Put simply, a growth mindset is when an individual believes they can develop their intelligence. Whereas a fixed mindset is when a person believes their intelligence and characteristics cannot be changed in any meaningful way.

In Maths, a fixed mindset might look like this: “I’m no good at maths. It’s not something I’ll ever be good at”.

These pupils tend to avoid taking on challenges in favour of completing easier tasks to look clever. It’s safer to get something easy correct than stumble with a tricker question. We can all think of pupils we’ve taught who are like this.

On the other hand, a pupil with a growth mindset knows that, through dedication and effort, these qualities can change and that they can develop their intelligence and abilities. They believe they can become better mathematicians.

Our School Week: March 2021

We teach the growth mindset throughout the year, but also as a whole school "Our School" week, which is built into our curriculum. 

Using high quality texts, children study famous people who use growth mindset, break down these techniques and think about how they can adopt these into their own lives. This year, all children have also created aspirational art outcomes, to share their own desires for the school.

Throughout the week, explicit links are made to the family values, as well as modelling strength of character and grit. Children learn about a wide range of people within the protected characteristics, to broaden and challenge their own ideas. 

Woodlands Primary School adopts a growth mindset approach and requires this from all pupils, staff and parents.