19 July 2024

Dear Clifton Notties Community,

Welcome back to the start of the third term! It has been an energetic start filled with great excitement, especially as we sent our Grade 7 children off on their long-awaited Botswana tour. This adventure is a wonderful opportunity for exploration and learning, and we eagerly await the stories they will share upon their return.

This term, we are thrilled to launch our new meta-strategic philosophy and approach to the teaching and learning process. It is an agenda for education that underpins all that we do to raise young children who are ethical and responsible citizens, leaders in their field, critical thinkers, resilient change makers, problem solvers, and happy, independent adults. It is based upon the research work of Reuven Feuerstein and Professor Katherine Greenberg which is designed to teach children how to think about their thinking through strategy-based thinking. 

The Cognitive Enrichment Advantage (or CEA) has demonstrated its effectiveness in improving academic achievement. The premise of the CEA approach is that learners who understand how they learn are able to develop personal learning strategies that can help them cope with any new learning situation. Together, teachers and parents mediate learning experiences in a dynamic partnership.

CEA learners develop personal learning strategies based on their knowledge of the CEA Building Blocks of Thinking and Tools of Learning. The twelve Building Blocks of Thinking help learners to think effectively. They focus on approaching the learning experience, making meaning of it, and then confirming it. The eight Tools of Learning focus on the role that feelings and behaviour play in learning.

At Clifton, we will focus on either a Building Block for Thinking or a Tool for Learning every three weeks and integrate these concepts into all that we do. The first tool for learning will be that of self-regulation. 

Self-regulation is to seek deep, personal value in learning experiences that energises thinking and behaviour and leads to greater commitment and success. If I use the Tool of Self-Regulation then I will think about what I need to do next and follow through. In essence, self-regulation empowers our children to become more independent and resilient learners.

The Feuerstein Instrumental Enrichment (IE) is a series of non-curricular paper and pencil tasks that focus on perceptual and motor function. The programme teaches all learners how to think. The IE tools give structure to a teaching method that helps children approach learning differently, using researched cognitive exercises to develop skills such as reasoning, problem-solving, empathy and emotional intelligence. The brain can change and grow and every child has learning potential.

Clifton School has begun the process of actively embracing cognitive education and its principles. Knowing that the brain is characterised by ‘plasticity’ has inspired the staff to use mediated learning experiences that deliberately develop new neural pathways. Clifton is beginning the process of rolling out the work of Feuerstein as part of its cognitive education programme, in its curriculum, across all grades as set timetabled lessons each week. “The Feuerstein Method is the only educational method that teaches students the process behind thinking and learning skills in an organixed, structured way.” Feuerstein Institute 2016

We hope this insight into what our staff have been receiving professional development on, is an exciting initiative for you as well. We invite parents to embark with us on this refreshed way of thinking about thinking. Together, we can support our children in becoming successful, lifelong learners. This is also aligned with our "Champions of Childhood" philosophy. 

May it be a fantastic term ahead!