The school, as a proud member of the Thinking Schools Academy Trust, aim to ‘Transform Life Chances’ through metacognition by becoming an Advanced Thinking School.
After a visit from the University of Exeter, assessors recognised the school’s hard work and effort in retaining this prestigious award.
The University of Exeter, who are lead researchers on Creativity, Dialogue and Metacognition, first awarded Penbridge Junior School Advanced Thinking Status back in 2023, and this re-accreditation now sees them retain this until 2029.
In the University of Exeter’s report, Penbridge Junior were recognised as a ‘forward thinking, innovative, highly ambitious, and fully supportive’ school, with its ethos and value captured by their clear mission statement: ‘Love Learning for Life.’
The report went on to say: “Penbridge Junior School has taken a wonderfully inclusive and evidence informed holistic educational growth stance in relation to its entire provision.”
The University of Exeter were keen to highlight Kevin the dog (pictured) as a ‘unique inclusion’ which is both ‘creative and evidence informed.’
They highlighted how this provision ‘goes beyond knowledge and metacognition to fully embrace dispositional development and different ways of thinking.’
Anna Webb, Executive Headteacher at Penbridge School said: “Being a Thinking School, the metacognitive process is embedded throughout our school in everything we do, whether that be academic or pastoral.”
“It’s interesting to see how far we’ve come since last time we had this accreditation; the growth we’ve had has really been recognised in this report”, she added.
With Thinking School status awarded on a three-year basis, Sophie Cufley, Thinking, Teaching and Learning lead has worked to ensure the school could retain this prestigious award.
“It was an effective opportunity to look at where we’ve grown from last time and gather more student views”, she said.
Miss Cufley added: “The award underpins all our teaching and learning, and you can see the impact of it on the children.”
The University of Exeter concluded there was ‘rich and extensive evidence for re-accreditation', highlighting a ‘truly unique and exceptional achievement.’