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.  

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)  

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. 

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! 

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. 

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!! 

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.