St. Joseph’s Catholic Infant School has been reflecting on their Growth Mindset to improve resilience and learning. To support the children a mural was commissioned and the children watched our Artist Mia develop this over a week.

Our Mural focuses on our Growth words which we explore and use at school. Please try to remember to use them at home.

Remember:-

• Encourage deliberate practice and targeted effort
• Encourage high challenge tasks to grow those brain cells!
• Discuss errors and mistakes and help your child to see them as opportunities to learn and improve
• Encourage family discussions about mindset and which mindset they (and you?) are choosing to use
• Teach children to think positively and to believe in themselves
• Praise carefully – not for intelligence but for effort (i.e. process not outcome)

Effort is…

Effort is…the secret to getting smarter. The more targeted effort you put in, the more you’ll get out. You can help your children to focus their effort and attention and encourage them to practise. Regularly recognise this effort with effort praise.

Difficult…

Difficult is…challenging – an exciting opportunity for risk-taking and having a go. Create excitement with your child as they take on a new challenges and push outside their comfort zone. Recognise each achievement and point out to them how much they’re learning.

Mistakes…

Mistakes are… learning opportunities. Help your children to see that mistakes are feedback (not failure). Recognise that when working outside their comfort zone, they are likely to make mistakes that they can learn from.

Yet…

A small and empowering word, “YET” shifts thinking from a fixed to a growth state instantly. Use it in conversation with your child.

When you hear… “I can’t do it”…

Rephrase and add “yet”: “You can’t do it yet, is there anything I can do to help you?”

When you hear… “I’m rubbish at this”…

Rephrase and add “yet”: “You haven’t found the best way to learn it yet. What could you do next?”

Don’t forget:-

FAIL = First Attempt In Learning