Our Growth Mindset Heroes

A group of children were in a PE lesson when their teacher set the task of getting from one side of the room to the other without touching the floor using only 2 mats. The teacher gave them no input and said they needed to work as a team. For a while the group struggled, bickering and falling out about how would be best to do the task. One of the children decided to tell the teacher that they didn’t understand.

She called in Be Cooperative Cara who swooped in and decided to help. She listened to the others and explained how she would do it. Another child disagreed with her opinion but was kind about it. They tried lots of varieties of ways of travelling across the room, being tolerant of other ideas and decisions as they did. Eventually they found a good method and communicated well to one another, beating the rest of the teams in the race!

Sophie was in a PE lesson when her teacher asked her to have a go at catching a small ball. Sophie was a little worried because catching was new to her especially with a small ball! Luckily Have A Go Hannah was flying by and swooped down to help. She always encourages others to try and enjoy new things and to use their growth mindsets to help them. She just knew she had to have a go or she’d never be able to improve her catching skills. She wasn’t worried about dropping the ball anymore because Have A Go Hannah explained that mistake making is important and common when learning something new. So, her partner threw the small ball to her and it slipped right through her fingers. Her teacher shared some good ways to catch a ball and Sophie put in so much effort and tried super hard so that she could improve. When Sophie was trying to catch the ball, she didn’t always follow the ball with her eyes instead she blinked them shut. Have a Go Hannah helped Sophie to realise that this was a mistake that she was making- but that’s okay because it’s how we learn! So, she tried hard to keep her eyes focused on the ball because she knew she had to learn from this mistake. So, she kept on having a go and she ended up catching more balls the more she practised.

Year 4 were out for playtime. Out of the corner of his eye, Freddie noticed a tiny silver flash of something sticking out of the ground by the bushes. That afternoon during History, he wondered what it could be. His teacher had shown him lots of treasures that other people called archaeologists had found in the ground and he couldn’t wait to get back outside to get a closer look. The next day, Freddie gathered his friends around the mystery artefact. “what if it is treasure?” said Freddie.

“What if it’s the end of a silvery sword?” asked Billy, “the kind you fight tyrants and monsters and dragons with.”

“I’m not sure.” Explained Sarah “What if it’s the top of an alien spaceship left over from an invasion?

She gave the silver item a little press with her finger and listened to it give a slight crackle back.

Milton had been standing nearby trying to remember where he’d seen something similar before. Suddenly he had a thought. “What if it’s a star that’s fallen out of the sky?”

“Or the top of a huge diamond?” added Millie as she skipped speedily past.

All day, the children wondered what this mysterious item was. They tried to think of possible reasons for it being there. They decided it would be best if they went home and tried to find information about silver things that crackle and stick out of the ground.

The next day there was a visitor in school. It was Be Curious Chloe. She was an expert in finding things out because she always knew the right questions to ask. She was interested in everything and was always trying to work out how things fit together including clues.  She liked to look for patterns and connections. She listened carefully to all the ideas and decided to take a look for herself. As she stood and looked, and listened and poked and prodded, her curiosity took over. She knew what it was.

Elegantly crouching near the silver object, she took hold of a corner and pulled.

“Is it a sword or an alien spaceship, silver treasure or a fallen star or a huge diamond?” Everyone was desperate for their idea to be the right one.

“No,” giggled Be Curious Chloe, “it’s just an empty crisp packet.”

All the children laughed together. When they went home they lay in their beds and all wondered… what if…?

One day, Tom was sat at the back of his history class, intently watching his teacher pace the carpet at the front. He was supposed to be creative and draw a scene from medieval times but could not think up any new ideas, or questions to ask the teacher. He sat there, pondering about metal armour and catapults.

Tom called for Use Your Imagination Ivy. “Let your imagination go,” Ivy called. Tom’s imagination grew into a vision that showed him knights in shining armour with swords and shields (Even some with maces). Many things flew by Tom, including:

Blacksmiths, Castles, Catapults, Drawbridges, Moats, Horses, Armour, Flags, Helmets, Swords, Shields, Dungeons

Tom observed their beauty and detail on all of these fascinating medieval items- he had so many questions to ask! They all danced around like actresses in a play and seemed to be acting a scene out. He watched swords clash and catapults fire for what seemed like hours.

Tom – who had had enough by now – told himself to wake up. Now he knew exactly what he was going to draw; he had so many new ideas. He was going to draw… a battle with knights riding horses. Immediately, he set off drawing his art.

At the end of the lesson, he was complimented by his teacher on his creativity and learnt to let his imagination grow just like Use Your Imagination Ivy.