Tomorrow we have Diana Pardoe joining us for the day. She will be visiting the children and adults in all of the classrooms to help us determine how far we have come in our ‘learning’ journey and where we need to go next. Even more exciting is the fact that she will be holding a parent’s session in the hall from 1:45, so we hope that as many parents will be able to come to that as possible!
Diana’s work underpins our whole Teaching for Learning Policy (now under the ‘Policies’ section of the website) and has been embedded across our school as evidenced by our Purple Learners, challenge zones, etc. Learning truly is at the heart of this school. You probably are thinking that ‘learning’ is a school’s job anyways, so what am I talking about? Well, we teach the children how to learn. We teach them to be more aware of their ‘blockers’ and ‘movers’ to learning and understanding the difference between challenge and work that is just too difficult. We discuss techniques to help us overcome challenges and talk about how to change a ‘fixed mindset’ to a ‘growth mindset.’
What we do now, is to make sure that every child challenges themselves in every lesson, to make them aware of what they need to do to move that next step. Every child is pushing themselves to be their very best and making sure that the environment is right for them to be able to do just that.
Diana first visited our school in February last year. This is now our third visit with her and we are looking to continuing to work alongside her to guarantee the very best for every child in our care. Our school ethos has transformed enormously since her first visit last February. Children now talk about the skills required for ‘learning’ and how they can be their very best. Teachers use this as a platform to help children understand what they need to do to be the most effective learners and to help them face challenges with confidence and resilience.
To find out more about this, please read our Teaching for Learning Policy or look at, “Towards Successful Learning” written by Di Pardoe. We cannot urge you enough to clear your diary tomorrow afternoon so that you can attend Di Pardoe’s parent session. It will help you to fully understand exactly where we are going as a school.
Hope to see you there!
