High

Attainers @

Developing and Nurturing a

Growth Mindset

- What is a Growth Mindset -

- What can you as a parent do to foster a Growth Mindset? -

- Key Stage 3 and Independent Learning –

- Optimising exam opportunities -

What is a Growth Mindset?

Haywood Academy is using the work of Prof Carol Dweck to inspire all of its students to adopt a Growth Mindset.

In turn, we believe that this will lead to our students becoming more adaptable and successful individuals who will

not only have the qualifications but also the skills to succeed in an ever more competitive and challenging world.

The brain is like a muscle- the more it is used, the stronger it can become. As such, everyone has the ability to

train their brain and to improve in what they do, as long as they adopt a Growth Mindset approach. This includes the

beliefs that:

- Intelligence can be developed

- Challenges are to be embraced

- There is no failure, only feedback

- The success of others should inspire you

- Perseverance is a key to success

- Effort leads to mastery

In the words of Dweck:

In a growth mindset students understand that their talents and abilities can be developed through effort,

good teaching and persistence. They don't necessarily think everyone's the same or anyone can be Einstein,

but they believe everyone can get smarter if they work at it.

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Challenge

Most of life’s problems can be viewed in one of two ways:

- An obstacle: something stopping you doing or being what you want

- A challenge: something to be overcome so that you can have or be what you want

The choice is yours – you can decide if it will stop you or challenge you. At Haywood we encourage students to see

obstacles as challenges, and to enjoy being challenged. Lessons constantly push and challenge them, but students

also need to challenge themselves. The message is to NOT GIVE UP. It is good to be stuck. EMBRACE CHALLENGE!

Overcoming challenge with creativity

The purpose of school is to set young people up for life, and exams are just one way of doing this. The primary

aim of school is to give students the opportunity to FAIL in a controlled environment, so as they can then practice

being creative in order to then not fail. These skills of resilience and creative problem solving are essential in further

education, in a job and in life.

Be creative and think outside the box

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Parents should not shield their children from challenges, mistakes, and struggles. Instead parents should

teach children to love challenges. They can say things like, “This is hard. What fun!” or “This is too easy. It’s

no fun.” They should teach their children to embrace mistakes. “Ooooh, here’s an interesting mistake. What

should we do next?” And they should teach them to love effort: “That was a fantastic struggle. You really

stuck to it and made great progress” or “This will take a lot of effort –boy will it be fun!”

Prof Carol Dweck

Feedback

When students are challenged, they will often fail. However, if we replace the word ‘fail’ with the word ‘learn’,

this failure now becomes constructive feedback- if you fail, find out why. This can either be feedback from others, or

self-reflection. The key is that mistakes are built upon in order to do better next time. Every failure is a step on the

stairway to success.

At Haywood, students’ work is marked on a regular basis, and the beginning of lessons are often spent reading

through the feedback written by staff. In response to this, students then complete Green Pen Feedback, where they

respond to a problem or a task set, or improve their work in some way- building on the feedback and improving from

their mistakes.

Perseverance and effort

Many of the main beliefs of a Growth Mindset are interlinked and complimentary, and a true Growth Mindset

needs to encompass all of these. Without perseverance and effort, students would not be able to see problems as

challenges to overcome, and would not be able to use feedback constructively. Effort ignites ability into

accomplishment- just because a student is a High Attainer, it does not mean that they will do well if they do nothing.

Best effort will give the best results.

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Strength: what did they do well? Matched against the success criteria

Target: this may be a directed target, or it could be a green pen question

Effort: this is often a number (1-4), based on the C2P scores given to students

Pupil response: this is where students use a green pen to respond and express

how they will achieve the target set.

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Prof Carol Dweck was asked this question:

What about the times a student really impresses us by doing something quickly, easily – and perfectly? Isn’t

it appropriate to show our admiration for the child’s ability?

Her reply?

My honest opinion is that we should not. We should not be giving students the impression that we place a

high value on their doing perfect work on tasks that are easy for them. A better approach would be to

apologise for wasting their time with something that was too easy, and move them to something that is

more challenging. When students make progress in or master that more challenging work, that’s when our

admiration – for their efforts – should come through.

Inspiration

If they can do it so can you! Look at other people who have managed to get where you want, and learn from

what they have done.

- What have they done that works?

- What could they have done better?

