Personal Reflection
Self-reflection and evaluation
At The Holmewood School, our aims and core values provide a foundation for self-reflection and evaluation for all students.
Our aims are:
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To inspire a love of learning.
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To foster belonging and inclusivity in the community.
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To provide a relevant yet creative curriculum for each learner.
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To develop value and self-worth in our young people.
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To nurture independent learners and thinkers.
Our core values are:
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Acceptance: We appreciate who we are, who others are and we live together in peace.
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Self-determination: We know that hard work is worthwhile and gives us joy and satisfaction.
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Positivity: We are positive about life’s challenges and rise to them.
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Integrity: We are honest. We do what is right because it is right.
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Respect: We are kind and supportive to ourselves and each other.
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Excellence: We work hard, and we do our best every day.
Self-reflection and evaluation are facilitated by all staff and allows students to make continual progress with their social and emotional development.
At THSL we want all our students to love learning, be determined and set themselves challenges. Our students are encouraged to reflect on their learning and behaviour throughout the day as well as during set times over the course of a day.
Part of self-reflection is recognition of the achievements, effort and persistence displayed by students. These are identified by the students themselves and acknowledged by staff and peers. The school uses a variety of ways to recognise ‘gold behaviours’. These are things that go above and beyond our expectations. Raffle tickets, a golden book and golden moments are all shared in a weekly achievement assembly.
An important part of self-reflection is also willingness to identity own mistakes and readiness to address these to aid improvement. This is linked with feedback given to students during lessons, helping them identify next step in their learning to help them grow and develop.
Self-reflection and evaluation of students learning and emotional and social developments can also be supported through self-assessment, peer assessment and peer mentoring.
We teach students that making an effort, making mistakes, and giving and receiving feedback are a vital part of learning and should be embraced by us all.
Metacognition is an integral part of our approach and students are encouraged to identify their motivation for learning and to set own goals. These could be daily, weekly or long term goals. Students are supported in developing their strategies, self-assessment and monitoring as well as developing awareness of one's strengths and weaknesses.
The aim is to help our students develop a repertoire of strategies and self-management tools to help the become independent and valuable members of society.
Where possible, our students are also encouraged to contribute to the setting of their own IEP targets. Students are supported in creating steps and identifying strategies to help them achieve their targets.
Peer to peer mediation is facilitated by staff to help students self-reflect and evaluate following a conflict with a peer. This a useful form of restorative practice and a good skill for life.
Restorative approaches enable those who have been harmed to convey the impact of the harm to those responsible, and for those responsible to acknowledge this impact and take steps to put it right.
