INSTILLING a positive mindset in children is the first step to unlocking a love for learning and the ability to never give up, according to Seend Primary School teacher Jackie Chalk.

On top of a positive mindset the Church of England school also focuses heavily on its core Christian values of friendship, respect, tolerance, forgiveness and honesty.

Ms Chalk, who has been in her post for the past six years, said: “As a school we have been doing a lot of work to develop a growth mindset as opposed to having a fixed mindset.

“Meaning that if there is something that you cannot do then you say I cannot do it yet rather than I just cannot do it full stop.

“That is our philosophy and I think it gives the children a far greater outlook on life as they know they have always tried to give their best.

“In terms of our syllabus we try to get the balance right between focusing on the key things like maths and literature and giving the kids a more rounded education.”

Seend Primary received a good rating from OFSTED in its latest report back in March 2014 with inspector Rodney Braithwaite noting the particularly good behaviour of the pupils.

The primary, in School Road, was also highlighted for its teaching which was seen as consistently good throughout the school.

Ms Chalk added: “Although the main subjects such as maths and literature are important, we have to recognise that there are other subjects like the arts and PE.

“It would be very easy to stick to the normal routine but we try to have days or weeks where we do something special.

“We recently had a Fizz Pop Science day in which a team came for the day and did an hour’s workshop in each class but we still carried it on when they had moved onto other classes with the teachers giving pupils extra experiments.

“We have lots of extracurricular activities and we try to develop the whole child rather than just focus on two areas.”