Head of Junior School

Fixed and Growth Mindsets

Some in our community will be aware of the research of Dr. Carol Dweck, one of the world’s leading researchers in the field of human motivation and a Professor of Psychology at Stanford University. Dr Dweck’s research over many years centres around two main mindsets in our lives; fixed and growth mindsets. Her theory reasons that personal qualities such as intelligence, talent and skills can be grown or developed and not innate.

In the context of a school, this type of approach and language is how we nurture an environment where children seek challenges in their learning and understand that making mistakes along the journey is simply part of the process. Reflecting on my own experiences in school, this was something I did not discover until midway through my secondary schooling in an environment that did not foster risk-taking in learning and perhaps was more marks driven.

Much of Dweck’s study highlights the importance of praising effort, strategies and progress and not just outcomes and intelligence to encourage students to develop a growth mindset and this short video may help to understand the research behind this. Appropriate teacher feedback is crucial to fostering this mindset as well as specific language, in particular the power of the word ‘YET’. This focuses on promoting the norm for students to say, “I can’t…yet” or “I don’t’ know how to….yet” as part of their growth mindset way of thinking instead of simply, “I can’t do something or, “I don’t know how to do this”. I always finish a student’s sentence with the word yet if they ever tell me that they cannot do something or that they are not good at something and the subtle shift of mindset when you add ‘yet’ can be tangible.

As parents, it is also possible to support this by asking your children open-ended questions such as, “What did you learn today? What mistake did you make that taught you something? What did you try hard at today?”

These discussions can prompt reflection in effort, strategies, setbacks and learning as students increasingly understand the fact that we do some of our best learning when we make mistakes or when learning is a struggle.

Connected to this, one of our School Counsellors, Mr Digiacomo, has shared thoughts and tips below on how giving praise at home can further encourage a child’s growth mindset.

The mindset of a child has an impact on how they perceive and respond to their surroundings. A growth mindset can help a child to recognise that obstacles and failure can be learning opportunities. Struggling with a problem or overcoming a setback is beneficial to the brain’s neurological development. In contrast, a fixed mindset can result in a child striving to appear intelligent, and avoiding challenges and risks that may lead to failure.

Adopting a growth mindset

Learn to recognise when your child is experiencing a fixed mindset response and help them name their feelings. When they are more relaxed, talk about what methods they’ve used, how effective they were, and what new strategies they could use.

Giving feedback and praise

When children struggle to learn something or have been constantly told how smart they are, they can see their struggle as a sign that they lack talent and will never be good at it. Instead, praising the effort and hard work that goes into learning and success is an opportunity for growth. Providing feedback on the process is key. Praise hard work, perseverance, methods, taking on new tasks, goal setting, and coming up with new ideas and strategies.

Acknowledge the strategy, e.g. “You figured out a really good way to do it.”
Be specific in your praise, e.g. “You seem to really understand how to add two numbers.”
Acknowledge effort, e.g. “I can definitely see you’ve been practising.”

The power of yet

“I can’t do this … YET”

“I don’t know this … YET”

Of course, we must use the above while keeping realistic expectations in mind and allowing children to fail. It is inevitable that a child experiences failure and they need to know this is okay. When a growth mindset is encouraged in a balanced way, it can instil confidence in your child and help them to develop their intrinsic motivation to attempt new things.

Invitation to Year 5 Parents

Year 7 2024 Engagement Session, via Zoom

Tonight: Thursday 24 February
Time: 6.00-7.00pm

As part of the transition to Secondary School, this is a reminder for you and your child to join this evening’s Year 7 2024 Engagement Session to learn more about Secondary School at Redlands. During this webinar you will hear from Principal Mr Stephen Webber and Head of Secondary School Ms Gemma Van de Peer.

Please click this link to join the Webinar:

Passcode: 755611

Student Recognition – Kids Giving Back

Our Principal, Mr Webber, and I were proud to receive an email from Gabrielle Morrisey Hansen, CEO of the organisation Kids Giving Back, sharing how a number of our Junior School students and their families spent time volunteering in Term 4, 2021 and over the last school holidays to help others through this organisation.

Kids Giving Back is a charity whose mission is to create the next generation of generosity through meaningful, hands-on experiences for young people to give back to others. Through charity partners, they arrange opportunities for children aged 6-18 years old and their families to provide assistance and support for people experiencing food scarcity or hardship.

The contribution of our students resulted in over 5000 meals, care packs and new backpacks of school supplies for those in need being prepared and distributed. 11 charities were assisted as a result of their work which supports the homeless and vulnerable in the community.

I will duly acknowledge these students in assembly next week but I wanted to also do so through this wider community communication as well. Thank you to the following students who participated in one or more of the programs during the school holidays:

Amelie Cadman, Imogen Scattini (Yr 4); Oliver Elworthy, Amelia Russo (Yr 5); Freya Carroll, Jenna Condous, Zara Siva (Yr 6); Daniel Benoliel, Jeffrey Benoliel, Daniel Bond, Sam Elworthy, William Thomson (now Yr 7)

To hear of our Redlands students embracing the concept of contributing back into the community is heart-warming and a wonderful example of our students living our School Values whilst making a difference to the lives of others.

Environment Captains in Action

Our new Junior School Environment Captains, Lauren Rolfe and Otis Gait, have already been involved in planning meetings and will be promoting two key whole of school initiatives in the Junior and Prep sections in the coming week, which I share below for parent knowledge too.

Clean Up Australia Day

On Sunday 6 March, students and families from Redlands will again be involved in Clean up Australia Day. Community members are encouraged to be involved in this event at Balmoral from 12pm-2pm, meeting at the rotunda at 11.50am. We will provide equipment so there is no need to bring anything for the clean-up. Yr 6 student volunteers will be there to help organise this along with Redlands staff and families are encouraged to come along and get involved. Do feel free to bring lunch or some snacks along as well and for those students who cannot make it, the Junior School will also be participating in Clean Up Australia Day at school the following week.

There will also be House points up for grabs for all participants that will go towards the House Shield at the end of the year. I look forward to joining others at this community-focused event.

Cutlery Library

The students are also looking to create a cutlery library. Currently, the canteen issues biodegradable cutlery in the canteen. The aim is to improve this further by creating a reusable cutlery library. Cutlery can be borrowed from the cutlery library and returned to the canteen to be washed.

So what are we asking you? Whether it’s forks or spoons, we would love any spare cutlery to be donated to our Cutlery Library. Please send this in via your child and they can be dropped off at reception or in Ms Tobiansky’s classroom (6 White C3.3). We will be allocating House Points and looking for the class who are able to donate the most.

SRC Meeting 1

Our Junior School Student Representative Council (SRC) consisting of a girl and a boy from each Junior School class had their first meeting this week. The group will meet every fortnight along with the School and Environment Captains and their conversations and discussions are guided by Mr Brakell. From these meetings, I then meet with the School and Environment Captains to get a sense of the key messages from the meeting and better understand the topics that matter to our students as we facilitate the important opportunity for student voice and agency. These roles are held for a semester and we then change the group for Semester Two with new representatives from each class.

Debating Teams off to a Winning Start

Congratulations to our Primary A and B teams who were victorious in their first interschool debates of 2022 against Brigidine College. For some students, this was their first debate against another school and they rose to the challenge. Both Mr Watkins and the debating coaches were suitably impressed and we wish them well in the upcoming season.

Mr Ari Guha
Head of Junior School
aguha@redlands.nsw.edu.au
9953 6022