Innovative first for NZ Schools!!
Auckland primary schools Cockle Bay and Vauxhall are leading the way as the first NZ Schools to implement the successful international thinking skills programme Mind Lab.
The Mind Lab Group licensed its programme to a NZ based operation mid way through 2007 and these two schools on opposite sides of Auckland have been the first to adopt the programme into their daily curriculum.
Developed internationally over 12 years ago, Mind Lab is a unique concept established on the notion that thinking games serve as a high powered educational tool.
What makes the Mind Lab programme so different is that it creates opportunities for children to learn and practice thinking tools by playing many classic and modern board games.
At the very heart of the Mind Lab programme is the premise that for learning to be effective, it must be fun and engaging, and so Mind Lab has created an innovative and comprehensive curriculum to target children from year 1 through to year 8.
Darrel Goosen, DP Cockle Bay School - “At Cockle Bay School we are always seeking top quality learning programmes to enhance our classroom curriculum. In Mind Lab we have discovered one of the best researched, well structured and professionally presented programmes currently available in New Zealand. The Mind Lab methodology allows us to develop our students’ Emotional Skills, Cognitive Skills and most importantly Social Skills. These skills are essential if our students are to become lifelong learners. We are proud to be associated with Mind Lab NZ”
Inset; Mind Lab teacher Jo Moy gets right alongside the children at Cockle Bay School to teach thinking strategies
The Mind Lab programme is designed for all children encompassing a range of learning styles but the very nature of it is such that it provides: fantastic learning motivation to boys, greatly assists those children with learning difficulties and also extends gifted children.
An added benefit to schools is that the Mind Lab programme targets the Ministry of Education’s five key competencies and includes the pedagogic resources of current teaching and learning practices in NZ.
Principal of Vauxhall School on Auckland’s North Shore, Aaron Kemp, says. “Offering the Mind Lab Thinking course as a part of our programme has been viewed by our school as a great addition to the Thinking Programme already offered at Vauxhall. The Mind Lab thinking strategies are closely aligned with our already established thinking programme and allow our students to draw on a wide range of tools to reflect, to ask questions and to challenge the basis of perceptions. The games are fun, the children are engaged in the learning process and the teachers are energetic and committed to the pedagogy of thinking”
Inset; One of the many problem-solving lessons the Mind Lab teacher will facilitate at Vauxhall School
The Mind Lab programme takes an integrative approach to school wide learning by utilising trained Mind Lab teachers that are external to the school. These teachers not only deliver a weekly lesson to the children but also involve the school’s teachers in workshops, facilitate parent/child evenings to involve the parents in the learning process, and also assist schools in many other thinking skills projects.
There are many ways to emphasise and deliver thinking concepts and strategies to children but the challenge is to deliver them in a way that children can transfer this knowledge into their everyday lives and not just in a classroom environment. The Mind Lab programme achieves this and with longevity on its side and proven research support it must be a programme that all schools should consider integrating into their curriculum.
Furthermore with now over 40 countries introducing the programme and over 2,000,000 children worldwide having participated in it, this is an opportunity not to be missed by NZ schools.
For further information or an information pack on Mind Lab please contact Jarrod Beaman, Managing Director Mind Lab NZ, on 021 741 886, email at jbeaman@mindlabnz.co.nz or visit www.mindlabnz.co.nz
