Nutritional and Dietary Influences on Learning and Behaviour – Parent Workshop

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This article was first published in the Newsletter on June 1st, 2017
On Wednesday, May 10th, UniSA Senior Research Fellow, nutritionist and freelance science writer Dr Natalie Parletta visited the school to present a session on the relationship between nutrition, behaviour and learning. The session was arranged by the Education Committee after it recognised school parents’ interest in the subject in 2016. Dr Parletta’s presentation combined a thought provoking and informative series of research and case studies that demonstrated how omega 3s, iron, zinc and magnesium deficiencies are related to neurodevelopmental problems including ADHD and autism and low educational outcomes. She followed her explanation of food intolerances with several videos showcasing the effect of addressing them. These videos included the outstanding performance of a T –
ball team when following a ‘no additive’ diet and the cessation of negative behaviours by young offenders when following a ‘few foods’ diet that comprised mostly whole foods. Dr Parletta responded to a variety of questions throughout the session and concluded by providing the audience with website links to parenting resources. Her willingness to discuss a range of topics with parents at the end of the evening provided a welcome personal touch.

Attached below are some of the web links provided by Natalie, along with a PDF version of her presentation on the night. This has all been provided with Natalie’s consent..

Sue Dengate Food Intolerance Network: www.fedup.com.au

Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Allergy Unit: http://www.slhd.nsw.gov.au/rpa/allergy/

Joan Breakey Food Intolerance Pro: http://foodintolerancepro.com/

Ellyn Satter Institute: http://www.ellynsatterinstitute.org/

CSIRO Wellbeing Plan for Kids: http://www.publish.csiro.au/pid/6175.htm

Get your kids to eat everything – The French Way: http://www.parenting.com/article/get-your-kids-eat-everything

 

Japanese News

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An article about learning Japanese by Oka Sensai as published in the Newsletter on 2nd February 2017.

Japan Junction – Where you’ll find cool facts and info…

Japanese at CLGPS

The benefit of learning another language is universally recognised. As one of our nearest and most influential trading neighbours, it makes sense to introduce our children to an Asian language and culture. Japanese is being taught at CLGPS because;

1. Japanese is the most popular language to learn as a curricular choice in both primary and secondary schools in Australia.

2. The study of Japanese develops an invaluable understanding of different people and cultures. Japanese Culture is integral to the learning of the language. Learning about Japanese history, modern Japanese life, industries, festivals, food, music, drama and art enriches the language learning experience for students at CLGPS

3. The primary school course teaches basic word knowledge, grammar, phrasing, conversational skills and language application. The programme is designed to be sequential, building on from Junior Primary to a more advanced curriculum through to year 7.

4. In the Japanese room, students also learn World Geography, International Affairs and Studies of Asia.

5. One of the benefits of learning Japanese at CLGPS is the opportunity to continue their studies of Japanese at High School and beyond. This popular SACE subject is offered at schools such as Scotch College, Pultney Grammar, Cabra, Glenunga International, St John’s Grammar, Westminster, Brighton HS, Blackwood HS and Adelaide HS as well as at TAFE and University.

6. Vocationally there are numerous ongoing job opportunities for students and graduates fluent in the Japanese language both in South Australia and overseas. The opportunities can range from Hospitality, Trade and Technology to Teaching and International affairs.

7. In 2016 CLGPS successfully formed a sister school relationship with Sawayama Elementary School in Hikone, Japan which has opened the door to new learning opportunities, experiences and cultural exchanges.

Finally I’ll be very proud (and quietly pleased) if your house ends up full of paper cranes or you find your children singing karaoke with their hairbrush or even finding ‘seaweed’ (nori) written on your grocery list…

Arigato

Oka Sensei

NEW PARENTING SA VIDEOS

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NEW PARENTING SA VIDEOS

Parenting SA has developed 4 short videos for parents and carers that feature some great tips and strategies for keeping children and young people safe in a digital world.

There are also some tips for talking with teens and pre-teens about safe and respectful relationships.

