Naomi Parkhill is Deputy Headteacher for Pastoral Care at The Mulberry House School, which recently attained the NACE Challenge Award for the third time. In this blog post, she shares some of the ways in which the school ensures challenge is embedded throughout all aspects of the school’s provision, for all learners.

At The Mulberry House School we are firm believers that challenge is not something that should be saved solely for the most able pupils, but should be readily available for all. With our school ethos being “We reach high to be the people we want to be, respect ourselves and others and enjoy each new challenge”, it is of utmost importance to us that challenge permeates the very centre of who we are as a school. We have a broad curriculum and value each subject equally. All of our children are encouraged to find their own strength and adopt a growth mindset across both curricular and extracurricular activities. 

Here are our top five tips for putting challenge at the heart of your school.

1. Know what excellence looks like

To challenge pupils to produce the very best work they are capable of, the teacher needs to ensure that they have got a firm understanding of what this looks like, both for the subject/area they are delivering and for the age of the children. This needs to incorporate both knowledge and skills. We have spent a lot of time as a school collaboratively deciding on the standards that we are aiming for; it is important that all staff agree on this in order to provide consistent challenge for all pupils.

2. Share this vision explicitly with learners

Once a decision has been made about what excellence looks like, it is important that we share this with our pupils. It is important to note that this is not limited to sharing examples of excellent work; the children need to know what it is that makes that piece of work excellent. This can be achieved through effective modelling, in which the teacher explains the thought process of an ‘expert’ in the subject as they work, helping to raise the standards of work for all. Another way to empower the children to strive for excellence is through carefully constructed success criteria, which act as a set of instructions to achieve the learning objective, again supporting challenge for all.

3. Empower learners to embrace new challenges

As a growth mindset school we wholeheartedly believe that anyone can improve if they try. A central part of our Mulberry House Way is “Try your best to be your best”. Through instilling this learning attitude in our children from a young age, they are prepared to accept challenges and give everything their maximum effort. Scaffolding plays a key role in supporting our children to achieve excellence. This allows us to provide each child or class with what they need to ensure that they produce the highest quality of work that they can. Allow the children to practise getting things right, then over time remove this support; this will lead to them creating a high standard of work independently.

4. Provide challenging extension and enrichment opportunities

Our recent case study exploring “Enrichment vs Extension” as a means of providing challenge for all – submitted as part of our recent NACE Challenge Award reaccreditation – has been successful in supporting the “challenge for all” aims of the NACE Challenge Development Programme. The outcomes of this case study have enriched the quality-first teaching that we endeavour to deliver. This has, in turn, impacted favourably on our children’s outcomes. We have spent time researching the difference between extension and enrichment opportunities and gaining an understanding of the value of each. We plan and deliver lessons that are centred on enrichment opportunities, with extension activities supporting individual learners to either close gaps or take the next step in their learning.

5. Encourage children to share their opinions

Central to the development of each child across the curriculum is their confidence to share their opinions and thought processes. From an early age we believe it is important to enable our children to explain how they have reached an answer and so the focus is on this rather than simply just providing the “correct” answer. In essence, we have started to embed metacognition, thinking about one’s thinking, in our Key Stage 1 learning. The impact that this has had on both children’s attitudes towards learning and academic outcomes has been significant. We look forward to rolling this out through our EYFS classes and seeing the impact this has.

How does your school provide challenge for all? Contact us to share your experience.

NACE is proud to NACE is proud to partner with Cambridge University’s NRICH initiative, which is dedicated to creating free maths resources and activities to promote enriching, challenging maths experiences for all. In this blog post, NRICH Director Dr Ems Lord shares details of the latest free maths resources from the team, and an exclusive opportunity for NACE members…

In this blog post, I’m delighted to introduce NRICH’s new child-friendly reflection tool for nurturing successful mathematicians – part of our suite of free maths resources and activities to promote enriching, challenging mathematical experiences for all. We very much hope that you enjoy exploring it with your classes to support them to realise their potential. Such innovations are developed in partnerships with schools and teachers, and we’ll also be inviting you to work directly with our team to help design a future classroom resource intended to challenge able mathematicians (see below or click here for details of our upcoming online event for NACE members).

