St. Marie's Catholic Primary School
Thinking Schools
What is a Thinking School?
At St. Marie’s we believe that a thinking school is an educational community in which all members share a common commitment to giving regular, careful thought to everything that takes place.
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This involves learning how to think, reflectively, critically and creatively.
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We believe that successful outcomes will be reflected in students across a wide range of abilities demonstrating independent and co-operative learning skills, high levels of achievement, and both enjoyment and satisfaction in learning.
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Benefits will also be shown in ways which all members of the community interact with and show consideration for each other and in the positive psychological well-being of both students and staff.
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“Self-regulated learners are aware of their strengths and weaknesses, and can motivate themselves to engage in, and improve, their learning.
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Developing pupils’ metacognitive knowledge of how they learn – their knowledge of themselves as a learner, of strategies, and of tasks – is an effective way of improving pupil outcomes.” (EEF Report)
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How we have become a Thinking School
In order to become a Thinking School all stakeholders (including parents and school governors) are fully committed to the school’s aims and how they can best be achieved.
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Staff have been specially trained and methods have been introduced into the curriculum for teaching the skills of thinking and associated cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies.
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The widest possible application of these skills and strategies underpin all other aspects of the curriculum. We believe that metacognitive strategies should be taught in conjunction with specific subject content.
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To see how the Thinking Schools approach is used in each subject, see the subject webpage.
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How Metacognition is used across the Curriculum at St. Marie’s
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In lessons, a series of steps – beginning with the activation and retrieval of prior knowledge leading to independent practice – are used.
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Modelling by the teacher is an effective tool of teaching; when the adult talks through their thought processes in order to develop the pupils’ metacognitive skills.
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Scaffolded examples allow pupils to develop their metacognitive and cognitive skills.
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Challenge is crucial to allow pupils to develop and progress their knowledge of tasks, strategies and themselves as learners. However, challenge needs to be at an appropriate level.
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As well as instruction and modelling, classroom talk is used to develop metacognitive skills: pupil-to-pupil and pupil-teacher talk help build knowledge and understanding of strategies.
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Teachers support pupils to develop independent learning skills.
What are Thinking Frames?
Thinking Frames are a set of graphic organisers that offer learners a way to improve knowledge recall and see, develop and reflect on their own thought and learning processes.
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The Frames can be used by all age groups across all subjects.
See examples of Thinking Frames
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