Vision

Collective Worship Church British Values/ SMSC

Values and Ethos Independent Learning Powers School and Governor Vision Statements

School Values
Respect	Compassion	Resilience
Hope	Integrity	Humility

British Values are highlighted in red

As Christian Values play a fundamentally important role in the life of a Church Of England school, we have been keen to make an informed decision. Our values cannot just be words on the website or on a display; they have to be intrinsic to the life of Chesterton School, reflect the community that we serve and the character of the pupils in our care. Therefore, we have involved advisers from the Diocese, governors, staff and our Collective Worship Pupil Council to decide the best way forward.

Read our full letter about Chesterton School Values and how we chose them


What is Growth Mindset?
The way we think about our abilities and talents has been proven to have a crucial impact on our success as learners.

Fixed Mindset		Growth Mindset
Intelligence is static - leads to a desire to look smart and therefore a tendency to:	Skills / Intelligence	Intelligence can be developed – leads to a desire to learn and therefore a tendency to:
Avoid challenges	Challenge	Embrace challenges
Give up easily due to obstacles	Setbacks	Persist despite obstacles
See effort as fruitless	Effort	See effort as a pathway to success
Ignore feedback	Feedback	Learn from feedback

The work of Professor Carol Dweck has resulted in the development of the terms 'Fixed' and 'Growth' Mindsets. Those with a fixed Mindset believe their qualities and ability are pre-determined and can't be changed. Those with a 'Growth' Mindset believe that their basic qualities can be cultivated and developed through concerted and focused effort.
The Mindset our pupils adopt has a significant impact on their learning capacity. Research has proven that we can change an individual's Mindset and therefore their attitude to learning.
Follow the link to 'Ron Berger's Austin's Butterfly' to see how a 6 year old boy embraces challenge, persists with his work and makes significant improvements to his picture after receiving specific and purposeful feedback.

How are we doing this at Chesterton?
At Chesterton, we are continuing to develop the concept of Growth Mindset with the children. We will talk to the children regularly about this and demonstrate the value of maintaining this approach across the curriculum and in their wider life.
We encourage pupils to develop a Growth Mindset in a number of ways, some overt and obvious to parents and pupils, and some more subtle through the way that we model an approach to learning and through enacting our Values and Independent Learning Powers in everyday school life.
Hopefully, children will be able to explain to their parents/carers how they show a Growth Mindset at school.

Language Choice
Using Growth Mindset language is essential if we are going to support and encourage our children to adopt this approach to learning. Staff think carefully about their choice of language when talking to our children. Typical Growth Mindset language that we encourage and praise can be seen below:

Effort	Challenge	Perseverance
Thinking	Learning	Feedback
Tenacity	Decisions	Challenge
Mistakes	Failure	Trial and Error
Reflection	Persistence	Process
Grit	Determination	Growth
Improve	Flearning	Practice
The power of 'yet'

Why are some learners reluctant to take risks?

• Entity view of intelligence, talent and ability (an individual's belief that intelligence and ability are fixed traits)
• Fear of getting things wrong or failing to look smart/clever,
• Past experiences of failure.
• 'Hazard' view of mistakes – something to be avoided.

What we are doing to help our pupils change the way they think about mistakes and failure?

• Consistently challenge the entity theory of intelligence through our teaching, interactions and values.
• Reframe how our pupils think about mistakes and failure. We talk about learning from failure ('Flearning') and use examples of our mistakes to move our learning on.
• Create new, positive experiences of mistakes and failure.
• Challenge the negatives that pupils perceive in mistakes/failures and talk-up and demonstrate the benefits.

How you can help?

• Be a growth mindset role model: Reflect on the way you talk about learning. Avoid saying, 'I was never very good at', 'I can't' or 'I'm terrible at'.
• Try to focus praise and feedback on the process of learning rather than the end product. Less: "Aren't you so clever!" or "You're so good at ….. " and more: "Wow, I can see how much effort you have been putting in and the improvement that you've made."
• Talk to your child about what they have found challenging at school and how they have overcome the challenge.
• Share with them examples of how your determination has helped you achieve something you found difficult. Let them see you make mistakes and try again.
• Encourage your child to have a go and take risks with their learning. They might make mistakes, but these 'failures' will provide learning opportunities – this is 'Flearning'!*

Download:
Helping Pupils reach their full potential
Ways to help your Child
You can grow your Intelligence

*For more information about Mike Mullen – BMX rider – who taught us about 'Flearning' during his visit in April 2019, visit BMXAcademy.com

Examples of Growth Mindset outside school

• Practising times tables or improving reading. Both of these skills will help children increase their confidence and reinforce a Growth Mindset as the improvements should be tangible and the benefits in class significant.
• Aiming high with homework activities. Good quality home learning activities require: focused effort, edited improvements, creative thinking, concentration and perseverance to ensure that the end result is beyond 'satisfactory' to 'look what I can achieve!'.
• Taking part in sport, joining a club, learning a musical instrument. Participation and success in all these areas requires Growth Mindset attributes: determination, resilience, courage, dedication etc. These qualities can be applied to all areas of school and life.

"If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, and keep on learning."
Carol Dweck