Dear Parents

“If parents want to give their children a gift, the best thing they can do is to teach their children to love challenges, be intrigued by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning. That way, their children don’t have to be slaves of praise. They will have a lifelong way to build and repair their own confidence.” Dr Carol Dweck

Over 30 years ago, Dr Carol Dweck and her colleagues became interested in students’ attitudes to failure. They noticed that some learners bounced back while other students seemed devastated by even the smallest setbacks. After studying the behaviour of thousands of children, Dr Dweck coined the terms ‘fixed mindset’ and ‘growth mindset’ to describe the underlying beliefs people have about learning and intelligence.

When children believe they can get smarter, they understand that effort makes them stronger. Therefore, they put in extra time and effort which leads to higher aptitude. People who believe that they can increase their intelligence through effort and challenge actually get smarter and do better in school, work, and life, over time. They know that mental exercise makes their brains grow smarter — the same way that exercise makes an athlete stronger and faster. And they are always learning new ways to work smartly and build their brains.

Individuals who believe that their skills can be developed (through hard work, good strategies, and input from others) have a growth mindset. They tend to achieve more than those with a more fixed mindset (those who believe their talents are innate gifts). This is because they worry less about looking smart and they put more energy into learning. 

We work consistently hard at nurturing your son’s belief in themselves at school. We can gain a lot by deepening our understanding of growth-mindset concepts and the processes for putting these good habits into practice. It gives our son’s a richer sense of who they are, what they stand for, and how they we to move forward.

Here’s wishing you a happy last week of the term.

Kind regards

SHARLENE GROOM
HEADMISTRESS

A reminder that school finishes on Thursday 19 September. This is a full school day.

On the last day of school (19 September) we will have bandana day. All boys are encouraged to wear a bandana with their uniform.

Grade 1’s will be having their South African Day, they can add their bandana to their dress up.

Creator God

you have created the community of life:

May we give thanks for the holiness and wonder

of all that you have created

and fulfil your call on our lives to be

keepers and healers of your Earth;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

A parent recently said something along the lines of “we live in interesting times where love, compassion, hope and mercy is not often practiced and witnessed.”  Such words got me to thinking and suddenly got overwhelmed with questions like “how could we teach and accord our boys opportunities of learning and living out values and virtues that breath and give life to our communities?”  We may offer different suggestions and I am sure they would help us address and teach our boys such important virtues.  Out of everything we may elect to do in teaching our boys how to be good citizens, motivated and inspired by acts of love and kindness; we need to embrace and utilize opportunities of living-out and modelling what it means to be compassionate, loving towards our environment and our communities. Praying and breathing God’s blessing as we approach the end of Term Three.

Wishing Miss Heynes a wonderful and happy day for her birthday on the 15^th September. Happy birthday to Mrs Nolte for the 19 September – we hope that you can kick off your holidays with a good celebration. A very Happy birthday to Juante who celebrates her birthday in the holidays.