At Great Malvern we plan opportunities for our children to develop the characteristics being Curious; Determined and Ambitious.   These characteristics enable children to have aspirations for life and learning and give them the skills to achieve in both. 

We understand that all children learn different things at different rates.

To enable the children to learn at their best in all lessons, teachers provide a range of opportunities to change the level of challenge while all children are focussing on and mastering the same learning. 

Additionally, children are taught strategies to be able to adjust the level of challenge independently so that they are in the learning zone - a really important part of children being motivated to learn. 

Through careful planning and appropriate opportunities children are enabled and encouraged to work within the Learning Zone – where they will experience challenge but have the curiosity, skills and determination to flourish. 

To learn we need to experience appropriate and carefully planned challenge, we need to appreciate that mistakes are normal and help us learn as we recognise why we made the mistake and don’t give in until we get it right. 

We are Curious. 

We are Determined. 

We are Ambitious. 

Zones of Learning

The Learning Loop shows the path to learning:

• To successfully navigate the learning loop then children need to believe that they can achieve. We can grow our brain’s capacity to learn and solve problems through developing our determination. 

• One of the most significant elements of developing children’s self-esteem and belief that they achieve is the use of language, for example, we regularly use the word ‘yet’. Knowing that we can’t do something yet but knowing that we will be able to if we keep practising, motivates us to continue to learn. 

• Through this the children understand that there is no limit to what they can learn and achieve. 

• We are also developing our understanding of the importance of mistakes. The children understand that mistakes are an essential part of learning and that without them, we are not challenging ourselves enough. We celebrate occasions where children have realised their mistakes and leant from them. This makes children much more confident and willing to try new things.  We refer to these as 'Marvellous Mistakes'.

Our Learning Muscles 

• The brain is like a muscle, the more you use it the more effective it becomes! 

• The CDA (curious, determined, ambitious) brain helps children to focus on the skills that make a successful learner! 

We use our CDA (Curious, Determined, Ambitious) Brains