mindset will not only willingly tackle difficult tasks, but will actively thrive on them.
The characteristics of learners with a Fixed and a Growth Mindset as identified by psychologist Carol Dweck:
Encouraging Children to Become Confident and Resilient Learners
We truly believe a Fixed Mindset is a huge barrier to learning. A mindset can be changed whatever the age of a person, but the younger the child is when a Growth Mindset is fostered, the better the child’s chance of success now and in later life.
We know that in order to fulfil the potential of our children and encourage them to become confident and resilient learners we, as a team of parents and staff, need to be modelling the mindset of a learner who is not afraid of making mistakes but who thrives upon them, knowing that this is all part of the learning process. The way in which we encourage children to learn and explore is vital to their success, not only at school but at home as well.
At Waltham St Lawrence School, we have been promoting and establishing a learning culture and key aspects of Growth Mindset:
- Teachers have high expectations and believe that ALL children can succeed;
- Children have self-belief and know how to learn;
- There is discussion about what excellence looks like;
- There is effective questioning;
- There are talk partners and classroom discussions;
- There is effective self, peer and teacher feedback;
- We celebrate making mistakes – we can learn from them;
- We never give up – perseverance is the key if we are to succeed;
- We learn from each other;
- We don’t compare ourselves with others;
- We challenge ourselves and take risks;
- We remember that our brains are making new connections and growing all the time.
Our aim is to develop a Growth Mindset for all our children, for ourselves and for all adults involved in working with children at WSL.