How We Learn

At Staines Prep your child becomes the champion for their learning; we adopt a Growth Mindset culture which – along with the Staines Prep Way – underpins the way we nurture and teach our pupils.

Your child’s mental wellbeing is supported by mindfulness education throughout the school, and we incorporate practices such as Yoga and meditation into lessons.

Growth Mindset

During their time at Staines Prep your child will develop the skills that they need to become an engaged independent learner who is determined to always try their best.

Pupils with a fixed mindset believe that intelligence is an inherent trait. Those with a growth mindset understand that intelligence is a malleable quality: a potential that can be developed​.

With a Growth Mindset your child will invest themselves in learning: they will believe that effort is a positive thing, causing their intelligence to grow and will look for new strategies in the face of frustration and failure. At Staines Prep we focus on praising your child’s effort as opposed to their intelligence. Studies have shown that by praising effort, your child will have higher confidence, motivation and performance. Our positive feedback approach ensures that your child remains engaged in their learning and spots areas for improvement.

Staines Prep’s growth mindset mantra is to:

• Embrace challenge​
• ​Be inspired by the success of others​
• ​Be motivated to work towards your own excellence​
• ​Be resilient when overcoming setbacks​
• ​Reflect on feedback and learn from mistakes​
• ​Commit to hard work, effort and deliberate practise​
• ​Share ideas and learn with curiosity​

Mindfulness

Mindfulness involves learning to direct our attention to our experience as it unfolds moment by moment, with an open-minded curiosity and acceptance. Rather than worrying about what has happened or might happen, it trains us to respond skilfully to whatever is happening right now.

Brain imaging studies show that mindfulness practice reliably and profoundly alters the structure and function of the brain to improve the quality of thought, feeling and concern for others.

Mindfulness training has been proven time and again to improve health and wellbeing, helping people of all ages to learn more effectively, think more clearly, perform better and feel less anxious.

We teach mindfulness in a highly practical way, helping your child to gradually learn to direct their attention to whatever is actually happening, whether that’s their breathing, the sensations in their body, thoughts and feelings or everyday activities such as walking and eating. This can be tricky at first, but with practice your child will be able to sustain and direct their attention, breaking the grip of unhelpful habits, judgements and impulses.

This makes way for calmness and more helpful, kind and rational thinking about all aspects of life.