Thinking Ambassadors

What are the Thinking Ambassadors?

The Thinking Ambassadors are a collective of students within the school who monitor how the thinking tools, ranging from Thinkers Keys, Thinking Maps, Hats and Holcombe Habits, are being utilised. We aim to broaden the ways in which the Thinking Tools are applicable since they are key in not only enhancing academic skills. We are supporting the new Holcombe Charter, both inside and outside of the academic setting and in real life situations. The people who are currently the Thinking Ambassadors are as followed:

• Harlem Hodges (10Ba)
• Dylan Patel (10Sh)
• Taylor Mortimer (10Ba)
• Finn Dewane (10Ba)
• Chimdi Mgbemena (10Ba)

If you are interested in the Thinking Ambassadors, please go to S16 or M14 on Thursday to speak to either Ms Cook or Mrs Ortega. It is a brilliant opportunity to improve your thinking skills which can help you significantly with your academics and, in particular, revision!

What do the Thinking Ambassadors do?

As Thinking Ambassadors, we work to make sure that every student knows what the Thinking Tools are and how they can use them to benefit their learning.

We believe that the Thinking tools are resources that are extremely beneficial for a student’s learning and revision. Focussing in on the revision part of learning, here at Holcombe, we prepare students on how to revise so that they get the most out of their revision/study time and walk away with the most valuable knowledge that they can gather from their private studies.

This is done through the encouragement of the use of Thinking Tools. For example, the Thinking Maps are an excellent way of laying out your revision in a format that has been scientifically proven to help students with their studies by organising it in a way that makes it easy for the brain to process and remember.

Red Hat: Feelings 

• How do I feel about this?
• How might others feel?
• What are my likes, dislikes, worries, concerns, etc?
• Will I be happy about this in the future?

Blue Hat: Thinking 

• What is our focus?
• What other thinking hats can help me?
• What have we done so far?
• What do we do next?

Yellow Hat: Strengths 

• What are the good points?
• What are the strengths?
• Why can this be done?
• How will this help us?
• What are the benefits?

Green Hat: Creativity & New Ideas 

• What is possible?
• What ideas do you have?
• What ideas do others have?
• What are the weaknesses?

White Hat: Information 

• What information do we have?
• What information do we need?
• Where can we get the information?
• Can someone help us to get the information?

Black Hat: Negatives and Judgement

• What is wrong with this?
• What might go wrong?
• Will this work?
• Is it safe?
• Can it be done?

Thinking Ambassadors also assist students in their use of thinking maps, for example:

Circle maps, which students use to describe an event or item, with the title in the centre.

As you can in the maps above, students also use a frame of reference (FOR) to help them explain deeper, how they have reached their conclusions and their sources.

These thinking maps allow students to organise their learning in a way that makes it easy to reflect on later, for revision.

How YOU Can Become a Thinking Ambassador

Becoming a Thinking Ambassador is a great opportunity as it allows you to become more involved in how we learn here at Holcombe. Being a Thinking Ambassador also means that you can further advance your revision as you will have a more in-depth understanding of how to learn and remember knowledge effectively using the Thinking Tools.

If students have any further questions feel free to find us in school, or email Ms Cook and/or Mrs Ortega at heather.cook@holcombegrammar.tsat.ukHelena.ortegaizquierdo@holcombegrammar.tsat.uk