The Journey to Accreditation

We became an accredited Thinking School, by Exeter University CEC, in March 2015 and an Advanced Thinking School in July 2017. We are one of very few Advanced thinking schools in the United Kingdom.

The Journey towards Thinking School Status

The main Thinking School focus was Thinking Maps. 

 Additional Foci:

• Thinker’s Keys .
• Thinking Hats 
•  P4C trialed in Y7 extracurricular club.

 

The main Thinking School focus was Thinking Hats 

 Additional Foci:

• Habits of Mind 
•  Thinker’s keys 
•  Review of Thinking Maps

 

The main Thinking School focus was Habits of Mind 

 Additional Foci:

• Review of Thinking Hats. 
•  Continue to train staff on Thinking Maps and Thinking Hats. 
• Thinkers’ keys 

 

By December 2014, three main foci had been introduced and these were starting to become embedded practice in lessons and tutor time by both students and staff. Evidence was collected routinely throughout the three years to support the accreditation process, which took place in February 2015.

Since 2015, the Teaching and Learning Team together with both staff and students Drive Teams, have continued with our dissemination of practice, research and training to further embed thinking strategies across our community and the Trust. 

 

Our Journey beyond advanced Accreditation

In July 2017, the School was accredited as an Advanced thinking school by the University of Exeter.

There are five key areas for accreditation as an Advanced Thinking School: Dissemination of Practice; Evaluative Research; Professional Development; Differentiation; and Whole School Assessment.

The school has continued developing and rolling out a range of tools that are used consistently across subjects in all year groups, as shown in lessons, displays, work produced by learners, pastoral activities and within our online Portals.

 

The School has a commitment to sharing experience and practice in the community, such as an SLE programme (School to School Support) and Year 5 Thinking Schools projects in feeder primary schools.

Promoting the Thinking School ethos to students, parents and visitors is explored through an introduction to “Thinking school” in all international visits ( Spain, Korea, Japan, Sweden), a ‘Thinking School Room’ at school events, and via training for new teachers, students, parents and carers. Barton Court has also recently become a Thinking Hub school for Kent and Medway and this commitment is expanding further with our close link with Thinking Matters. Our dissemination of practice is at local, regional and international level.

Our dissemination is evident more widely, with examples such as presenting workshops at the Thinking Schools International conference in Swindon for the past three years.