Rebel Ideas at Forest

Although we won’t be welcoming most of our pupils back until Monday, 6th September, Forest staff have been in School for the last few days getting ready for the start of the Michaelmas term. This included an excellent talk by Olympian and award-winning journalist and author, Matthew Syed.

Author of best-selling growth mindset and performance books, including ‘Rebel Ideas’ and ‘Black Box Thinking’, Matthew is also a journalist for The Times, and is currently filming a documentary about the NHS for Channel 4. Using fascinating and little know stories and facts from history, economics, business, and science, Matthew explored the value of diversity in thinking and the problems around echo-chambers when it comes to growth and improvement.

In a pacey and thought-provoking discussion, he stripped back the concept of the ‘know-all’ expert and talked about the value of reflection and curiosity, and its value in improving performance across multiple areas. Using Bletchley Park’s Stanley Sedgewick Great Minds Don’t Think Alike and demonstrating how by removing the ‘know-all’ factor from Microsoft, CEO Satya Nadella orchestrated cultural shift using ‘growth mindset’ (whilst seeing a 27% annual growth rate), Matthew explained how this could be transferred into the classroom.

Forest has been a flag waver for ‘growth mindset’ for a while now. Exciting times lay ahead for Forest, and Matthew’s inspirational talk reminded us of how our diverse school can continue to move from strength to strength.