Full On Learning | Because learning is too important to be left to chance Bounce: How Champions Are Made by Matthew Syed - a Book Review by Rachel Fanshawe I was slightly disappointed that there wasn't a single book for me under the tree this Christmas, especially as I'd been relying on it for my holiday reading. Luckily my husband had packed several, and top of the pile was Bounce : How Champions are Made by Matthew Syed. It proved to be both enjoyable and stimulating, and a book that I would highly recommend. Practise, practise In Bounce, Syed makes a compelling argument that success at the highest levels is not a result of talent but of many hours of purposeful practice combined with the right mindset. Syed's own story makes a fascinating start to the argument. 'I had powerful advantages not made available to hundreds of thousands of other youngsters... 10,000 hours An incredible 10,000 hours of practice is now widely acknowledged in sporting circles as being a pre-requisite for elite performance. Syed also address the question of the child prodigies. The 'growth mindset'
Sowing Seeds in September Like most teachers, August is my favourite month. No alarm clock, holiday adventures, lazy days, carefree, relaxation, friends, family etc. September is inevitable though – and I quite like that too. 1. Challenge all students to develop and extend their learning – not just the more able. Firstly, get to know your students. 2. Let students know that it’s OK to struggle and find things hard – then we’re learning! So, when met with a response of ‘I can’t do this’, in the words of Carol Dweck, counter it with ‘Yet!’ 3. September is a time of hope and optimism – exploit this! In the first few lessons, get them to produce a brilliant piece of work – then use this as the benchmark for the rest of the year. 4. Use the mantra ‘If it’s not excellent, it’s not finished’. 5. If we want students to produce excellent work, they need to know what it looks like – they need to know the standard that is expected of them. 6. Praise the process and effort, not the intelligence e.g. Why is this important?
Under Starters Orders – Growth Mindset at the start of a new academic year | RE Teach – Lorraine Abbott As a middle manager it is always tricky leading whole staff INSET, there is the possibility that after the one off day of input the content gets lost amongst the bigger school agenda. However the Mindset INSET has and always was backed by SLT in our school and thus has some real practical implications for the new academic year and beyond. If you find it helpful you can access the resources I used, and some I created, for INSET on this padlet. I haven’t included the specific data accumulated for my own school though. It is also worth mentioning that HT Chris Hildrew has recently posted an excellent blog on what his school is doing as they launch Growth Mindset, it’s well worth a read. Whole School As a whole school we are having a growth mindset contribution to every INSET, ensuring a link between all we do and our growth mindset attitude. This first bulletin was created to help equip staff with the language of growth mindset to use in their marking and conversations with students. In RE