- How did they deal with challenges or overcome adversity?

Instead of being jealous and envious, being around success should motivate you to be successful. Envy is a

wasteful, negative emotion- it wastes time and energy that could instead be used to create and seize opportunities.

Haywood uses the examples of successful sports people, businessmen, artists, scientists and even past students to

show that these people did not start out on top- they had to work for what they wanted. The inspiration of others

should provide students with perseverance and the knowledge of how to deal with challenges. Emulate those who

you hope to be.

“ ”

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What can you as a parent do to foster a

Growth Mindset?

If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is teach their children to love challenges,

be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. That way their children don’t have to be slaves

to praise. They will have a lifelong way to build and repair their own confidence.

Prof Carol Dweck

Pay attention: Praise the process

Pay attention and verbally praise children for skills that don’t sound predetermined: hard work, persistence, rising

to a challenge, learning from a mistake, etc., rather than being “smart”, “brilliant” or “gifted”. As a parent, notice the

work that your child puts into their homework, revision, or sporting achievement- the time they spend, the amount

of practice they do. Praise the process, not just the outcome. If a child thinks that the end product is all that you are

interested in, then they will be scared to try new things or to challenge themselves, as they will not want to be seen

to fail and lose the praise. This leads to a Fixed Mindset. Even if they don’t get top marks, or if they don’t win their

race, the skills they used in preparing for it are as important, if not more so. It’s the taking part that counts.

Be a Growth Mindset role-model

Be honest: how often do you say “I can’t (cook/sing/balance my bank account)” or “I’m terrible at

(sports/spelling/public speaking)” as if there’s no hope for you? Make sure you’re sending the right message – maybe

even take on something new!

Expect them to finish any sentence about something they are currently unable to do with the word “yet”!

I can’t do it…YET

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Encourage your child to forget taking the easy route

Little learning is done when the easiest, quickest route is taken. It is when challenges are embraced and students

have to apply all of their knowledge and creative thinking that learning takes place. A sheet full of questions they

already know the answers to won’t “grow the brain” like one deeper problem to solve (even if they do not get the

correct answer). As a parent, encourage this confusion- push your child into the Pit!

Remember Growth Mindset is not just academic

Having a growth mindset is not just academic; it applies to all aspects of life, whether this be sports, music, or

social. Having trouble getting the basketball into the net? Keep making mistakes on a guitar chord? Discuss the next

step for improvement. If your child has a growth mindset towards a sport but not their studies, encourage them to

apply this to their school work. For example, would an athletic child practice for a race? If so, then why wouldn’t they

revise for an exam?

Discourage envy of peers

Talk to your child about what he or she can learn from others who appear more successful. It may be that skills

come more easily to some, but most often there are (possibly unseen) elements of practice, persistence, and hard

work which lead to achievement. You may feel resentment towards someone else who you think is better or has

achieved more than you (this could be someone in the public eye or someone you work with), but try and not express

such thoughts in front of your child. Be a role model to them. Show them how to learn from the success of others.

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Key Stage 3 and Independent Learning

Why KS3?

The main purpose of KS3 is to provide students with the skills and ability to take on GCSE work. As such, Y7 and

8 are the key to the rest of high school- if students master these and take everything away from them that they

should, they will be able to embrace the challenges of GCSE. Get it wrong, and KS4 will be more difficult.

During Y7 and 8, students need to be developing their independent learning and research skills.

Independent Learning

Independent learning is when students think, act and pursue their studies on their own, without the same level

of support they receive from a teacher at school. Even though our High Attaining students all have the ability to do

well, to achieve their best they need to be active learners.

To become a good active, independent learner students need to be:

- Resilient, to overcome challenges

- An excellent time manager

- Motivated! If they are not motivated, they are limiting their ability to do well.

- They need to have a Growth Mindset!

KS3 is the time when students should be practicing note taking, research skills, essay writing, mindmaps and other

skills that will be used at GCSE. Now is the time to be asking questions and enquiring, and if students need help, they

need to ask for it!

- Mrs Fergusson – Senior Assistant Headteacher

- Mr Baillie – High Attainers Mentor / Excellence Academy Co-ordinator

Approaches to Independent Learning

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At KS3, independent learning is best suited to revision, wider reading around topics, and consolidation of knowledge

through active learning. At KS4, practice papers are also a key aspect of a students’ independent learning and the

work they carry out beyond the classroom.

