Our Teaching Philosophy

Our teaching philosophy is very much centred on 3 theorists. Lev Vygotsky and his theory on ‘Zones of Proximal Development’ and ‘Scaffolding’, Benjamin Bloom and his ‘Higher Order Thinking’ and Howard Gardner’s theory on ‘Multiple Intelligences’. This is seen practically throughout our curriculum through the use of our Mulberry Mindsets, Metacognition lessons, 6 thinking hats and Blooms taxonomy questioning.

As well as instilling a love of learning within the children at The Mulberry House School, we are committed to supporting the children to become independent thinkers and learners, who can take ownership of their learning and acquire the skills and tools necessary to be successful learners of the future.

Our Mulberry Mindset act as a core set of values that we wish to instil in everyone within the school community throughout their time with us. For the children each value is represented within their learning environment by a mascot and are introduced to the children through story times and our special mindset poem. Our Mindsets are;

• Resilient Waterbear
• Mindful Meerkat
• Meditative Macaque
• Empathetic Elephant
• Participating Penguin
• Creative Camel

We also use the Six Thinking Hats throughout our lessons to get the children to engage their thinking in a variety of ways. For example, they may be using the red thinking hat for feelings, to describe an art work they are exploring, they may use the yellow and black thinking hats, when reflecting on a piece of work as they look at the positive areas and areas for development.

We then support the pupil’s higher order thinking through the use of Blooms Taxonomy. This allows the teachers the opportunity to pose open ended questions that delve deeper than their basic understanding.

Lastly, our soft landings each day for pupils across the whole school engage them in applying their learning in a range of ways. We have Motivational Mondays which provide the children the opportunity to look at significant figures such as David Attenborough and learn why he has been so important as part of our Natural History, we are a NACE accredited school and have challenge Tuesdays which provide the children the opportunity to explore a challenge and work together to find a solution, World news Wednesdays always spark lots of debates and discussions and broadens the children’s understand of the world around them as we build them into global citizens. We have Rights Respecting Thursday and finally, Discovery Friday where the children get the opportunity to ask big questions and research and find the answers to them, sharing their ideas with their peers.