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Kardinia eNews – Wednesday 8 June 2022

Home Kardinia eNews – Wednesday 8 June 2022

From the Principal

Recently we finally had the opportunity to meet face to face with the families of students new to our Senior School this year. I took this moment to share with our families some of my thoughts around the importance of a partnership with the families of our students to enable the best educational outcomes. Below is an extract of my presentation.

This is a partnership between yourselves and our staff. At the centre of that partnership is your child. The goal of this partnership is for your child to receive a high-quality holistic education.

Consistently our surveys of parents each year indicate that the top five reasons they have chosen Kardinia International College for their child is because:

  • They feel it suits the individual needs of their child
  • The emphasis on the development of sound morals, values, beliefs and attitudes
  • The reputation of the school
  • The educational philosophy of the school
  • The quality of educational programmes

Academic results come in at number 6.

I share this for several reasons.

I agree with these reasons for parents to choose our school. We have your child with us for 6 years and over that time I believe it is our role to prepare them as best as we can for life after school. And that encompasses:

  • Meeting the individual needs of each student
  • Developing a sound moral compass, values, beliefs and attitudes.

To this end, I ask that you work with us on developing these attributes. They come by supporting the school motto of Wisdom leads to Respect and Friendship. They come by having high expectations of how our students behave in their classrooms, the way they interact with their teachers and with each other, the level of engagement and effort they are expected to undertake in order to get the most out of their learning. It also comes in the simple things like following the uniform requirements, homework requirements, our student behaviour expectations in terms of not tolerating bullying or racism, not tolerating the use of illicit substances, completing homework and schoolwork to the best of one’s ability and ensuring that every person has the right to feel safe and included in our school.

While academic results are one way of seeing how a student is achieving at school, they are only one part of the educational journey. That is why in our Strategic Plan 2022 – 2032 we are looking to:

  • Provide a learning culture where our SPICE skills (social, personal, intercultural, critical and creative thinking and ethical) are embedded and nurtured in learning through our curricula and co-curricular activities
  • We want our students and, indeed, the parents of our students to know that they are much more than their ATAR
  • We want students to feel comfortable to be down in the learning pit, inquiring, questioning and not always knowing the answer
  • We want to develop a growth mindset in our students where the process of learning and the next steps in learning is valued beyond the grades received.

We really need our parents as partners if we are going to achieve these goals. It does need a shift in the mindset of parents as well. For as much as parents say Academic results are sixth on their list of priorities, they can also be very quick to focus on the grades of their children. Asking why they did not get an A+ or criticising their children for not getting perfect or near perfect grades. Learning is a journey and as Dylan Wiliam, renowned educationalist, states that “as soon as students get a grade, the learning stops. We may not like it, but the research reviewed shows that this is a relatively stable feature of how human minds work” and it makes sense as we are wired for rationalising the amount of effort we need to exert. So, if you are told you received an A or A+ or indeed a C or B if that is what you are satisfied with, then the brain then says ‘you can stop learning that now’. We want to see a shift in students to a growth mindset. Tabitha Bower explains that when fostering a growth mindset in students, it is important that educators acknowledge the process and effort a student is making rather than only acknowledging outcome and achievement. Dweck refers to this as “praising the process.” Such as you got an A or a D.

“When teachers praise students for intelligence alone, students often respond by not taking chances in their learning, limiting their growth. On the other hand, when students take pride in their effort and hard work over outcomes, they are more willing to make mistakes, accept challenges, and grow as learners.” (Referenced here) So while students will get grades along the way, the questions we should be asking about their results are quite different, what did you learn, what questions did you ask, what would you do differently next time?

As parents you can help us to develop these growth mindsets. The people at Mindset works suggest “One of the best ways you can model a growth mindset is to speak candidly about the mistakes you have made, and what you have learned from them. Speak positively about your mistakes and struggles, and this will show your children that taking risks and making mistakes are a natural part of the learning process. Explain to your children that trying hard things is what helps us grow, and you cannot be perfect when you try something hard!”

At Kardinia International College we recognise that the most important skills we can teach our students is how to learn, not just what to learn. So much of what they will need to know when they finish school has not even been discovered or invented yet, so we need to prepare them to be able to have the skills to inquire, create, iterate, communicate, collaborate and so much more than rote learning and regurgitating information.