Video topics include:

  • Toddlers and touchscreens Children, teens and pornography
  • Breaking the boy code: teaching boys about respectful relationships
  • Girls: respect, resilience and healthy relationships’

To watch the videos, visit http://www.parenting.sa.gov.au/videos.htm

Jodie Cunningham, Assistant Principal

At the end of 2016 this information about for parents was published in the last newsletter for the year.

Learning and the Brain – Part 3: Myths about Mathematics

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This is the third and last of a series of articles by Tamra Wade, classroom teacher and the school’s Numeracy Coach in 2016. It was originally published in the Newsletter on the 22nd September 2016.

I’m just not a Maths person!

This is a common statement that teachers hear all the time, not only from students but also from parents. It is a damaging statement that can build and or support a Fixed Mathematical Mindset in our children. Many people think they are either born with or without maths ability, something they essentially cannot change. This is just not true!

Maths just happens to be the subject that people think it is ok to admit they are bad at. Why is this? I’ve never been in a conversation where people laugh and joke about ‘being bad at reading’. Then why is it OK for us to say it about maths and especially in front of our children?

If you have read the two previous newsletter articles about ‘Growth/Fixed Mindsets’ and ‘How the Brian Learns’, you will remember the importance of self-belief and effort and mistakes in learning. If we possess a growth mindset we are more likely to learn, especially in maths.

By saying to our children, I’m not just a maths person, are we giving our children ‘permission’ to accept that they too are just not a maths person? They don’t need to try because it’s just something they’re not good at?

Other maths myths and misconceptions that are proven to be FALSE:

  • You have to be very intelligent to be good at maths
  • It is acceptable to be bad at maths because most people are
  • Maths isn’t really used much outside of special occupations
  • If you are faster you are at maths, the smarter you are
  • Maths is about a right or wrong answer and there is only one way to solve a problem
  • Maths is about following procedures

So next time you are finding it challenging working out an everyday maths problem, admit it proudly to your child and then talk about and demonstrate how you might go about solving it!

Be a Growth Mindset Role Model! Everyone can be a ‘Maths Person’!

Click here for a pdf of Tamra Wade’s original article with images, as published in the newsletter. Learning and the Brain -Topic 3

Learning and the Brain – Part 2

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This is the second of a series of articles by Tamra Wade, classroom teacher and the school’s Numeracy Coach in 2016 . It was originally published in the Newsletter on the 8th September 2016.

Learning and the Brain – How the Brain Learns

We now live a time that technology allows us new access to the living brain and how it functions. Scientists can now study children learning and watch their brain activity including how it grows and the impact of emotion on the brain.

One area that has emerged in recent years and has stunned scientists is the discovery of what is called “Brain Plasticity”. No, this doesn’t mean our brains are made of plastic but it is able to change and grow. It used to be believed that the brains people were born with couldn’t really be changed, but this idea has now been disproved. Study after study has shown the incredible capacity of brains to grow and change within a really short period.

What happens in our brains when we learn?

When we learn a new idea, an electric current fires in our brains, crossing synapses and connecting different areas of the brain. See picture. If you learn something deeply then the synaptic activity with form a lasting connection but if you only visit a topic only once or twice then it forms a weak connection and can be easily ‘washed away’.

Imagine riding a bike through a field of long grass for the first time – it’s difficult and if you only do it a few times it will always be difficult. Your synapse pathway is NOT well formed.

On the other hand, if you ride this path continually and regularly then the path becomes clearer and easier to walk. Your synapse pathway is well formed.

This is what it is like for our brains when they are forming synaptic connections. The deeper the learning the stronger the pathway.

Synapses fire when learning happens, but learning does not happen only in classrooms or when reading books; synapses fire when we have conversations, play games, or build with toys, and in the course of many other life experiences.

Watch this 5 minute clip showing examples of how the brain and grow and change in a short period with examples of amazing brain research and stories.

https://www.youcubed.org/brain-science/

“Every second of the day our brain synapses are firing, and children raised in stimulating environments with growth mindset messages are capable of anything. A lot of scientific evidence suggests that the difference between those who succeed and those that don’t is not the brains they are born with, but their approach to life, the messages they receive about their potential and the opportunities they have to learn.” Jo Boaler, Stanford University

 

Click to download Tamra Wade’s original Newsletter article with images Learning and the Brain – Topic 2

Learning and the Brain – Part 1

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This is the first of a series of articles by Tamra Wade, classroom teacher and the school’s Numeracy Coach. It was originally published in the Newsletter on August 26th, 2016.

