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HS PLUS CASE STUDIES –

SUGGESTIONS FOR HEADINGS

TELL THE STORY OF YOUR HS PLUSWORK

  • Background to your school and circumstances

Our School is a small village schoolbetween Perranporth and St Agnes. Our children are mainly from white middle class families and many of our children have privileged lives. Behaviour is excellent throughout the school but it was noticed that children often lacked the grit and determination to tackle challenges and the mechanisms to cope well with failure.

  • Priority Areas (What priority area(s) did you choose?)

Our Project encompasses many areas because changing attitudes to and ways of learning has an impact on teachers, staff and children. The ethos of the school has changed and the project also has an impact on EHWB and PSHE.

  • What was the need? Why did you do what you did?

Quality Feedback and Growth Mind Set have been implemented as a specific focus at Mithian over a course of more than two academic years starting in 2013-14. This followed the Sutton Trust Toolkit reporting quality feedback as ‘very high impact for low cost’. Initially staff wanted to widen children’s responses to learning and to focus on what they had learnt rather than what they had done; they wanted to develop questions which would promote reflective thinking. Staff wanted there to be a focus on reflective questioning acknowledging the process of how children learn. Feedback/questioning focuses on choice of learning strategies as well as self-regulation strategies. Also, feedback from children to teachers is crucially important so that teachers can adapt teaching to meat learners’ needs. With all that in mind a school priority was focussed on Quality Feedback with success criteria including

Children can explain what ‘learning’ has taken place Children are positive about feedback from adults, peers and marking Children are reflective and independent learners Children understand what they have to do to improve

It was noted by staff that children throughout the school lacked resilience when trying to solve problems, working on projects or investigations. It was therefore decided to find a way to improve attitudes and ways of learning. This would need to be a whole school approach to enable it to succeed with all staff using the same language and parents would need to be on board also.

  • What did you do? Describe the activity.

We introduced reflective questions initially which helped the children to think about their learning. This was followed by the characters of Crash Landing and Lift Off. Lift Off of course was the kind of learner that we all aim to be. A character who asks the right questions, doesn't give up and sees mistakes as a way of learning what to do next time.

Crash LandingLift Off

Finally we launched EMERGE which now forms part of our school ethos and brings everything together. EMERGE thinks about the different qualities that combined will make you an effective learner.

E=Emotional IntelligenceM=Motivation E=Efficacy R=Resilience G=Grit E=Enthusiasm

Launch lessons each half term led by A Brumby a lead consultant from county for Growth Mindset were followed by assemblies and lessons for the rest of the half term.And of course the words were used repeatedly within the school day.

Parents also received a toolkit and took part in parent workshops to ensure the message was being reinforced at home.

We have now completed EMERGE and have a new logo created. This is placed throughout the school on posters and displays to reinforce the importance of EMERGE and the character of Lift Off. It is also placed on the website, log in screen on the ipads and laptops, sticker charts and letters including newsletters.

  • Who did you work with and why did you choose them? (Classes? Year groups? Whole school? Nurture/focus groups?

We worked with the whole school because we felt that all children in the school would benefit.

Where did you start from? (about your baselines)

We began by observing the children when they tackled work or activities that involved them having to repeat an activity to succeed such as a word problem or investigation in Maths, an experiment in Science, research in topic work, scoring a goal in football ect and found that many of our children gave up too quickly. They were very quick to ask others, particularly adults for help.

  • Describe the steps along the way that helped achieve the outcomes. Were there useful milestones along the way to achieving your outcomes?

1. Reflective questions

2. Characters of lift off and Crash Landing linked to the questions.

3. EMERGE

4. 5Bs – Brain,Board,Buddy,Book,Boss

  • Where did you get to (achieving your outcomes)?
  • What difference did it make to the children (impact)?

