WELCOME BACK YEAR 2-6 STUDENTS!

It is lovely to have everyone back at school. We missed the students greatly and I know that the teachers would join me in saying that it was wonderful to have our students back in the classroom! Thank you to the parents/carers for doing a terrific job with learning-at-home, I know it can’t have been easy and I sincerely appreciate your efforts.

LEGO WEEKLY CHALLENGE

In Week 5, the challenge was to build a game out of Lego to play at home. Thanks to those children who participated, I loved the photos I received of your wonderful creations. I would also like to thank the families who took the time to email their appreciation of the challenges within the Wondall community and who have urged the school to continue the challenges in some way. I’m happy to report that we will indeed start up challenges again in a few weeks, once everyone has settled back into school life. I look forward to sharing more creations in the near future!

In the last newsletter, I discussed how, as parents and educators, we need to be positive role models for our children. Being a positive role model also includes setting high, but realistic, expectations for our children. These are not just achievement-based expectations but expectations around the beliefs children should value – beliefs which will form the ‘internal compass’ by which they live and learn by.

Within schools, Ron Ritchhart (2015), provides educators with five belief sets that path the way for how students see themselves as learners. As parents, we can also use these belief sets to shape the conversations we have with our children for meeting our academic expectations.

1. Focusing on the child’s learning, rather than just the work. This means valuing the learning process and acknowledging the both the challenges and successes that learning provides, not just focusing on the final artefact of what your child produces.

2. Focusing on the child’s understanding, not just knowledge. Understanding goes beyond merely possessing a set of skills or a collection of facts, it requires us to explore a topic from multiple angles, build connections, challenge assumptions and look for different applications. When talking with children, check for understanding.

3. Encouraging deep learning, rather than surface learning. Deep learning requires challenge and pushes us out of our comfort zone and into the ‘Learning Pit’. Talking with children about our own struggles as we learn new concepts, helps children to tackle problem solving and build resilience in learning.

4. Encouraging Independence, rather than dependence. We want to encourage our children to be independent thinkers who are internally motivated to be reflective, resourceful and effective in their approach to learning. We need to encourage our children to be self-starters who can persevere with a task and work equally as well within a group or independently.

5. Encouraging a growth mindset, rather than a fixed mindset. How we view intelligence, ability and talent often determines how we approach new learning. Rather than view intelligence as a fixed entity that does not change, we need to be talking to our children about how we can always grow our intelligence with persistence and effort over time. Praise for effort helps develop a growth mindset, whereas praise for ability often fosters a fixed mindset.