Growth Mindset
At St George’s we look very carefully at how our children learn and consider all the things that will help them to be ‘good learners.’ Alongside our Building Learning Powers we teach our children to have a Growth Mindset.
What is a Growth Mindset?
Having a Growth Mindset helps children become independent, confident and resilient learners. They embrace challenges and are not afraid of making mistakes. Children see struggling as the point of new learning and are not afraid to take risks. Having a Growth Mindset means that children learn to be better learners and are able to deal with learning as it becomes more challenging throughout their life.
The Psychologist Carol Dwek says:
‘Motivation is not only the desire to achieve, but also the love of learning, the love of challenge, and the ability to thrive on obstacles. These are the greatest gifts we can give our children.’
Do you have a Growth Mindset or a Fixed Mindset? Take the test!
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People with a Growth Mindset Embrace challenges Keep going Learn from criticism Learn from failure Learn from mistakes Learn from setbacks Put lots of effort in Use feedback |
People with a Fixed Mindset Avoid challenges Give up easily Hate criticism Avoid failure Hate making mistakes Setbacks are discouraging Effort is pointless Ignore feedback |
So how do we teach a Growth Mindset at St George’s?
We teach our children that the brain is a muscle which can grow. The way we think and talk about our learning is vital in the development of our brain and our mindset.
These are some of the strategies we use with our children and you can use at home:
Success in school depends on children’s attitudes to learning. We believe that developing a positive Growth mindset is crucial for all our children both at St George’s and to make them successful lifelong learners in the future.
Just changing what you say to children can have a huge impact on how they see themselves and how they approach their learning. Our children know that if they are finding their learning easy, they are not necessarily learning anything new. If they are struggling, then this is the point of new learning. Learning is a journey and they will always get there in the end. Our motto is:
