Our Thinking School Journey at St Bernadette’s
Our thinking school journey started in 2009/10 when we wanted to look
at ways in which we can help children to think about their ‘thinking’ and
access strategies to help them organise their thoughts to access learning.
We had already been introduced to Thinking Maps back in 2007, but it
was not really embedded and to be truthful, was more ‘bolted on’ than
part of a holistic approach to thinking. To address this we joined the
thinking schools network and agreed that ‘thinking’ would be a priority on
the school improvement plan for 2010-13. We attended the annual
Thinking School’s conference in Swindon and this was a great opportunity
to talk to others and share ideas.
Suzanne Williams (Deputy) was appointed the school’s CEC and our action
plan was shared with staff and governors. The main thrust of our action
plan was to:
 Visit schools with thinking school accreditation;
 Research cognitive tools and introduce new initiatives to the whole
school;
 Attend courses linked to the theory, application ands assessment
of cognitive education;
 Set up a Drive Team;
 Consolidate good practise in the school;
 Closely monitor the impact of cognitive tools, strategies and
resources implemented;
A range of thinking tools are now successfully applied throughout the
school: Hyerle’s Thinking Maps, De Bono’s Thinking Hats, Q Matrix and
the TASC Wheel. Habits of Mind have become the basis through which all
thinking tools are used. Staff and pupils have made these their own,
adding explanatory child speak language to the original headings. A Habits
of Mind mat is also used to help pupils see at a glance which Habits they
have been using and these are used well at plenaries or introduction to
lessons.
We have linked our medium term planning for our contexts to Howard
Gardner’s multiple intelligences and Bloom’s six levelled taxonomy
framework, enabling teachers to provide a fully integrated approach to
pupil’s learning.
We have come a long way on our thinking journey and thinking strategies
are now well integrated into our teaching and learning which we will
continue to build on. We received Thinking School status in February
2012.
Karen Ash
Headteacher
St Bernadette’s Catholic Primary, Cardiff