Growth mindset - Cockton Hill Infant School

Teamwork

March 23, 2018 by admin

16/03/18

The children in Year 1 and Year 2 having been practising their teamwork today. First each group had a discussion about how we can work well in a team. Then the children spoke about what we need to do in school to learn and how to overcome challenges. Finally they got the chance to put this into practice in their challenge. The children had to work in a group of 4 to move the cups from a line of 6 into a pyramid formation without using their hands. Instead they had to use an elastic band with some string attached. The task required communication, perseverance and problem solving. As usual the children did a fantastic job.

Neuroscience Assembly

February 26, 2018 by admin

26/02/18

Today Class 5 led an assembly all about the brain. The children shared their knowledge of the various parts of the brain using the pictures and props that they had created. They then talked about how we can help the brain grow, how mistakes and perseverance are key to learning.

The Importance of Mistakes

February 23, 2018 by admin

23/02/18

Today the children have been learning about the importance of making mistakes. We watched a video all about the importance of mistakes for our learning. Next, the children worked in teams to play a game similar to battleships. They had to work in teams to cross the grid without landing on a “no-go area”. When they made a mistake they had to start again. All children were able to learn from their mistakes and cross the grid successfully! As you can see the children had lots of fun!

Neuroscience Continued

January 23, 2018 by admin

19/01/18

Today the children continued with their work learning about the brain. They matched common tasks to various parts of the brain. For instance the children decided that riding a bike would require the cerebellum because that part of the brain controls movement and balance.

Once they had completed this task they had another problem solving task to complete. They had to move into a specific order on the line without going into the “swamp”. The task required communication teamwork and some of the elements of emotional intelligence that the children have been learning about.

Our Thinking Skills Curriculum

January 12, 2018 by admin

12/01/17

We hope that you like our new thinking skills curriculum display. The display highlights the full spectrum of work we do within school regarding thinking skills. The display highlights the overlapping nature of the skills taught. They are real skills for life that we envisage children using well into adulthood.

Neuroscience – Background Brain Work

January 12, 2018 by admin

12/01/17

Today the children have been doing some more work on the brain in their role as young neuro-scientists! They have been learning which part of the brain makes you think, which part makes you move and which part makes you feel happy or sad. As part of this work they have been making and labelling some fantastic collages of the various parts of the brain.

Neuroscience continued

November 17, 2017 by admin

17/11/17

Today the children continued with their important work on neuroscience! They had a re-cap of how neurons in the brain work. We then discussed what we can do to help build neural pathways in our brain. The children realised the value of perseverance, independent learning and using classroom displays to help them to solve problems.

Following this work, some children played the game “refraction” where points are awarded for perseverance and trying new strategies to solve problems. Other children made pictures and collages of neurons.

Neuroscience

November 10, 2017 by admin

10/11/17

Today the children participated in a lesson about the brain. They were very excited to hear that they were going to be neuroscientists! They learnt that the brain contains more than a hundred billion neurons. These neurons make new connections and pathways as we learn new skills. To encourage our brain to make new neural pathways we need to persevere, work hard and practise. In teams the children then made their own neural pathways using paper chains. This task encouraged team work and perseverance. As you can see the children had lots of fun.

Thinking Skills Conference

November 4, 2017 by admin

04/11/17

Some of the drive team recently attended a thinking skills conference organised by Thinking Schools International. The conference was an opportunity to attend workshops, share practice and reflect on what we already do in school. We attended workshops on thinking hats and questioning and also listened to keynote speakers discussing thinking skills as tools for academic progress.

Since the conference we have reviewed several elements of our practice and these were discussed at a Cognitive Drive Team meeting. We have adapted the way we use De Bono’s red hat thinking. We felt that we spent too much time on this hat in the past thus removing the “gut reaction” element of it. We will now aim to spend a maximum of 30 seconds on this hat.

We will also develop some staff training on questioning to strengthen our practice in this area.

We also discussed out general teaching of thinking skills and their integration into our curriculum. One of the key note speakers at the conference discussed how to effectively introduce children to thinking skills. He discussed research that suggests the best way to achieve this was a mixed approach. That is, explicit sessions teaching thinking skills in addition to thinking skills integrated into subject areas. This is consistent with what we currently do in school, so it was decided that we should continue this approach.