Welcome back to Term 3.  I hope everyone enjoyed the break despite the wet, cold and windy weather.  On a positive note, I did hear lots of fun snow stories on students’ return to school.

Values

This term our focus value is To Believe – accepting challenges and embracing opportunities.  During class time and in the playground we will be discussing what this means and reinforcing students who are enacting the value.  In our assembly on the 2 September, two students from each class who have demonstrated this value will be acknowledged with a merit certificate.

In classrooms you may hear teachers using the term growth mindset as a way to promote this value.  This term describes how we face challenges and setbacks. Students with a growth mindset believe their abilities can improve over time with effort and having a go. By contrast, students with a fixed mindset think their abilities are set and they can’t change, no matter how hard they try.

Some examples how we can encourage students to have a growth mindset:

1. Emphasising that everyone can improve at anything with hard work, persistence and lots and lots of practice.
2. Acknowledging students when they demonstrate a growth mindset.
3. Giving feedback (praise) on the process rather than the product. For example, “I’m impressed at how hard you worked to complete that story. I know you had trouble getting started, but you did the right thing to ask for help with ideas and then you persisted to get it finished”. Rather than saying “that is a great story”.
4. Viewing mistakes as opportunities to learn as we often learn the most from them. By letting students know that mistakes are a big part of the learning process they are more inclined to have a go and try.

School Beanies

Last term three of our innovative Grade 4 students approached the SRC about the possibility of having school beanies to wear before and after school and during break times.  The SRC thought this was a great idea and decided to do a beanie drive.  The beanies arrived in the first week back of term and we worked quickly to name them and get them out to students ready for the fresh mornings and cold days.

A big thank you to Jorja, Kaileah and Molly for the idea and Mr Jones and the SRC for making it happen.  We have had lots of positive feedback and hope we can offer another opportunity for people who missed out to order.