At NRICH, we believe that learning mathematics is about much more than simply learning topics and routines. Successful mathematicians understand the curriculum content and are fluent in mathematical skills and procedures, but they can also solve unfamiliar problems, explain their thinking and have a positive attitude about themselves as learners of mathematics. Inspired by the 'rope model' proposed by Kilpatrick et al. (2001), which draws attention to the importance of a balanced curriculum developing all five strands of mathematical proficiency equally rather than promoting some strands at the expense of others, we have developed this new model and image which uses child-friendly language so that teachers and parents can share with learners five key ingredients that characterise successful mathematicians: 

• Understanding: Maths is a network of linked ideas. I can connect new mathematical thinking to what I already know and understand.
• Tools: I have a toolkit that I can choose tools from to help me solve problems. Practising using these tools helps me become a better mathematician.
• Problem solving: Problem solving is an important part of maths. I can use my understanding, skills and reasoning to help me work towards solutions.
• Reasoning: Maths is logical. I can convince myself that my thinking is correct and I can explain my reasoning to others.
• Attitude: Maths makes sense and is worth spending time on. I can enjoy maths and become better at it by persevering.

Using the tool during remote learning and beyond

This reflection tool helps learners to recognise where their mathematical strengths and weaknesses lie. Each of the maths activities in our accompanying primary and secondary features is designed to offer learners opportunities to develop their mathematical capabilities in multiple strands. We hope learners will have a go at some of the activities and then take time to reflect on their own mathematical capabilities, so that when full-time schooling returns for all they are ready to share their excitement about what they have achieved, and are eager to continue on their mathematical journeys.

At NRICH, we believe that following the current period of remote learning, success in settling back into schools will be aided by recognising and acknowledging the mathematical learning that has been achieved at home, and encouraging learners to reflect on how they see themselves as mathematicians. It may be that some learners will not recognise the value of what they have achieved while they have been out of the classroom, because what they have been doing at home may be quite different from what they usually do in school. We want learners to appreciate that there are many ways to demonstrate their mathematical capabilities, and to recognise the ways in which they behave mathematically. By inviting children and students to assess their mathematical progress on a broad range of measures, we hope to change the narrative to recognise what learners have achieved, rather than focusing on what they have missed. 

Get involved….

As the current period of remote learning continues, we’re continuing to develop new free maths resources, and we always value input from teachers. On 3 February 2021, the NRICH team is hosting an online meetup for NACE members during which we’ll share an exciting new classroom resource, currently under development, intended to challenge able mathematicians. The session will involve an opportunity to explore this new resource and share your insights to help inform its future development. We look forward to working with you. Details and booking.

Very best wishes for 2021 – the NRICH team.

Ref: Kilpatrick, J., Swafford, J. and Findell, F. (eds) (2001) Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics. Mathematics Learning Study Committee: National Research Council.

NACE is collaborating with York St John University on research and resources to help schools support more able learners with higher levels of perfectionism. In this blog post, the university’s Laura C. Fenwick, Marianne E. Etherson and Professor Andrew P. Hill explain how some classrooms are more perfectionistic than others and how reducing the degree to which classrooms are perfectionistic can help enhance learning and maintain student wellbeing. 

Research suggests that more able learners are typically more perfectionistic than their classmates. Accordingly, more able learners place great demands on themselves to achieve unrealistic standards and respond with harsh self-criticism when their standards go unmet. However, more recently researchers have begun to explore the idea that perfectionism may not solely be an individual problem. Instead, environments such as the classroom have perfectionistic qualities that can both increase levels of perfectionism among those in the environment as well as having a detrimental impact on everyone in the environment regardless of their personal level of perfectionism. This is of concern as perfectionistic environments are likely to hinder learners’ capacity to thrive, and contribute to a range of negative outcomes, such as greater stress and poorer wellbeing. 

