Thinking

Our children learn about their brains and how we can shape them to help us learn better through:

• Executive Function – being able to focus, hold, and work with information in the mind, filter distractions, and switch gears, is like having an air traffic control system at a busy airport to manage the arrivals and departures of dozens of planes on multiple runways. The following link to Harvard University explains more.

Harvard University Working Paper

Our school researched the teaching of Executive Function for the Innovative Learning Project (ILE) for the OECD in 2011/12.

Click here for the Bridgewater Primary School ILE Report summary (Pdf 984Kb).

• Feedback – teachers understand the role frequent feedback plays in helping children develop as resilient learners who know how they are going with their learning, and what their next steps are. This feedback is not comparative, meaning it is referenced against the learning goals for that child (aligned with the requirements of the Australian Curriculum).  Children are not compared to, and do not compete with other children.

Our children are thinkers, who consider important questions about their place in our close communities and the wider world through:

• Community of Inquiry and Philosophy programs where children learn to be better thinkers.

• Personalised Learning involves children learning about an area of interest and developing these skills into in-depth social inquiry, with and through others, into something of relevance or significance to them and their community.