Newsletter Week 1 term 3

Welcome Back to a new Semester! We hope that you were able to enjoy some special time with your children over the holidays and that life is treating you kindly.

Time certainly flies, so let us all make the most of the time we have in this second half of the year. Here at school, we are continually challenged to use our time wisely and as effectively as we can, for the good of each child’s learning and wellbeing. Teachers have spent much time planning the learning opportunities ahead and we are all looking forward to supporting your child to aim high this term, in all areas of school life.

It has been wonderful catching up with children after their holiday break, they appear to be very excited and happy to be back at school, ready for another ten weeks of learning and fun!

As always, we will be monitoring their academic progress and their social and emotional progress throughout the semester, to support their growth as positive, confident, cooperative, creative kind and responsible students in our school. When this is mirrored at home as well the child has an amazing opportunity to really FLOURISH!

All the very best to everyone and as we look forward to a great term ahead!

GROWTH MINDSET

We are very excited about the prospect of nurturing a growth mindset culture throughout our school community. This week I have been visiting each class to explain the importance of developing a Growth Mindset. Pupils who have a positive attitude towards their learning make good progress and be successful.

We want all our pupils to relish challenges, embrace their mistakes as part of the learning process, value the importance of effort, respond carefully to feedback and take inspiration from others. This will help them to achieve, not only with us, but also in their future lives as adults.

Mindset is a simple idea discovered by world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck in decades of research on achievement and success. Dr Dweck realised that there are two mindsets: a fixed mindset and a growth mindset. A person's mindset can profoundly influence behaviour.

People with a fixed mindset believe that their innate abilities and intelligence are fixed traits. You can either do maths or you can't. You can either make friends or you can't. They also believe that talent alone creates success- without effort. With a fixed mindset, there is a reluctance to take on new challenges.

People with a growth mindset believe that they can learn, change and develop needed skills through dedication and hard work. They are better equipped to handle setbacks and know that hard work and effort helps them accomplish and learn. this view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. Virtually all people who achieved top performance had these qualities.

A fixed mindset stops you in your tracks and limits your achievement. A growth mindset opens up possibilities and always offers you opportunities to grow and learn.

Key aspects of growth mindset at St Joseph’s Parish School:

• We celebrate making mistakes – we can learn from them;
• We never give up – perseverance is the key if we are to succeed;
• We learn from each other;
• We don’t compare ourselves with others;
• We challenge ourselves and take risks;
• We remember that our brains are making new connections and growing all the time.

Overall, Mueller and Dweck found that students receiving ability praise were:            

• More likely to give up after a failure
• More likely to perform poorly after a failure
• More likely to misrepresent how well they did on a task
• More likely to view their failures on a task as evidence of low intelligence

Teachers and Parents: Praise that Works 

When praising or giving feedback to your child we encourage all teachers and parents to use process praise. This will assist students in developing a growth mindset and forming a healthy connection between effort and achievement.

The following video explains the concept in more detail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUWn_TJTrnU

For further information on how to encourage confident and resilient learners at home, please feel encouraged to explore the following clips and print resources:

https://youtu.be/Xv2ar6AKvGc what is growth mindset?

https://youtu.be/BKisdb9tBYg parent info building a growth mindset