A perfectionistic environment (or “perfectionistic climate”) refers to cues and messages that promote the view that performances (e.g. grades) must be perfect and less than perfect performances are unacceptable. The cues and messages are created by important social agents such as teachers, coaches and parents, and can be communicated both intentionally as well as inadvertently. In the classroom, the teacher is likely to be the main source of this information; in particular, though the language that is used, how tasks are structured, and the strategies used to reward or sanction student behaviour. Fortunately, teachers also have the potential to help reduce how perfectionistic the classroom is by purposefully avoiding certain cues and messages and promoting others. Here, we identify key components of a perfectionistic classroom and provide alternative strategies aimed at reducing the likelihood that the classroom is experienced as being perfectionistic by students.

Unrealistic expectations

Perfectionistic classrooms include expectations that are unrealistic and never lowered. The expectations are uniformly applied and do not account for the individual ability of the learner, their personal progress, or individual circumstances.

Key takeaways: In most classrooms, it is likely that learners will know what is expected of them in terms of behaviours and grades. However, what is most important about these targets and expectations is that they are realistic and adaptable for each learner. Standards that are personally challenging and lie within reach with concerted effort are the most optimally motivating and offer the greatest development opportunity for students.  

Frequent or excessive criticism

Frequent or excessive criticism is also a feature of a perfectionistic classroom. This can include a focus on minor and inconsequential mistakes or an undue emphasis on the need to get everything “just right”.

Key takeaways: Avoid pointing out unimportant mistakes and focusing on errors when work reflects a student’s best effort or shows progress. Remedial feedback is obviously necessary, but the language used is important. Effective feedback focuses on the quality of the work, not the qualities of the learner (“this aspect of the work can be improved” versus “you have made a mistake here”). Ensure that positives are highlighted and reinforced before offering critical comments, especially for more perfectionistic students.

Problematic use of rewards and sanctions

The use of rewards and sanctions are common and powerful motivational tools in the classroom but when used to create feelings of shame or guilt, they can become problematic. Public displays of reward or sanction are best avoided because they promote these types of coercive emotions and encourage social comparison as opposed to a focus on personal development. Withdrawal of recognition and appreciation based on performance, for example, also reinforces the view that personal value comes solely from recognition and achievement. 

Key takeaways: It is difficult to avoid the use of rewards and sanctions, but where possible these need to be provided privately. For rewards, focus on behaviours (e.g. effort) rather than innate qualities and for sanctions, encourage a sense of personal ownership and agency in proposed repreparation. Ultimately, it is important that students feel liked and valued regardless of their performances and behaviour, good or bad.

Anxiousness or preoccupation with mistakes

One final aspect of a perfectionistic classroom is anxiousness or preoccupation with mistakes. Risk taking is avoided and failure is discouraged.

Key takeaways: Mistakes (even big ones) need to be normalised in the classroom. A strong focus on creativity, problem-solving, and opportunities for learning through “trial and error” will instil a more resilient mindset and counterbalance undue apprehension regarding mistakes. 

Summary

The concept of perfectionistic environments emphasises the need for more purposeful construction of the classroom. In being mindful of each of the issues above, and better monitoring and changing the cues and messages provided in the classroom, we believe teachers can alter the degree to which the environment is experienced as perfectionistic by students. In addition, in doing so, this will help reduce perfectionism and its negative effects among all students and be especially useful and important for more able and talented students who are more prone to the problems associated with perfectionism.

References

Hewitt, P. L., & Flett, G. L. (1991). Perfectionism in the self and social contexts: Conceptualization, assessment, and association with psychopathology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 456-470.

Hill, A. P., & Grugan, M. (2020). Introducing perfectionistic climate. Perspectives on Early Childhood Psychology and Education, 4, 263-276.

Stricker, J., Buecker, S., Schneider, M., & Preckel, F. (2020). Intellectual giftedness and multidimensional perfectionism: A meta-analytic review. Educational Psychology Review, 32, 391-414.

Read more:

• Perfectionism in more able learners: what do we know and what next?
• Perfectionism and “mattering” in more able learners
• Survey results: understanding the impact of lockdown learning

Join the conversation… York St John University’s Professor Andrew P. Hill will lead a keynote session on 17 November 2020 as part of the NACE Leadership Conference, exploring current research on perfectionism and more able learners, and how schools can create learning environments that reduce perfectionistic thinking. View the full conference programme.

