When choosing which school to send your child to, you’ll want to make sure that you pick one that inspires them to study, stay curious, and love learning. The good news is that you can find the things to look for to show that a school is doing this successfully below.
They provide plenty of praise.
The carrot is always more effective than the stick when it comes to motivation and inspiration in learning. That is why choosing a school that is big on praise and reward can be particularly helpful if you want your child to be inspired in their learning.
The reason that praise can be so effective is that it builds your child’s sense of confidence and self-esteem, something that can help them continue to learn even when things get hard or when they do not have an innate interest in a subject.
They offer constructive criticism.
In addition to praise, it’s also vital that you choose an educational institution for your child that provides them with constructive criticism. This means criticisms like ‘you’ll never amount to anything’ will not cut it. Instead, make sure that schools offer specific criticism on an aspect of your child’s work, along with a practical way they can improve it, such as adding more examples, using a stronger criticism, or creating a clearer structure.
They set attainable goals.
While the idea of sending your child to a school where the expectation is that everyone comes out with top marks all the time may sound good, in reality, it can be quite harmful. This is because educational goals should always be tailored to the individual and their abilities. Indeed, when someone is consistently expected to perform above what is reasonable for them, it can put them under undue pressure and expose them to a constant feeling of failure even if they are doing well. In turn, these can be very demotivating and inspirational, leading to apathy and self-confidence in learning.
To that end, looking for a school that strikes a good balance between inspiring pupils to get the best from them, and setting realistic goals is vital.
They embrace modern strategies.
Another way you can tell whether a school is good at motivating its students is whether it embraces modern strategies and tech for this purpose. For example, some schools now use things like VR to help bring history lessons alive, while others organise revision trips that combine outward bound activities with exam revision classes.
Some schools even replace tired and uninspiring paper notice boards on their corridor walls with wall graphics for schools instead. These floor-to-ceiling graphics can be customised specifically to the school’s specifications and needs, creating vibrant and inspiring displays that require little to no maintenance and are far more effective than sugar paper and corrugated borders.
They make the curriculum relevant.
Last of all, if a school is truly inspiring its pupils, then it will make the curriculum relevant to them. What this means is that they will choose subjects and methods of teaching that not only have educational value, but that also appeal to the students being taught.
For example, English may combine the old classics written by Charles Dickens with something more modern, like Harry Potter!
