From the Principal
Week 4
This Saturday evening we look forward to our major fundraising event for the year, the Rock and Roll Band night. There have been many hours of planning and organizing to ensure the night is a success. The Fundraising committee has worked tirelessly to make sure that the night will be entertaining and enjoyable for all that attend. Students’ Rock and Roll artwork will be on sale on the night and next week, and will be available to purchase for $5:00. Thankyou to all parents, local businesses, community members and staff that have donated items and contributed to this important fundraising event. All funds raised will g toward upgrading the library toilets. Please come along if you can as there are still tickets available on the night.
On Friday 5th June all West Beach Primary School staff will be involved in professional learning with other staff across the Western Adelaide Shores Partnership of schools and preschools. They will be engaging in a variety of sessions which will include developing powerful learners of Literacy and Numeracy, supporting children with learning difficulties, formative assessment and exploring the Teaching for Effective Learning Framework. During the term teachers from the Partnership schools will also meet after school to share aspects of their teaching practice that supports the development of Powerful Learners.
National Reconciliation Week 2015 will be held across Australia from 27 May to 3 June 2015. The 2015 National Reconciliation Week theme is: “It’s time to Change it Up.” On Monday 1st June at 9:00am we will have a special assembly to acknowledge Reconciliation Week. Classes will also be involved in a variety of activities throughout the week to deepen their understanding ofReconciliation..
Reconciliation Week is celebrated each year by sharing the richness of culture and history of the first Australians. This is a time when we can all contribute to conversations around reconciliation by celebrating achievement and identifying strategies to address the disadvantage experienced by many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
At West Beach Primary we believe that of the most important components of any child becoming a successful learner for life is the mindset they bring to their learning. There has been considerable research in recent years, led by Professor Carol Dweck from Stanford University about the role of Fixed and Growth Mindsets in learning.
In brief, students and adults with a Fixed Mindset believe in fixed or static intelligence, that you have a certain ability or intelligence that is fixed and this cannot be improved. This impacts on students’ learning as it is often accompanied by other unproductive attitudes. Students with a fixed mindset often have a desire to look smart and think that mistakes mean they lack ability, that their intelligence should on its own allow them to succeed and anything less makes them inadequate. This also flows on to a belief that having to put in effort, or work hard means that you have low intelligence and they regard as inferior others who do put a lot of effort into their learning. When these students get to a point in their development where they have to put effort into understanding, and it does not come easily, they give up. When these students do make mistakes they are not prepared to try and fix them, to put in the effort required to do better or to understand. These attitudes and inbuilt beliefs do not help students become successful learners for the long term. We see students who avoid challenges, give up easily, see effort as fruitless or worse, ignore useful negative feedback and feel threatened by the success of others. As a result they plateau early and achieve less than their full potential and are burdened with a restrictive view of their abilities for life.
Students with a Growth Mindset believe that their abilities can be developed and so they are more willing to put effort into learning. They consequently are better prepared to take on challenges, to put effort into learning, understanding that this is required to become better and to learn from mistakes that they make. This desire to learn leads to a tendency to embrace challenges, persist in the face of setbacks, see effort as the way to achieve mastery and understanding, learn from criticism and find lessons and inspiration in the success of others. As a result they reach even higher levels of achievement and a greater sense of free will.
For teachers and parents, developing a growth mindset in children and young people is critical to making them open to improving their learning. if you are interested in this subject the following video clips show Professor Carol Dweck explaining this phenomenon and also Dylan William from the U.K. giving his interpretation of the same work. We will be hosting parent workshops about “developing a Growth Mindset” here at West Beach Primary School on the 1st, 2nd and 4th June.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlN-r8h2qA0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X0mgOOSpLU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWv1VdDeoRY