From the Head of Campus – Creativity and a Growth Mindset
I wanted to share with you something that struck me today as I walked around our campus with a new family – that was the myriad of opportunities students had to be creative. A couple of examples of this was when a Prep student shared with me that their ‘car’ creation was linked to their learning in spelling and not only that, they had decided to draw a Satnav system so the car knew which way to go! Another was in Year 3 when we visited the Digitech room to see students telling their stories through their individual creation of virtual characters. Not only did they create these characters, they had also used their coding skills to make their characters move as part of that story!
Creativity is and continues to be a key educational goal for contemporary learning and in recent years both education and other social institutions have emphasised the importance of preparing students for a future that will demand complex problem-solving and creative thinking (Wagner, 2010).
Sir Ken Robinson in his clip ‘Can Creativity be taught?’ states that “the very future of our civilisation hinges upon the creative capabilities of young people and that one of the most important things we can do in schools is foster creativity.” He defines creativity as “the process of having original ideas that have value.” Originality is seen as the most important aspect of creativity because something must be novel or unique in some way to be considered creative. If originality is not present then the process, product, or idea in question is common. The idea that creativity adds value is also included in most definitions. This value could come in the form of developing effective product design, innovation or stirring an emotional response. The value can also mean different things to different people.
Often, we think of creativity as being capable in the arts for example a great painter, performer or musician however Robinson suggests that creativity is something that anyone can cultivate. Researcher Dr. Carol Dweck supports this position in her work in coining the terms ‘fixed mindset’ and ‘growth mindset’. She suggests that when students have a growth mindset that allows them to believe they are creative, and practice creativity, they can be creative. Dweck states “It turns out, if you believe your brain can grow, you behave differently and with practice, neural networks grow new connections and strengthen existing ones”.
Creativity and a growth mindset are powerful tools for our young learners to develop now and into their futures. Creativity and a growth mindset allow learners to take sensible risks, make mistakes, be motivated, develop a strong sense of personal success, have increased levels of confidence, resilience and problem solve. Today’s examples were a great reminder to me of how our teachers strive to foster student creativity by giving them rich opportunities in their learning environments to explore technologies, engage in play, be immersed in a design process, inquire and investigate.
What’s on at Junior School
Week 4: Monday August 1st
Tuesday 2nd August – Junior School Open Morning, 9.30-11am
Thursday 4th August – Bush Prep, Prep B, G, M & R
Friday 5th August – Year 4 Excursion, Melbourne Museum & IMAX (Please refer to EdSmart notification)
Week 5: Monday August 8th
Tusday 9th August – HoopTime Basketball (EdSmart notification to follow)
Thursday 11th August – Prep 100 Days of School Celebration (EdSmart notification to follow)
Friday 12th August – Assembly, 1B Class Item
Friday 12th August – Year 4 Incursion, ‘Forces at work – looking at railway projects’ (EdSmart notification to follow)
Week 6: Monday 15th August – Science Week at Junior School
Thursday 18th August – Bush Prep, Prep B, G, M & R
Friday 19th August – Project Care Day – The Royal Childrens Hospital (Gold Coin donation)
Save the Date!
An Important Parent Evening for all Families
Save the date for this event to partner with us in support of our young people’s wellbeing.
The past few years have been challenging globally, and at Christian College we have not been exempt from facing difficulty. Pleasingly however, through the ever-present blessings of God, and the hard work of our wonderful team, we have delivered “The Learning That Matters” consistently and effectively throughout this time and continue to do so.
Over this time, in the broader community and in our own College community, we have seen a range of factors influencing young people’s wellbeing and learning, including their digital wellbeing. We know that there is a relationship between young people’s attitudes and habits towards technology and their wellbeing and learning, and that this relationship can be either helpful or harmful. We’re committed to supporting our students with their wellbeing. We view helping them develop positive attitudes and habits towards technology as an important facet of “the learning that matters”.
We wish to work and partner with you, as parents of our students, in this digital wellbeing space.
Many parents will have noted in previous Vine articles this year, references to our new Cyber Safe Schools Program in partnership with Linewize by Family Zone. We’re excited to invite all parents to join us in attending an evening to explore this new program and how we can partner together.
Parents are encouraged to save the date and attend one of the two evenings listed below, whichever is most convenient, to join a gathering of College leaders, parents and families. We will share specific details of our Cyber Safe Schools Program, including how it operates at school to support students’ wellbeing and learning, and how parents can partner with us in the home as part of this program.
Following our formal parent launch of the program on this evening, all parents will receive an invitation to activate a complimentary Insights parent account from Family Zone.
- Thursday, September 1st at 7.00pm (Week 8) – R. W. Gibson Music Centre, Senior School
- Thursday September 8th at 7.00pm (Week 9) – Auditorium, Bellarine Campus
These two evenings will be identical and are expected to be completed within 45 minutes, with a light supper afterward. All parents are encouraged to attend, and more information will follow in the coming weeks.
Prep – Cars, Cars, Cars!
This week the Prep students have been introduced to the first digraph in our Smart Foundation sequence, /ar/ like in ‘car’. To help our Preps consolidate their knowledge of new sounds we integrate many activities across the week that incorporate our weekly word, and car has been so much fun!
Many of our meaningful experiences occur during our investigation time, as students are given the opportunity to guide their own learning through a range of open-ended stations.
Here are some snap shots from this week’s investigations; Students became ‘ar’ detectives by searching through a collection of fiction and non-fiction texts about cars, recording each word they found. We flipped through old school magazines and cut out some of our ‘dream cars’ to make a cool poster for our room at home. Some students even chose to label parts of the car that they knew. We imagined all the possible things that could be created out of planks of wood for our cars, think bridges, car parks, cities!