Once again quoting Dylan Wiliam ”If having a valued skill no longer guarantees employment, then the only way to be sure of being employable is to be able to develop new skills”, as Seymour Papert (1998) observed: so the model that says learn while you are at school, while you are young, the skills that you will apply during your lifetime is no longer tenable. The skills that you can learn when you are at school will not be applicable. They will be obsolete by the time you get into the workplace and need them, except for one skill. The one really competitive skill is the skill of being able to learn. It is the skill of being able not to give the right answer to questions about what you were taught in school, but to make the right response to situations that are outside the scope of what you were taught in school. We need to produce people who know how to act when they’re faced with situations for which they were not specifically prepared.”

As parents, you can help us to prepare your child for a lifetime of learning by being trusted, collaborative partners in your child’s learning journey and helping us to focus your child’s understanding of their education, not as a series of letters or numbers on a report card but as a continuous journey of learning with struggles, failures and successes that come as a result of not being the smartest person in the room but as a result of wanting to learn, be challenged and willing to make mistakes and take risks with learning.

From the Head of Junior School

Unfortunately, I don’t have much to share this week. Since testing positive to COVID on Monday I have been isolating at home and doing what I can remotely. With several other leaders and teachers also absent I would like to thank all those staff members who have pitched in and helped, especially our Deputy Head of Junior School, Geoff Geddes. 

I hope everyone enjoys the upcoming long weekend and I look forward to seeing everyone next week. 

Reconciliation Week

Last week was Reconciliation Week! Check out the photos below to to see some of the activities that took place throughout both the Junior and Senior School.

Year 9 Camps

This week some of our Year 9 students headed off to Queensland and the Grampians, where they are spending the week hiking! Here are some photos from their trips so far.

Congratulations to Callum MacKenzie!

Congratulations to Callum MacKenzie (Year 9) who has recently been named divisional Victorian State Champion for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. This is his fourth year of winning the prestigious title back-to-back! Callum has been training for over 5 years now with DC Jiu Jitsu Geelong, and also gained the title of Australian National Champion earlier in the year after competing in the state and national competitions.
We wish Callum the best of luck in his future competitions!

Co-Curricular News

As a College we appreciate the importance of looking after Wathaurong Country and the surrounding local and global environments and are committed to protecting them.  Earthcore in the Senior School aims to raise awareness about environmental issues and engages in projects that they feel are needed to improve the school environment or to address a local/global issue – whether that’s actions addressing the waste, improving biodiversity on campus, saving water or re-establishing endemic flora.  Students learn to be ethical leaders and collaborators engaging in student-led actions aimed at sustaining and managing the environment at the College and lessening our footprint whilst paying respect to Wathaurong Country.  All senior school students and staff are welcome to come and meet with Earthcore on Monday and Friday lunchtimes. Contact Mr Conron or Mrs Holton for further details.

School TV – Building Resilience Post Pandemic

Unfortunately, the mental health of young people has been significantly impacted by the pandemic. The prevalence of symptoms of anxiety and depression has risen dramatically amongst young people and remains higher than pre-pandemic levels. It is not an exaggeration to say that the child and adolescent mental health system is currently in crisis with general practices inundated, emergency departments flooded with demand, and medical services becoming disconnected, dispersed and diluted.

As a result, many young people are at risk of not achieving the primary demands of developmental tasks such as independence, identity formation, and attaining and maintaining peer relationships. However, by maintaining their wellbeing through regular exercise, adequate sleep and healthy nutrition, young people can be in a better position to tackle them.

As many families settle back into their pre-COVID routines, there seems to be a pervasive sense of optimism about what lies ahead. If there is a panacea to the adversity caused by the pandemic, then it is the building of resilience. In this current environment, young people need support, understanding, empathy and encouragement from caring adults. Teaching them the skills to build resilience will enable young people to thrive and develop healthy coping strategies. There are 7 integral and interrelated components that make up being resilient. These are explained in more depth in this Special Report and includes suggested strategies on how parents and carers can best facilitate them.

Click here to watch this episode:

https://kardinia.vic.schooltv.me/wellbeing_news/special-report-building-resilience-post-pandemic

 

Kardinia International College

PO Box 17
Geelong, Victoria 3220

+61 3 5278 9999
kardinia@kardinia.vic.edu.au

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