NACE is collaborating with York St John University on research and resources to help schools support more able learners with high levels of perfectionism. In this blog post, the university’s Luke F. Olsson, Michael C. Grugan and Andrew P. Hill outline the current research in this field and how growing awareness of the problem can be used to reshape classroom climates for the better.

The need to be or appear perfect pervades all aspects of society. In education, this is evident in that the experiences of many students appear to be underpinned by irrational beliefs that they need to perform perfectly. Perfectionism – an aspect of people’s personality that involves unrealistically high standards and overly critical evaluation – is therefore a particularly important characteristic to examine when considering the experiences of students.

Recent research suggests that perfectionism has become a hidden epidemic among students over the last 30 years, with students now more perfectionistic than ever before. In addition, this complex characteristic has been found to explain a wide range of outcomes among students. On one hand, some aspects of being perfectionistic are related to better academic performance. But, on the other hand, other aspects of perfectionism have been found to be significant sources of psychological distress for students, including burnout and depression.

Regarding more able learners, one interesting study of 10 samples including over 4,000 students found that intellectually gifted students tend to display higher levels of aspects of perfectionism than non-gifted students. One implication is that more able students are potentially at greater risk for mental health and wellbeing issues. This is evident in other research which has found that while more able students perform better academically, they can also be unhappier, lonelier, and have lower self-esteem. Tellingly, this may also be why more able students often respond to failure and setbacks more negatively.

As a consequence of what we have learned from research, it is apparent that more may need to be done to better support perfectionistic more able learners. Critically, if more able learners display signs of mental health difficulties, they need to be referred to a mental health professional. As such, those who work with more able students will need to be able to recognise when this might be the case. Improving mental health literacy among teachers is one way to do so.

There is also a great deal that can be done in regard to preventing mental health difficulties before they arise. We believe that prevention efforts aimed at reducing perfectionism are particularly important in this regard. One new area of research focuses on understanding how the environment created in achievement contexts such as the classroom can be designed in a way to discourage perfectionistic thinking among students. Our work in this area suggests that perfectionistic environments can involve a number of features including unrealistic standards (e.g. demanding extremely high standards regardless of ability), harsh criticism (e.g. fixating on minor mistakes and errors), manipulation and control (e.g. public punishments and rewards to motivate students), and anxiousness (e.g. signalling excessive concern over mistakes).

As awareness of the negative effects of perfectionism for more able learners students increases, there will be a greater emphasis on what teachers can do to support students. We believe that reshaping the classroom climate and making it less perfectionistic is one way teachers can help do so, and combat the hidden epidemic of perfectionism in young students.

NACE, York St John University and Haybridge High School (a NACE R&D Hub leading school) are currently trialling new resources to help schools raise awareness about perfectionism and support students with high levels of perfectionism. Watch out for updates in our monthly email newsfeed.

Andrew Johnston, Teacher, Science Coordinator and Head of Research and Development at Copthorne Primary School, shares five approaches to develop resilience for all learners in your school…

The number of children under 11 being referred for specialist mental health treatment has increased by 50% and waiting times for such treatment have trebled (BBC freedom of information requests, July 2019). The Youth Association has recently called for mental health to be taught as part of the national curriculum. Furthermore, the Department of Education has said that early intervention is key to preventing mental health challenges later in life.

Clearly, there is a huge role for schools to play in supporting our young people to have good mental health. Unsurprisingly, there is also evidence that focusing on wellbeing is likely to impact positively on learning outcomes. The EEF has recently published recommendations for improving social and emotional learning (SEL) in schools – reporting that well-implemented SEL teaching has the potential to give learning gains of +4 months over a year.

What does this mean in the context of supporting our more able learners? Those with high achievement and/or potential can often be anxious about their academic performance. Students who are repeatedly told they are very able, and who find failure impossible to consider, often have problems associated with anxiety and self-worth. I would argue that these students need to be taught that failure and struggle are an essential element of learning and a normal part of life. As highlighted in Element 3c of the NACE Challenge Framework, it is important to consider “social and emotional support” as well as academic provision for the more able.

