VIEW FROM THE CLASSROOM
View from the classroom
T
his month, in our popular View from the classroom feature, we hear from Matthew
Harris, Headmaster at Austin Friars School in Carlisle, who offers some fascinating insights into the school’s implementation of the Mental Toughness Test, which helps children develop critical life skills.
Tell us about your school Austin Friars is a co-educational day school, founded by members of the Order of St Augustine in 1951. Its task was to offer a boarding education for Catholic boys in Cumbria and the city of Carlisle. Girls were first admitted in 1986. Boarding came to an end in 1998. St Monica's was established in 1985, on the same site as Austin Friars, as a School for boys and girls of primary age. In 2003, the formal amalgamation of the two
Schools established Austin Friars St Monica's as a single School for students aged 3 – 18. The Pre- School and Junior section caters for the 3 – 11 age range, and the Senior School for the 11 – 18 age group. In September 2015, the School changed its name back to Austin Friars and continues to provide a holistic education from Pre-School through to VI Form, in accordance with its Augustinian principles. The School is very well placed to provide an independent education in the north of Cumbria and south-west Scotland.
You have recently used the Mental Toughness Test to examine life skills development at the school. Can you tell us about this test? Mental Toughness is an aspect of our personality which It describes 'how we think' which is an important determinant on 'how we act' and 'how we feel'. This helps us to understand why we behave the way we do. Published research on secondary school pupils show that mental toughness is a significant factor in attainment, wellbeing, positive behaviour and aspirations. It is sometimes more commonly described as mindset or attitude. The MTQ48, the Mental Toughness
Questionnaire is a high quality psychometric measure, developed initially by Professor Peter
Clough, which assesses the elements of mindset or attitude around a well evidenced framework, called the 4Cs. These are Control, Commitment, Challenge and Confidence. Each has two factors which are assessed. Control embraces Life Control which describes
the sense of “can do” and Emotional Control is self-explanatory. Commitment embraces both Goals Orientation and Achievement Orientation. Not everyone who sets goals does what it takes to achieve them. These two elements effectively describe
Resilience. Challenge describes an individual’s attitude to
stretching themselves as well as their ability to learn from their experiences – including mistakes. Finally, Confidence include Confidence in
Abilities (self-belief) and Interpersonal Confidence - preparedness to engage with others and ask questions. These elements assess the extent to which the
pupil approaches their work in a positive vein. All of the elements are relevant for Life Skills.
The MTQ48 produces a “score” for each of the elements on a scale of 1 – 10 which provides the opportunity to measure something that is rarely measured in this way. Importantly it allows users to identify individual
and group differences (e.g. year group) and it enables measurement before and after intervention to assess what differences have been achieved and where those differences arise. Which helps to indicate where further development might be valuable. The MTQ48 is used in hundreds of schools
around the world (independent and maintained schools), as well as businesses and other areas.
How did you become interested in it? The MTQ48 was used in a major Independent Schools Council study on Life Skills development which examined almost 10,000 pupils in 58 UK schools. The study identified generally where schools
made a difference and usefully also showed that some schools appeared to be more effective than others particularly when looking at gender and progression through a pupils life at a school.
16
www.education-today.co.uk November 2018 For instance; generally, it showed that pupil
mental toughness often, but not always, dropped in the second and third years of their time in secondary education. The author of the study, Doug Strycharczyk,
was a former pupil at Austin Friars and drew our attention to the study and its findings as well as its potential application in our school.
Why did you decide to implement it? Why are life skills important? Developing life skills is an integral part of the curriculum at Austin Friars, it’s a key element of the School’s ethos. Parents trust us to develop academic abilities, but most are equally concerned that we help to develop mature young people who can confidently move on and make a success of their lives outside of and beyond school. Indeed, as we can see, it is factor which is rising
in the agenda across all of education. The Education Secretary, Damian Hinds, has said “schools should aim for an ethos that develops pupils’ character, resilience and workplace skills” as he gave his first big speech in the job at the beginning of the year.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
