Thinking and Learning Powers
Thinking and Learning Powers at
St. John’s Junior School
“Education is not learning the facts,
but the training of the mind to think.”
Albert Einstein
What is a Thinking School?
The Thinking Matters definition of a thinking school, therefore is an educational community in which all members share a common commitment to giving regular, careful thought to everything that takes place.
We are currently in the first year of a three year journey towards becoming an accredited Thinking School.
Why do we want to become a Thinking School?
At St John’s Junior School, we aim to enable each and every child to be able to think critically and independently and to understand how they learn best. When pupils fully understand how they think and learn they make greater progress, grow in resilience and become much more adaptable to change and in the face of challenge. They are also more equipped to make informed choices in life. All of these skills will serve them well in their future - a future within a rapidly changing digital world.
We aim to provide a stimulating and supporting learning environment where learners feel safe to explore ideas through a range of ways and are motivated to take risks to work towards their clear expectations. We aim for the children to be the best that they can be and aspire to personal growth. We look to actively shape minds, attitudes and habits through cognitive education to develop skilled, independent reflective learners, and we aim to allow children all that they can be.
A Thinking School takes a whole school approach to developing pupil thinking and their cognitive (mental) capability to:
think in a creative, critical and reflective way
plan, reason, solve problems and tackle complex ideas
understand how they learn best and use this knowledge and the associated skills and techniques throughout a much more meaningful curriculum
learn quickly and from their experiences.
Our Aims
In embarking on this exciting journey, our aims and ambitions include:
The development (with all staff and members our learning community) of a clear, common vision and set of beliefs - a set of beliefs based on the biggest difference makers in terms of transforming outcomes for our learners.
Inclusion and acceptance that all children are capable of thinking and improving their capacity to think - we just have to create opportunities and levels of challenges that fire them up and ignite the pathways in their brains
Gaining a deeper understanding of metacognition and its impact upon attainment, progress, independence and future success for our children
Children thinking (and cognitively, working harder than staff) in all lessons
Thinking, independence and co-operative learning skills become explicit and visible and the curriculum makes sense to pupils
Increase in pupil enjoyment and satisfaction in learning - this in turn impacts positively upon pupil interactions and the levels of understanding and consideration they are able to show to their peers
Improved levels of achievement and attainment for all learners
Benefits felt by both staff and pupils alike in terms of positive psychological wellbeing
How will we achieve this goal?
In order to achieve this goal, a whole school approach will be necessary whereby all members of our St John’s learning community (including parents and school governors) are kept fully informed and involved in our Thinking School journey.
We continue to develop and train our team of dedicated staff and we continue to use methods in our curriculum for teaching the skills of thinking and metacognition.
Metacognition is: Thinking about thinking, learning about learning and knowing how you learn best. It also involves knowing your own strengths and being able to identify the thinking strategies you can use to address any gaps or areas for development. The greater the understanding, the greater the independence and the progress that can be made.
We have introduced new Thinking and Learning Powers in school to promote the skills of thinking and metacognition. Our children strive to be resilient, resourceful, reflective, reciprocal, knowledgeable, creative, caring and enquiring.
The Thinking School principles are founded in the very latest and most robust 'evidence-informed' approaches to teaching and learning, feedback, recording and marking which fit perfectly with the pedagogy and ideologies of our school.
Our Journey Year One
Brain Busters
During the week beginning 14th April, we had a whole week themed around the brain, to begin to allow the children to improve their thinking skills by first learning all about their brain and how it works.
During this week, the children were introduced to the science of the brain, starting with the left and right brain (Y3 and 4 focus), and then looking at the individual parts of the brain (Y5 and 6 focus).
The children also began thinking about emotional intelligence, understanding what it means to be emotionally intelligent and reflecting on their current emotions and how to deal with them.
All of the children worked incredibly hard throughout the week and enjoyed learning more about the brain. They completed some wonderful science, art and PSHE work which you can see below.
The children took part in a 'Virtual Celebrate', where they had the chance to look at the work created by each of the year groups.
Art Competition April 2021
To launch Thinking Schools we ran an art competition for the children to take part in during their half-term break away from school. We were absolutely blown away with the amazing pieces of artwork that came back into school! This helped the children to feel excited about their Brain Busters themed week and got them thinking carefully about the brain.
Launch of Thinking and Learning Powers September 2021
During the Autumn term we have introduced our new Thinking and Learning Powers to the children through assemblies, new celebration certificates and bookmarks. Our children now have a good understanding of each of the ‘powers’ and are beginning to recognise when they are using them in their learning.
Launch of Thinking and Learning Powers November 2021
As part of the launch of our new Thinking and Learning Powers, we had an ‘Excite’ day on Tuesday 2nd November. The children came to school dressed in the theme of one of the Thinking and Learning Powers and this was a fantastic way to raise the profile of Thinking Schools and to help the children to further their understanding of thinking and metacognition.