The children have shown a visible change in attitude to their learning and tackle new challenges with greater enthusiasm, grit and determination. They have improved efficacy and this enables them to tackle new work with a belief that they can. Adults refer to EMERGE and Lift Off/Crash Landing Characters on a daily basis and the children also associate behaviours of themselves and others with the work. Children say to each other “I am feeling Gritty today." They are quick to initiate change from a ‘Crash Landing’ closed attitude towards a task, question or challenge to a ‘Lift Off’ positive response. Children in all year groups encourage others to be more like ‘Lift Off’ when faced with tricky concepts. This is done in a positive way. A culture of welcoming mistakes has been embedded and children know how these help learning. Parents have commented that when using the Growth Mind Set style questions they can have lengthier conversations with their children and can often establish what challenges their child may need to overcome or what learning has taken place in the day. For example instead of the typical ‘nothing’ response to the question ‘what have you done today?’ if the question is re-worded to ‘what was the trickiest part of your day?’ a child rarely allows room to breathe explaining what was tricky in maths, writing and PE! Or similarly ‘what did you use to help you in maths?’ may provide the response ‘I had to draw a numberline to add two two digit numbers together … look I’ll show you’. The parent now knows what their child learnt in maths and their achievements too. EMERGE has drawn attention to skills needed to be successful in life. The children are able to engage with these qualities and make connections with jobs, challenges and successes. Ensuring that EMERGE, Quality Feedback and Growth Mind Set are on display in all classrooms, corridors and the hall means that it is an embedded culture within the whole school. Assemblies focus on a key quality each half term which allow the children the opportunity to reflect.

In a recent governors visit the PHSE Governor commented " The focus on the EMERGE agenda is apparent at all levels and staff are to be congratulated on all their hard work" It was noted in discussions with children that they believe EMERGE has helped them to "not give up".

Our work has helped us to develop the whole school from the very youngest to the oldest children. The School with EMERGE and the characters is a far more positive one. A place where children succeed daily and excellence in attitude and learning is celebrated.

  • What went well? What were the highs and lows?What could have been different/better? What were the problems and challenges? Were there any unexpected outcomes? (Good or otherwise)

The progression and development of our project from the initial reflective questions to the 5Bs has worked really well.

Our new logo created by the staff and children of the school looks amazing and is a fantastic visual aid for all.

The integration of EMERGE into all aspects of school life has had a positive impact on everyone involved. Children have greater efficacy and a more can do attitude to their learning.

  • Capture the work in the words of those that took part – children, parents, teachers, school staff.

The staff believe that” EMERGE and the characters of Crash Landing and Lift Off have had a positive impact on the way children at Mithian approach their learning. This new way of thinking will provide them with the tools to use now and in the future.”

Children believe that EMERGE has helped them to “not give up!”

The PHSE Governor commented " The focus on the EMERGE agenda is apparent at all levels and staff are to be congratulated on all their hard work"

Parent Comments after receiving the workshop and toolkit:

“Really helpful – need to work out how to give ours more time to develop these

approaches. Helpful to see how it works. Thank you”

“Really useful, wish my husband was here to listen to you. Some very useful ways of encouraging our kids to become fantastic learners. Thank you!”

“A very informative session with ideas for strategies to improve growth mind set. I will implement ideas both in family and work life”

“Good! Lots of good tips and strategies for dealing with time “I’m stuck” moment.”

“Some very useful strategies to tackle children’s learning and feedback at home especially attitudes towards mistakes.”

“

  • Can you add photos and/or other evidenceto enhance the story?
  • Where are you going next with this work or other priority areas? How will you sustain the work and maintain capacity for the future?

We have just introduced the 5Bs to encourage children to be independent learners. If unable to complete a piece of work the children in addition to using EMERGE follow a process of using their brain, looking at the board, asking a friend (buddy), looking in a book or on an ipad and finally if they are still stuck they ask the boss.
The work completed on EMERGE and the characters of Lift Off and Crash Landing is so emersed within the daily life of Mithian that it cannot and will not be forgotten. The constant reminders are everywhere. WOW boards, Logo, characters and statements, reflective questions and the 5Bs are displayed in every classroom. Lift Offs Golden planet in the main corridor displays children who have shown great motivation, efficacy, resilience, grit and enthusiasm to achieve something or completed a piece of work to an exceptional standard. The entrance hall has a large display of the logo. Two displays-1 of the characters and 1 EMERGE can be found in the hall.

01209 310061

@CornwallHSTeam