Focus
"You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every god that barks" (Winston Churchill)
"Person who chases two rabbits catches neither" (Confucius)
"The Secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, bit on building the new" (Socrates)
Life is like a camera - focus on what is important and you'll capture it perfectly (unknown)
Focus is a clear message and key learning attitude – without focus you are going to be distracted and therefore not achieve as well as you could. The analogy of a horse wearing blinkers to avoid being distracted is apt and appropriate. Being clear on what you are aiming to for is really important. When heading on a journey is always good to have a destination in mind and route to get there! Focus, when paired with another key WILS skill ‘Stickability’ is a great combination towards achieving success.
What does focus look like?
In class focus could be quite simply having your head down and avoiding distractions, with all of your attention on the task in hand. Alternatively children may be asked to choose a particular skill to focus on within a task, for example, the use of effective adjectives in a piece of writing , or using their feet to move towards the ball in cricket, or taking turns in group work. Limiting the number of skills you are really working can really help to improve the quality and performance in that specific area.
Target setting is an essential part of life at Welton. Through detailed and meaningful assessment Teachers set targets for children to ‘focus’ on to help them improve. Through teaching ‘reflection’ skills we want to enable children to have both the confidence and the ability set their own targets for improvement, and learn how to best focus on achieving these goals.
As Confucius suggests the ‘Person who chases two rabbits catches neither’!. Focus is all about choosing a rabbit, the rabbit you most want, or is most relevant, and focusing on the rabbit to chase and catch it!
How is your focus? Have you got targets to achieve or improve in mind? Which rabbit are you focusing in on?