What is a Thinking School?

At Moira Primary School we are on a journey to become a Thinking School.

A Thinking School takes an explicit, evidence informed, whole school approach to developing pupils’ cognitive capability and intelligent learning behaviours.

Thinking Matters believe metacognition is more than just reflecting on your learning. Metacognition is being able to adapt to the unknown. It is having strategies to make progress at whatever you set your mind to. Metacognition is future proofing.

What is Metacognition?

Metacognition involves being aware of and understanding one's thoughts, knowledge, and cognitive strategies. In other words, metacognition is the act of thinking about how we think and learn. When equipped with the right teaching and learning strategies, children can be helped to develop metacognitive skills that allow them to plan, organise, and evaluate their own learning, leading to greater autonomy and academic success. This is called self-regulated learning.

What are Thinking Frames?

Thinking Frames are a particular type of ‘visual tool’ based on distinctive visual patterns, which help organise thinking/ideas. In the same way that we use physical tools in everyday life to complete specific tasks, (e.g. spades, rakes and secateurs each carry out particular functions when gardening, likewise a spoon, knife and fork each have specific purposes when eating), similarly visual tools represent particular types of thinking.

Eight Thinking Frames are used to help raise student awareness of the types of thinking required to complete certain tasks. Use of the Thinking Frames can help students to plan and structure their thinking and can enable them to look into their own thinking and to see their thinking displayed.

The Thinking Frames are based on an understanding of how connections are made within the brain to aid understanding and memory, especially where words and visual images are combined.