Active learning

Just reading isn’t enough– revision needs to be ACTIVE. However, copying out class notes is not only boring but

also ineffective. Transforming notes into different formats will help your child to UNDERSTAND it:

- Mind maps

- Drawing a picture / Make a poster

- File / Flash / Test cards (answers on back)

- Venn diagrams

- Paper chains / Road of life – make the journey and people real!

- Music and voice / Multi senses

You will remember what you understand

Practice papers

Students are provided with many examples of complete papers and individual questions from past exams, but

the more of these that a student does, the better prepared they will be for the real thing. Y9 is the perfect time for

students to familiarise themselves with these, and for you as parents to understand what it is your children will be

sitting. They should be using practice papers and mocks to:

- Identify topic areas that will be on the paper and that need to be covered

- Highlight mistakes. Mistakes = Missing Knowledge

- Avoid making the same mistake twice

- See where specifically they lost marks

- Consider why they were wrong

- See how it should be done

- Create a checklist of what needs to be revised

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Optimising Exam Opportunities

How can you support your child?

- Encourage your child to take preparation for the exams seriously

- Time management

- Planning a revision timetable

- Encourage your child to persevere and show resilience

- Revising after school / during weekends / during holidays

- Remind your child that they should be striving to achieve the best results that they possibly can to maximise

their choices in the future

The BIG conversation

When it comes to exam time, it is a good idea to have a BIG conversation with your child about the way that

they are going to approach the exams and their revision, and to let them know that you are there for them.

- Booked time

- Call it a ‘meeting’

- Make an agenda

- Formality (even if fake)

- Take as much emotion OUT as you can by creating some distance

- Don’t let irritability show

- This family member is No1 for this period of time (without too much pressure)

- All in this together: really will help!

Time management

Time management is a key skill that students should be learning through their independent study. Ideally, they

should be using a revision timetable when it comes to the exam period, in order to make sure that all subjects and

topics are covered, and that the right subjects are prioritised. Within this timetable, think about including, but

limiting…

- Socialising

- Sport and exercise

- Watching TV / DVDs / computer games

- Paid work

As a parent, get into balance with school work, and emphasise it is only for a short period of time.

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Six Golden Rules of Revision

1 - Preparing and organising

- Book in a ‘meeting’

- Your child is the most important person in the house

- Encourage your child to talk to teachers

- Study space – no distractions

- Equipment

- Resources (including past papers)

- Checklists

- Revision timetable

o Makes everyone feel better

o Makes your child (and you) feel efficient and organised

o Gives a place to start

o Think in terms of:

- At least 1 session a day

- Any non-school day at least 2 sessions

o A ‘session’ is approx. 2 hours (made up of 2x50 min sessions and a 20 min breather)

o Is your child a ‘lark’ or an ‘owl’?

o Don’t worry about

- What the timetable looks like

- Exact length of revision sessions

2 - Making active

- Just reading isn’t enough

- Copying out class notes is not only boring but also ineffective

- Transforming notes into different formats will help your child UNDERSTAND it

3 - Being resilient

- Learning is hard work

o No magic wand

o SOME stress and anxiety is natural

o Minimise disruptions and distractions

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- Getting stuck is fine, staying stuck isn’t

o Exercise books / textbooks / internet (caution) / friends / parents / make a note and move on /

teachers

- Slow but steady

o Set a target, press on and finish

o Start in plenty of time

o Stay motivated

4 – Collaborating

- Study buddy

o Interactive

o Talk it out

o Sharing resources

o Sharing anxiety

o Social

o Family

o Teach friends and family

o Online study groups (caution)

5 – Repeating

How does it work?

o Simple repetition – practising retrieving a memory over and over again – is the best form of

consolidating the pattern.

o As well as repetition you can try "retrieval practice”: transform the material you need to learn, read

it a number of times, and then test yourself immediately.

o Another technique is "spaced repetition”. The ideal time to revise what you've learned is just before

you're about to forget it. And because memories get stronger the more you retrieve them, you

should wait longer each time – after a few minutes, then a few hours, then a day, then a few days.

6 - Well being

- Stay healthy

o Regular breaks

o Sleep is vital

o Controlling emotions

o Eat and drink healthily

o Reward themselves

o Don’t stress!

o End on a high note

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