Developing Growth Mindsets through the school learning heroes
In Year 2, the children want to be super learners. They understand that you don’t need capes to do this, and one’s special powers may not be obvious at first, but these powers will come with time. To support their understanding, the school has six Growth Mindset Heroes, who embody the learning characteristics that help people learn, even when things get tricky.
At Talbot Primary School the learning heroes are:
- Putting in lots of effort, with Hardworking Hedgehog
- Having courage, with Courage Ambulance
- Keeping focused, like Focused Fox
- Working and thinking independently, like Independent Anchor
- Persevering with Perseverance Pencil
- Being resilient like Resili Rubics Cube
When things get tricky and the children get stuck with their learning, they put on their “Getting Unstuck Wellies” and try different strategies to move on. The classes call this “All the B’s: Brain, Buddy, Bits and bobs, boss.” These terms translate as try it again (brain) ask a friend (buddy) and get resources to help (bits and bobs), before asking the teacher if one is still stuck (boss).
Paul Sturgess, the world’s tallest basketball player and the UK’s tallest man, came in to talk to us about persevering and having a Growth Mindset. This helped the children see these important learning habits in a different context that they could relate to.
