1. Why Growth Mindset?
Welcome to our open evening on understanding growth mindset and how you can help your child develop one.
At Itchen Abbas, we have been using growth mindset in school for more than two years now. It has had a noticeable impact on our children and the progress they make in school.

2. Matthew Syed
I’d like to start by showing you a short video speech by Matthew Syad. Matthew was a table tennis champion and author of several books including Bounce and Black Box Thinking. He is now regarded as when the world’s most influential speakers on the science of high performance. I hope this video will help you to understand why growth mindset in schools is so important
Hyperlink on the photo of Matthew Syad.

3. Fixed Mindset People with a fixed mindset:
believe that their traits are just givens
they have a certain amount of ability and talent and nothing can change that
if they have a lot, they’re all set, but if they don’t...
so people in this mindset worry about their traits and how adequate they are
they have something to prove to themselves and others
Growth mindset, in it’s simplest form is the belief system we have about our abilities and what we can achieve. There are two types of mindset. Fixed and growth.

4. Growth Mindset
Will stretch themselves, take risks and learn. Bring on the challenges!
Will this allow me to grow? Will it help me overcome my challenges?
I failed (action) so I will try harder next time
Embraces challenges – persists in the face of setbacks
Understands implicitly that growth and learning takes effort
Learns from criticisms. How can I improve?
Finds lessons and inspiration in other people’s success
Reach ever higher levels of achievement

5. What mindset are you? First Attempt In Learning
No one person ever has just a fixed or growth mindset, we all have a mixture of these mindsets depending on what they are doing. Think of an activity that fills you with dread at the thought of doing it – that you shut down and say, no I can’t do that! That is fixed mindset. Think of an activity that you love doing and love pushing yourself to harder, more challenging things – that is a growth mindset.

6. I’m sure you all recognise Luke Skywalker there being trained to use the force by Yoda. You can see how Luke was defeatist about it. ‘We’ll never get it out now!’ and “moving stones is one thing, this is totally different”. He is thinking with a fixed mindset. The film would have fallen flat if he had maintained that attitude, but as we know, under the guidance of his teacher, he kept trying and practising, and it was really hard work but eventually became a master.
Hyperlink in the picture.

7. What does this mean in school? FIXED
Children who are scared to fail
Children who will not push themselves
Children who can not take constructive criticism
Children who give up easily when things are hard
Children who compare themselves to others – know their ‘rank’ in the class
Children who avoid things they find hard
Children who make excuses when things go wrong – It can’t be their fault
Get their sense of achievement from the final outcome

8. What does this mean in school? GROWTH
Children who don’t just seek challenge, they thrive on it
Children who love to stretch themselves
Show the same level of interest even when they find the work very challenging
Mistakes and failures are opportunities to learn
This is hard, this is fun!
Get their sense of achievement from the effort it took – I worked hard at this!
If you apply this to school situations you can see how this will impact on learning.
If children approach new learning with the attitude that they won’t be able to do something or if they give up quickly their progress will be limited. With a growth mindset, the children will keep trying, they understand that effort, resilience in their learning and perseverance are the keys to progress.

9. What we are doing in school
Praising the process not the end product
You must feel very proud, you worked so hard on this
You found this hard but you persevered, well done!
This isn’t challenging you much, let’s make it harder!
I know you felt like giving up, but you didn’t and that is excellent
Don’t label – you are so clever, naughty, a natural….
Celebrate mistakes! The Power of Yet!
There are no failures, just a step towards success
Constructive feedback – how to do it better
High expectations for effort and perseverance
Teaching how the brain works and how we learn
As a school, we are not just interested in helping children succeed in their primary school curriculum, we want them to succeed in life. Our school values, the way we design our curriculum and how we feedback to children on their learning is part of our strategy for helping children develop a growth mindset.
The most important strategy we use is praising the process. This means praising how they completed the task. Recognising the effort and perseverance the person has put into the learning and acknowledging this.
I am so proud of you, this was hard for you but you didn’t give up.
You tried really hard on this, I can see the effort you put in, well done!
Wow, you are so ready for a harder challenge.
The point is for children to recognise that the end product is not the be all and end all, it is how they get there that is vital. Then, through the success they achieve through their efforts, they start to thrive and want that challenge rather than fearing it.
The most important word in our vocabulary is YET. When a child says they can’t do it, our response is you can’t do it YET. But work hard, put the effort in and you will get there.
We also need children to fail. They need to understand that failure is an opportunity to learn, by making mistakes, evaluating what wrong and trying different approaches they will make progress and learn how to cope with future difficulties and failures.

10. Iceberg analogy – we can only see one third of an iceberg
Iceberg analogy – we can only see one third of an iceberg. Success is the same, we don’t see the hard work, failure and effort others put in to achieve their success and they don’t see what you have to put in. If you understand this, other people’s success or your perceived lack of success yet does not become threatening or daunting.

11. WHAT CAN PARENTS DO? Remember the power of yet!
Praise the process, the effort and determination they showed
Praise how hard they worked
Remind them that practice will strengthen their neural pathways
Help children to take responsibility for their own learning and progress
Daily learning discussions
Encourage risk taking and learning from mistakes
For growth mindset to have an impact, it is equally important that parents model having a growth mindset themselves but also use this language with their child. This short clip will give you some ideas
Hyperlink on the hand.

12. Encourage and model positive self talk
Do you have a growth mindset? Do you model this or do you say statements like ‘I was no good at maths’ or ‘I can’t cook!’
Listen for the messages you are giving
You learnt that so quickly! You’re so clever! (‘If I don’t learn something quickly, I can’t be clever’)
Look at that drawing you did! You’re going to be the next Picasso! (‘I mustn’t try drawing something hard or they’ll realise I’m not that good’)
You’re so brilliant, you get an A without even studying! (‘If I have to study next time, they won’t think I’m brilliant’)

13.
Try this online self assessment to see what you can do to support your child in developing a growth mindset.

14. What have you learnt? What will you do differently
Additional resources
‘Mindset: How you can fulfill your potential’ by Carol Dweck
‘Bounce’ by Matthew Syed
‘Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us’ by Daniel H Pink
‘Your Fantastic Elastic Brain’ by Deak Joan
‘The Dot’ by Peter H Reynolds

15. Your child comes home from school saying she
Scenario for workshop
Your child comes home from school saying she
feels wasn’t given the
most challenging work
and found the work easy.

16. plays with him at playtime.
Scenario for workshop
Your child says nobody
plays with him at playtime.

17. Your child completed their homework quickly,
Scenario for workshop
Your child completed their homework quickly,
skipping several questions and answering others
in a short, imprecise way.
How do you respond?

18. Scenario for workshop
Your year R child says to you, “I was counting and I missed out the number 8 and now I feel sad.”

19.  Scenario for workshop
As a child, you really loved sport and you want your child to love it too and get as much pleasure from it as you did. Your child shows no interest in sport beyond school.

20. Your child fails an exam
Scenario for workshop
Your child fails an exam
and is devastated,
feeling she’s let you down.

21. Scenario for workshop
Lots of children in the class get invited to a birthday party. Your child thinks she’s the only one who didn’t get an invitation

22. Scenario for workshop
Your child has worked really hard on their homework but has got it wrong.

23. Your child won’t read at home. How can you encourage?
Scenario for workshop
Your child won’t read at home. How can you encourage?