Thinking Skills

In 2020, we were awarded Advanced Thinking School status for the second time which is very exciting. Miss Penny worked extremely hard to compile evidence and write a report from the school's perspective to gain the award. Below is the report from the University of Exeter written by Dr Judith Kleine Staarman. 

Stanley Park has also been invited to join a hub of Thinking Schools across the UK supporting other schools in their journey to develop thinking skills. Mrs Wheatland took over the role of Research and Development Lead in September 2022 and has been working closely with Miss Penny. Mrs Wheatland will continue to develop Thinking Skills throughout our school and will keep the webpage up to date with the latest developments. 

Stanley Park JKS final report - February-2020

What are Thinking Skills?

Thinking Skills are cognitive processes that we use to solve problems, make different decisions, asking questions, making plans, organising and creating information. 

The Approach

"The success of the approach is that schools take a whole-school approach to the teaching of thinking. This means that thinking becomes central and explicit and all teachers and students develop a common thinking language and toolbox.

As students move from lesson to lesson and teacher to teacher they will be using the same tools and strategies as part of a coherent and well-planned approach. This applies to both primary and secondary schools.

Each school will identify and select specific thinking tools which can be used across the curriculum. These tools will develop specific types of thinking and thinking processes. The students will develop an understanding of how they think and be able to articulate how they think. Teachers will talk about thinking with their students."

How do we use them?

Thinking Maps are an integral part of teaching and learning at Stanley Park. Each of the eight maps a different branch of thinking which is linked to the skill the children are developing. The thinking maps are used not just by the children in learning tasks but during whole class sessions, in staff and governors meetings and in planning sessions. This language for learning is fully embedded within our school community and we are always looking for new ways of developing each child's meta-cognition, their understanding of their own though process. 

Thinking skills are embedded within our school community and is a common language for all children. Please look through our presentations below about how we use Thinking Skills at Stanley Park. 

  Thinking Skills Workshop Presentation 2022Philosophy for Children - Parent handbook