Many schools are already teaching ‘resilience’ and ‘wellbeing’: dogs in school, outdoor learning, mentoring and school-based therapy are some of the provisions being offered. As all schools will know, the new Ofsted framework places significant emphasis on curriculum: “Curriculum matters, as it defines the knowledge and experiences that learners will receive beyond their home environment.” With this in mind, it is important to consider whether we are teaching resilience and SEL as ‘add-ons’, or as integrated aspects of a broad curriculum.

Researcher and lecturer David Glynne-Percy highlights the importance of ensuring all learners have access to opportunities to develop resilience and self-esteem – particularly through extracurricular activities offered as part of the school day, so they are accessible to pupils who rarely stay after school. His research also highlights the benefits of opportunities to compete, develop competence and receive feedback – all helping to develop resilience, confidence, leadership and sustained engagement.

Serving an inner-city community, providing children with fresh experiences is one of the main drivers of our new curriculum. We have focused on enriching our curriculum in the following ways:

1. Working with the Brilliant Club to raise aspirations

We work with the Brilliant Club to raise the aspirations of our most able learners from families who have not yet had a university graduate. Supported by lecturers at Leeds and Manchester Universities, participating pupils can experience university lectures, complete academic assignments and get a taste of what it is like to continue their education at university and the opportunities this can afford them.

2. Wellbeing-focused school clubs

Our children have had the opportunity to develop their wellbeing through cooking, arts and crafts and sports clubs. Last year, as part of a programme focusing on essential life skills, we began a cycling club for pupil premium children and low prior-attainers – providing opportunities to develop fitness and balance, alongside the experience and challenge of mastering a new skill. As part of this, children were recently able to attend a UCI event in Bradford as part of the 2019 Cycling World Championships and represent our school there. We found these children developed an ambassadorial role and now encourage their peers to be involved. Children’s feedback shows that they feel valued members of the school and have further developed a sense of belonging. This year we will assess whether this impact leads to better engagement in other aspects of school life and improved academic outcomes.

3. Developing breaktime and lunchtime provision

As part of our curriculum development, breaktime and lunchtime provision was completely redeveloped last academic year. Staff, including mid-day meal supervisors, were trained to support children to play a range of games and activities during lunchtimes and playtimes. This resulted in a vast improvement in behaviour across the school during these periods, but also allowed children to develop their social and emotional skills as they received feedback and instruction from staff.

4. Incorporating growth mindset

Consider this list summarising the behaviour of individuals with fixed mindsets:

·         Overgeneralising from one experience (e.g. a single test)

·         Exaggerating failures relative to successes

·         Categorising themselves in unflattering ways

·         Setting self-worth contingencies e.g. “If I do not get the highest mark in the class in my maths test I am a failure (or will be in trouble with my dad).”

·         Losing faith in ability to perform tasks

·         Underestimating the efficacy of effort

As a school we saw that these statements described some of our highest-achieving pupils.

Over the last three years, we have introduced growth mindset across the school, aiming to encourage children to enjoy challenges, embrace mistakes and understand that risk-taking is an important part of their learning. After initial training, teaching staff have completed cycles of lesson study to assess the impact of this approach. We have found that all groups of children are more open to trying difficult tasks or new skills and fewer children have a fear of failure or appearing less intelligent if they make mistakes.

Further to this, we asked staff to follow this guidance for supporting learners, including the more able:

1.      Tell them ability is not fixed.

2.      Encourage risk-taking in lessons.

3.      Refuse to help students who have not attempted tasks.

4.      Highlight failure as part of learning and praise effort.

5.      Down-play success but praise effort.

5. Appointment of a Mindfulness and Wellbeing Champion 

The appointment of a Mindfulness and Wellbeing Champion in 2017 has helped raise the profile of mental health and wellbeing across the school and our multi-academy trust for both staff and learners. This staff member has developed a range of strategies to teach resilience and mindfulness – taking risks, celebrating mistakes, open-ended tasks, mastery-style teaching – and has worked with parents to help them to understand the impact of self-esteem on their child’s success at school.

Read next: 4 ways to avoid “But am I right Miss?”