Dialogue and Deep Thinking

At Britannia, our children take part in philosophical thinking right the way through from Early Years to Year 6.

Our children learn how to think about ideas from a variety of different angles. The aim of the school is to develop children who are naturally curious, can pose genuinely challenging questions and have the confidence to suggest possible answers to such questions. Our pupils develop confidence through following lines of enquiry which develop the ‘4C’s:

• Caring Thinkers demonstrate a desire to make the world a better place with their suggestions and ideas. They can demonstrate a strong degree of empathy with others.
• Collaborative Thinkers can listen intently to the ideas of others and can respond well and build upon previous comments and opinions, even if they differ from their own.
• Creative Thinkers demonstrate a high degree of originality within their suggestions and ideas. They often think ‘out of the box’ and can find radical and perceptive solutions to some of the most baffling of problems.
• Critical Thinkers are not afraid to express disagreement with conventional thinking. They can politely and assertively argue from very different viewpoints to others and are able to articulate exactly why they disagree with the views of others and can pinpoint specifically where they feel they differ from the agreed viewpoint.

Philosophical thinking and discussion are promoted through a range of subjects and lessons. Experience has suggested that children are able to understand philosophical ideas and concepts easier if they have experienced things for themselves, so we seek to exploit stories and anecdotes children share within lessons as they tend to resonate well with classmates because of their own sharing of experiences.

We promote opportunities for discussions and debates in all curriculum areas. It is our aim that children learn the art of forming deep questions and can discuss and debate with insight and confidence, participating in challenging discussions across subjects.

Metacognition is taught across all curriculum subjects. It is taught systematically through a series of moves called ‘Thinking Moves’. The brain can do many moves and there are probably hundreds of words to describe them. Thinking Moves is a list of the 26 most useful moves, and they have been arranged in an A-Z. This A-Z is a special list of 26 things you can do with your brain/ mind.

The children are introduced to the 26 moves systematically. This happens through assemblies and in classrooms. The children learn a symbol and an action that represent each move. They also carry out a series of activities to help deepen their understanding of how the move works. These are then referred to through all curriculum subjects and used by the children to plan their thinking. The Thinking Moves are displayed in all classrooms across the school for the children and teachers to refer to.

Further information for parents:

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/teaching-learning-toolkit/meta-cognition-and-self-regulation/

https://dialogueworks.co.uk/thinking-moves/