Monday 25 November 2019 - 6.15pm to 7.45pm
"Good character education is good education - we need to take character education as seriously as we take academic education." Berkowitz and Bier (2005)
Too often disappointing student progress is ascribed to cognition, with young learners described as 'weak', or their performance diagnosed in terms of their intelligence: 'they aren't capable of this work', 'they're not bright enough to grasp this'. There is a growing body of research that suggests something very different: that successful students approach their studies with a specific set of behaviours, skills and attitudes and that despite not differing cognitively from their peers they can significantly outperform them. In short, academic success can be as much about character as it is about intelligence.
At Princethorpe College, we are committed to supporting our pupils in all aspects of their education and development and over the forthcoming academic year we will continue to embed our programme of character education, alongside our learning skills programme and our excellent Da Vinci Programme.
At the start of the academic year our key stage 4 pupils have been introduced to the five key principles of a GCSE Mindset:
· Vision
· Effort
· Systems
· Practice
· Attitude
These key principles will be the focus of a number of tutor sessions, whereby pupils will have the opportunity to develop and explore them further in order to support their GCSE exam preparation.
As part of this strategy, Princethorpe College will be holding an interactive GCSE revision evening, on Monday 25 November between 6.15pm and 7.45pm, for the parents and pupils in the Sports Hall. It will be hosted by Martin Griffin and Steve Oakes, both of whom have worked with more than sixty schools to develop effective character education systems. They are also authors of The GCSE Mindset (Crown House, 2017). During the evening, Martin and Steve will explore the key principles of having a positive and proactive learning mindset and share tools and strategies for effective coaching and intervention with parents and equip parents and pupils with practical ideas and strategies to support their children throughout their GCSE courses. Pupils will be given the opportunity to trial out different revision strategies on the evening in a unique workshop style event. These presentations have always been very well-received and we do hope that Year 11 parents and pupils will be able to join us for what promises to be a very useful and informative evening.
If you wish to attend, please complete the form here.
We look forward to seeing you at the event. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at lizpyne@princethorpe.co.uk or Mrs Fionnuala Schofield at fionnualaschofield@princethorpe.co.uk.
Dr Liz Pyne
Assistant Head - Teaching and Learning
