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Growth Mindset

Welcome to the growth mindset page

We hope this will help you to support positive attitudes towards learning and high self-esteem in children at home, just as we are doing in school.

Life is full of challenges and obstacles, but how we face them is the key to our success. At The Axholme Academy we encourage our students to take on challenges wholeheartedly, learn from their setbacks and try again and again not giving up. Learning should be messy!

Carol Dweck is one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of motivation.  She focuses on why people succeed and how to foster this success in schools.

In her research on motivation and achievement, Dweck introduces the idea of Mindset. Mindsets are beliefs about yourself and your basic qualities such as your intelligence, your talents and your personality.

People with a fixed mindset believe that their traits are just given to them so people with this mindset worry about how adequate or inadequate they are instead of developing their traits. They believe that their talent alone creates success- without effort and they are reluctant to take on challenges.

People with a growth mindset, on the other hand see their traits as just the starting point and that these can be developed by dedication, hard work and effort. This view creates resilience and a love of learning.

When we encourage a growth mindset in children then they become enthusiastic learners. A growth mindset means that their intelligence can be developed which has a positive effect on their motivation and subsequently their achievement. Dweck’s research shows that we produce confident learners when we praise students for the process they engage in and not for being bright, clever or talented.

Growth Mindset at The Axholme Academy

Having been introduced to the concept of growth mindset since September 2016, students have already participated in a range of activities in tutor time to learn more about it. Students have identified their mindsets and are now looking at how their brains work and how they can develop their mindsets to ones of growth.  It is important that students understand that new connections are formed in the brain when we try new things and practise them, over and over. Students have looked at famous and influential people who have succeeded due to having a growth mindset and not giving up on their goal. We have had assemblies about growth mindset, but most importantly, teachers and pupils have embraced the language and the way of thinking that promotes using a growth mindset in all lessons.

Some key aspects of Growth Mindset at The Axholme Academy

  • We remember it’s always OK to make mistakes – we learn from them
  • We never give up! We try a different approach, or use a different strategy
  • We learn from each other – you guys often make the best teachers!
  • We don’t compare ourselves with others, but we do learn from others
  • We challenge ourselves – which really helps us make progress
  • We take risks – we don’t limit ourselves by taking the easy option
  • We join in as much as possible – and we learn much more by being involved
  • We remember that mastering something new feels so much better than doing something you can already do
  • We remember that the brain is making new connections all the time – the only thing you need to know is that you can learn anything!

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