In STEAM, students upcycled materials to create their own cars using a range of materials. Some cars big enough to let our beanie-boos ride along too!
In writing, we’ve been learning about adjectives, so detailed descriptions of our car creations and cars we’ve found in the magazines has been the perfect writing prompt.
We love being able to make memorable connections between our word of the week and many areas of the curriculum. Well done, Preps!
Year 3
In our Integrated Studies lessons and Enriched Literacy sessions the Year 3 students have been learning about the way in which scientists classify animals and plants. This new learning has been explored further in our STEAM sessions where students have used their new knowledge and creativity to design an animal that belongs to two different animal kingdoms.
The second phase of this project was to create a Habitat that suited both animal groups and allowed their animal to survive and flourish.
In the planning phase the students needed to consider and incorporate into their design, the elements that they would need to include for their animal to be able to survive in their habitat. This included food and water sources, protection, and shelter from the changing weather conditions. The question was also posed ‘What would happen if your animal’s needs were not met?’
In the construction phase, students collected items from nature to make their habitat life-like and their animals were placed into this environment.
The students will be given the opportunity to explain the significance and importance of each aspect they have incorporated into their design.
The students were extremely engaged in the activity which fostered teamwork and the opportunity to explore social friendships further, whilst allowing them to consolidate their understandings of Living Things and the Environment in which they live.
PE News
On Thursday 28th July, about 50 Year 3 and 4 students participated in the CCG Basketball Extravaganza at AWA Stadium. An initiative organised and run by the Christian College Sport Department and the CCG Eagles Basketball Club, the round robin format allowed students from our three junior campuses to come together to play basketball in some friendly games.
Students played a minimum of three games and were refereed by Year 8 students from Middle School. It was great to see lots of fun, skills and team work on show. Some students will be selected to represent the College in the Year 3 and 4 Hooptime Tournament on Tuesday 9th August at the same venue.
Thank you to Flora, Olivia and Matt for their organisation, Year 8 referees and the many supervising teachers from each campus for making this such a successful day.
Digitech – Coding with Bee Bots in Prep!
Prep students at Junior School have made a fantastic start to Term 3, learning about directional language in Digital Technology classes. We have been practising moving forward, backward and to the left and right, so we can transfer our ‘unplugged’ learning, to program our Bee Bot floor robots.
The Bee Bots have been a fabulous addition to our Digitech lessons, as students have worked together to explore the beginnings of programming directional algorithms to give the Bee Bots a set of instructions to make them move. There have been many discussions about the directions we can program and the difference between ‘robot left and right’ and our left and right, however the students have taken everything in their stride. Future programmers in the making!
Activities throughout the term will combine both hands on ‘unplugged’ tasks as well as computer-based tasks, where students will build on their newly acquired skills, setting specific commands for the Bee Bots to complete each session.
Prep classes are already ‘buzzing’ with excitement from using these learning resources during the first weeks of the term and smiles and laughter are accompanying our learning each lesson.
Let’s get programming Preps!!
Camp Australia – Out of School Hours Care Newsletter
Scholarship Applications for 2024 Entry now Open!
Each year we offer Academic Excellence Scholarships for entry at Year 5 (Middle School-Highton, Bellarine and Surf Coast campuses); Year 7 (Middle School-Highton and Bellarine); and Year 10 (Senior School-Waurn Ponds).
These scholarships have been designed primarily to encourage and support new and current students who wish to attend Christian College and who demonstrate high levels of academic excellence.
We are now seeking scholarship applications for entry at any of those year levels in 2024.
For more information, and to apply, please see our website. Use the hotlink from our homepage or click here
Applications close on Thursday September 29. The examination date is Saturday October 8.
Come and Sample our Menu!
Over the next month, three of our campuses are opening their doors to anyone interested in enrolling their children at Christian College.
At Junior School-Belmont there is an Open Morning on August 2 between 9:30 and 11:00am
Middle School-Highton and Bellarine Campus are hosting their subject selection expos in August. Aside from the scheduled evening for current College parents, each campus will also present another evening dedicated to families who are considering Christian College as an option for their children. At Middle School-Highton, it’s on August 9 between 7:00 and 9:00 pm, and the date for Bellarine Campus is August 16, also between 7:00 and 9:00 pm.
These sessions provide interested families with the opportunity to take a deeper dive into the fantastic learning programs offered by our College. There will be opportunities to meet and speak with campus, year level and subject area leaders.
We would encourage anyone within our College community who may know friends, neighbours, work colleagues – anyone – that are considering Christian College as an option to spread the word and extend an invitation to any one or more of these sessions.
East Timor Trivia Night
National Collection of Data on Students With Disabilities
Every year, all schools in Australia participate in the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). With data collected on the first Friday in August (this year, on the 5th), the NCCD process requires schools to identify information already available in the school about supports provided to students with disability. These relate to legislative requirements under the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 and the Disability Standards for Education 2005, in line with the NCCD Guidelines (2021).
Please see the attached NCCD Fact Sheet for more information.
Golf Tournament
The Foundation Golf Tournament is set for Thursday, 27 October 2022. Join us at 13th Beach Golf Links from 8:00am for a shotgun start. Tickets are $190 each ($150 for members) or $750 for a group of four. RSVPs close on Thursday, 6 October 2022 at 5:00pm.
Funds raised from this event will be allocated to our Foundation Scholarship Fund, supporting current students who are in need of financial assistance.
Book online at: The Foundation Golf Tournament
A MYTERN Thought for This Week
During these challenging times it's easy to feel overwhelmed.
You are not alone. Many people are feeling this way.
Whatever road you are now on, just take a deep breath and know that everything is going to be ok. Even if you can't change your circumstances, you always have the option to change the way you feel 👍🙏😊👏
Discover more about MYTERN here