We hope you and your families all had a wonderful Christmas break and we now wish you a prosperous and blessed New Year.
It is wonderful to see everyone back at school again, excited, motivated and ready to learn!
Yesterday, during our staff Inset we talked about ‘growth mindset’ and we will be really continuing to push this through our purple learners and challenge zones. We discussed the difference between growth and fixed mindsets and about how we can change our fixed mindset (we all are ‘fixed’ about something!). If you are interested in learning more about this see Dr. Carol Dweck’s book Mindset: How you can fulfil your potential. Her research is all based on the science of learning and the way our brains work, through synapses and neural pathways.
Today in collective worship we discussed the fable about the tortoise and the hare. The tortoise’s character clearly demonstrates that of someone with a growth mindset. He wanted to show the hare, that slow and steady would win the race. The hare, on the other hand, was proud and arrogant and let this get the better of him. When we know we are good at something, we often ‘rest on our laurels.’ We can begin thinking that we don’t need to put in the hard work and effort anymore. So, as a school we are encouraging the children that, no matter how well they are doing, or how terrific they are at doing something, they still need to demonstrate the values of perseverance and resilience to do even better! We need to keep raising the bar and raising our expectations. Once a goal has been attained, the challenge should be getting even higher! It is about developing ‘true potential.’
Further, if children say that they can’t do something…….our reply will be…….YET!
It is about ‘being our very best.’ We may fail hundreds of times, but giving up is failure……if we keep trying, we will eventually succeed.
