Growth Mindset
Welcome to our Growth Mindset page. We hope that this will give you an insight into what we are doing at school to develop and support a positive attitude to learning and self-esteem. We will also give you some helpful tips about how to continue this at home as well.
At Oasis Academy Johanna, we know that pupils who have a positive attitude to their learning will make good progress and be successful. As a result, ensuring all our students have a ‘growth mindset’ has become a key priority for staff since September 2017 and beyond.
What is Growth Mindset?
Has your child ever said to you, ‘That’s too difficult!’ or ‘There’s no point, I’ll never be able to do it’?
Feelings like this can be related to how your child feels about their intelligence, and what makes them ‘good’ at something. This might be school work, sport or even how they are able to manage their emotions.
Some children will give up on things easily if they find them too challenging. Others might not even try if they’ve found something hard before. This is what’s called a fixed mindset. This is when someone believes that they are good or bad at something - that their intelligence is fixed from birth.
However, you might have heard your child say, ‘That was great! Let’s try something harder next time!’ or ‘This is really tricky, but I’ll keep on trying.’ This type of child believes that they can get better at something if they try a bit more, or practice. They believe that it’s possible to learn something new- even if it’s really hard! This way of thinking is called a ‘growth mindset,’ and developing it can make your child more resilient for life.
What are we doing at Johanna to develop a growth mindset?
There are many things we’re doing at school that are encouraging your child to develop their growth mindset:
- Celebrating making mistakes - we can learn from them
- Teaching specific lessons about the brain and how it works
- Displays in all classrooms using growth mindset language
- The trying turtle - this cuddly toy is given out weekly to different classes to encourage them to try harder.
Posters designed by our pupils
How can you support your child at home?
Celebrate the effort, not the achievement. Try saying ‘Tell me how you did that’ rather than ‘Well done!’
Encourage your child to try new things- and celebrate their mistakes if they don’t get it right the first time!
Model a growth mindset yourself- try to avoid saying things like ‘I can’t cook!’ or ‘I am no good at maths.’ If you do, try finishing with the word ‘yet’.