How to Help Your Child
Reach Their Full Potential
Welcome and thank you for coming
Statements made by teachers
Every time she makes a mistake, she makes excuses
I know he
can do it, I
just can’t get
him to try
Every time I try
to push him
further, he acts
the fool and
messes around
He refuses to go back and edit
his work; he won’t accept
that he can improve it
He won’t
act on my
feedback
She thinks she should
be doing harder work
than the work I set her,
but she keeps making
silly errors
It’s so
frustrating – I
know she can
do better if
she just
applied
herself!
WHY?
MINDSET
Mindset is the belief you hold about yourself. Is
your ability or talents basic personality set in
stone or are they things you can
cultivate throughout your life?
Fixed
Mindset
Growth
Mindset
Fixed Mindset
People with a fixed mindset:
 believe that their traits are just givens
 they have a certain amount of ability and talent and
nothing can change that
 if they have a lot, they’re all set, but if they don’t...
 so people in this mindset worry about their traits
and how adequate they are
 they have something to prove to themselves and
others
Growth Mindset
People with a growth mindset:
 see their qualities as things that can be developed
through their dedication and effort
 sure they’re happy if they’re brainy or talented, but
that’s just the starting point
 they understand that no one has ever
accomplished great things—not Mozart, Darwin, or
Michael Jordan—without years of passionate
practice and learning
Which mindset do you have?
1. Your intelligence is something very basic about you
that you can’t change very much.
2. You can learn new things, but you can’t really change
how intelligent you are.
3. No matter how much intelligence you have, you can
always change it quite a bit.
4. You can always substantially change how intelligent
you are.
Questions 1 and 2 are fixed mindset questions
Questions 3 and 4 reflect the growth mindset
Most people are a mixture of both but lean towards one
or the other
It’s about personal qualities too. Which of
these do you agree or disagree with?
1. You are a certain kind of person, and there is not
much that can be done to really change that.
2. No matter what kind of person you are, you can
always change substantially.
3. You can do things differently, but the important
parts of who you are can’t really be changed.
4. You can always change basic things about the
kind of person you are.
Questions 1 and 3 are fixed-mindset questions
Questions 2 and 4 reflect growth mindset
How do we learn?
Fixed Mindset
 Needs to look ‘smart’ in every situation
 Needs to prove themselves and never fail!
 Worries about how they look to others – will they look
smart or dumb?
 I failed (identity) so I’m a failure
 Avoids challenges, gets defensive or gives up easily
 Thinks effort won’t change anything
 Ignores constructive criticism
 Feels threatened by others success – compares
 Achieves less than full potential
Growth Mindset
 Will stretch themselves, take risks and learn. Bring on
the challenges!
 Will this allow me to grow? Will it help me overcome my
challenges?
 I failed (action) so I will try harder next time
 Embraces challenges – persists in the face of setbacks
 Understands implicitly that growth and learning takes
effort
 Learns from criticisms. How can I improve?
 Finds lessons and inspiration in other people’s success
 Reach ever higher levels of achievement
What does this mean in
school? FIXED
 Children who are scared to fail
 Children who will not push themselves
 Children who can not take constructive criticism
 Children who give up easily when things are hard
 Children who compare themselves to others – know their
‘rank’ in the class
 Children who avoid things they find hard
 Children who make excuses when things go wrong – It can’t
be their fault
 Get their sense of achievement from the final outcome
What does this mean in
school? GROWTH
 Children who don’t just seek challenge, they thrive
on it
 Children who love to stretch themselves
 Show the same level of interest even when they
find the work very challenging
 Mistakes and failures are opportunities to learn
 This is hard, this is fun!
 Get their sense of achievement from the effort it
took – I worked hard at this!
Carol Dweck:
Ted Talk Nov 2014
What we are doing in school
 Praising the process not the end product
 You must feel very proud, you worked so hard on this
 You found this hard but you persevered, well done!
 This isn’t challenging you much, let’s make it harder!
 I know you felt like giving up, but you didn’t and that is
excellent
 Don’t label – you are so clever, naughty, a natural….
 Celebrate mistakes!
 There are no failures, just a step towards success
 Constructive feedback – how to do it better
 High expectations for effort and perseverance
 Teaching how the brain works and how we learn
Our Learning Values
Resilience
Curious
Open-minded
Reflective
Resourceful
Supportive
WHAT CAN PARENTS DO?
 Remember the power of yet!
 Praise the process, the effort and determination
they showed
 Praise how hard they worked
 Remind them that practice will strengthen their
neural pathways
 Help children to take responsibility for their own
learning and progress
 Daily learning discussions
 Encourage risk taking and learning from mistakes
 Encourage and model positive self talk
 Do you have a growth mindset? Do you model this or
do you say statements like ‘I was no good at maths’ or
‘I can’t cook!’
 Listen for the messages you are giving
 You learnt that so quickly! You’re so clever! (‘If I don’t
learn something quickly, I can’t be clever’)
 Look at that drawing you did! You’re going to be the
next Picasso! (‘I mustn’t try drawing something hard or
they’ll realise I’m not that good’)
 You’re so brilliant, you get an A without even studying!
(‘If I have to study next time, they won’t think I’m
brilliant’)
Time to Practice
Meet 9 year old Elizabeth
1 Tell her she was the best
2 Tell her she was robbed.
3 Reassure her – gymnastics
isn’t that important
4 She has the ability, she’ll
win next time
5 Tell her she didn’t deserve to win
Your child comes home from
school saying she
feels wasn’t given the
most challenging work
and found the work easy.
Your child says nobody
plays with him at playtime.
Your child completed their
homework quickly,
skipping several questions
and answering others
in a short, imprecise way.
How do you respond?
Your year R child says to
you, “I was counting and
I missed out the number
8 and now I feel sad.”
As a child, you really
loved sport and you
want your child to love
it too and get as much
pleasure from it as you
did. Your child shows
no interest in sport
beyond school.
Your child fails an exam
and is devastated,
feeling she’s let you down.
Lots of children in the
class get invited to a
birthday party. Your child
thinks she’s the only one
who didn’t get an
invitation
Your child has worked
really hard on their
homework but has got it
wrong.
Your child won’t read at
home. How can you
encourage?
What have you learnt?
What will you do differently
Additional resources
‘Mindset: How you can fulfill your potential’ by Carol Dweck
‘Bounce’ by Matthew Syed
‘Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us’ by Daniel H Pink
‘Your Fantastic Elastic Brain’ by Deak Joan
‘The Dot’ by Peter H Reynolds