Enrichment Day Launches Minerva

The last day of term at Our Lady’s Convent School has been different from any other previously. All pupils in Years 3 to 13 have enjoyed a day of ‘off-timetable’ enrichment activities which has given them all the opportunity to understand the concept of growth mindset.

Today has been a day of physical challenges; opening up the pupils’ minds to the benefits of embracing a growth mindset and reaping the benefits through all phases of their life. The programme of activities was tailored to each age group with common themes including relaxation techniques, skilful learning, developing self-awareness and team building. Older pupils also benefitted from exam preparation and the Sixth Form were introduced to ‘The Five Myths of Learning’.

Speaking today, Headmaster, Dr Julian Murphy said, “Too often schools embrace new ideas in learning by simply giving the odd ‘motivating’ assembly or workshop to their pupils. But young people are just like adults in that they do not respond in any profound way to the occasional one-off pep talk or training session. Today’s activities launched Minerva, our philosophy that we are applying to every area of teaching and learning in the School. Minerva aims to; improve public examination results for our pupils; remove unnecessary and wasteful working practices; strengthen the mental health of our pupils and provide them with a strong bedrock of skills and emotional responses that will be of benefit to them throughout their lives. Everyone has enjoyed getting stuck in and the feedback from the pupils has been excellent.”