Developing Character and a ‘Growth Mindset’
Character education at Crest Infant & Nursery School
Here at Crest Infants our STAR principles support us in achieving our vision….
Successful – we are ready to learn
Team members – we work together
Aiming high – to be the best we can be
Respectful – we have respect for ourselves, other people and our school
We believe we achieve this through building character education and resilience. It is our opinion that children are not born with or without character and resilience traits. Rather, they learn how to develop and use these skills throughout their lives.
We have special characters who link with our STAR message and Mrs Seales explains about them here: Our Crest Characters
Most parents and teachers could think of nothing better than having children continuously working at their optimum, always getting their work correct, achieving all they set out to do and never breaking our ‘golden rules’. However, here at Crest we set out to give children the chance to experience and discuss the satisfaction of facing challenge, recovering and discovering that they are able to cope with tough situations to help them make choices, persevere and succeed in difficult situations. Our school ethos helps children to realise the more resilient they are, the more successful they become as they push their limits and most importantly learn from their mistakes.
In addition, our fantastic teaching staff build strong relationships with our children to scaffold and protect them to take risks, build skills and experience positive interactions, thus building an ability to cope with adversity through healthy development.
‘Character education is part of our core mission to deliver real social justice by giving all children, regardless of background, the chance to fulfil their potential and achieve their high aspirations.’
(iwill.org.uk)
Developing a ‘growth mindset’ rather than a ‘fixed mindset’
Linking in with Character Education, we have been working with the children to develop a ‘growth mindset’ which encourages them to have a ‘can do’ attitude and to believe in themselves.
The link below will take you to the Cbeebies website which has more information about this:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/grownups/help-your-child-try-new-things
Can you remember learning to ride a bicycle? I bet you didn’t get it right first time…?
Watch this short clip to see how one four year old child learns from this experience and gives his (extremely enthusiastic) motivational speech to encourage others to keep trying!