Each fortnight, this new section of the newsletter will provide parents with a glimpse at educational research based on neuroscience, how the brain learns and how this knowledge can support the learning of the students at CLG.

TOPIC 1: GROWTH VERSUS FIXED MINDSETS

Dr Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology at Stanford University, studies the mindset of children or how they think about their abilities. She believes that children are similar to adults in that they have one of two possible mindsets – a fixed mindset or a growth mindset.
Kids with a fixed mindsets believe they are ‘smart’ or ‘dumb’, talented at something; painting, music or football, or not. They believe the world is made of some gifted people, whom the rest admire from the sidelines. Alternatively, kids with a growth mindset appreciate that anyone can build themselves into anything they want to be. They recognise that people aren’t ‘smart’ or dumb’, only hard working people who have chosen to take their abilities to the next level.
Dweck’s research shows that students’ beliefs about intelligence play an important role in their school achievement, engagement and happiness.

  • We found that students’ mindsets – how they perceive their abilities- played a key role in their motivation and achievement, and we found that if we changed students’ mindsets, we could boost their achievement. Students who believed their intelligence could be developed (a growth mindset) outperformed those who believed their intelligence was fixed (a fixed mindset)” Carol Dweck, 2006
  1. How can you as a parent help your child to develop a growth mindset?
    Tips for promoting a growth mindset in kids:
  2. Help children understand that the brain works like a muscle, that can only grow through hard work, determination and lots and lots of practice.
  3. Don’t tell students they are smart, gifted or talented, since this implies that they were born with knowledge, and does not encourage growth or effort.
  4. Let kids know when they demonstrate a growth mindset.
  5. Praise the process. It’s effort, hard work and practice that allow children to achieve their true potential.
  6. Don’t praise the results. Test scores and rigid ways of measuring learning and knowledge limit the growth that would otherwise be tapped.
  7. Embrace failures and mistakes. Children sometimes learn the most when they fail. Let them know that mistakes are a big part of the learning process. There is nothing like the feeling of struggling through a very difficult problem, only to finally break through and solve it! The harder the problem, the more satisfying it is to find the solution.
  8. Don’t ask your kids what they enjoyed at school today,but rather what did you find challenging? Focus on the effort and mistakes that were made.

Follow the link below to view a video of Carol Dweck:
http://bit.ly/1wBJmZ6

Click here to download a PDF version of the article, with images, as presented in the newsletter

learning-and-the-brain-topic-1

 

 

 

Parent Engagement in Education

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This article was first published in the newsletter on August 26th 2016
LEARNING POTENTIAL WEBSITE AND APP
Parents, families and carers are a child’s first and most important teachers. Parent Engagement In Education is about parents being positively involved in their child’s learning and school community – to help them learn and enjoy school.
As a parent, you and your family play an important role in supporting your child’s education. The earlier you and your family become engaged, the better it is for your child’s learning. Parent engagement is more than being involved and informed about school activities. It is actively engaging with your child’s learning, both in the home and at school. When schools and families work together, children do better and stay in school longer. For this reason, ‘Engaging Parents In Education’ is one of the four pillars of the Australian Government’s Students First approach for quality school education.
What can parents do?
Being positively involved in your child’s learning can help them to do better at school, be more engaged with their school work, go to school more regularly, and have better behaviour and social skills. There are simple things you can do to support your child’s education. It doesn’t take much to make a big difference!
Research has identified five ways that you can make a big difference to your child’s learning:
  1. Set positive expectations
  2. Have regular conversations
  3. Support good study habits
  4. Encourage reading
  5. Build a partnership with your child’s teachers
The Learning Potential app is full of tips and ideas on how to put these ideas into practice, with specific suggestions depending on whether your child is under five, in primary school, or in high school.
Click the links below for an apple or android version of the app.
This is the link to the website:
Louisa Guest
Assistant Principal

Digital Technologies Workshop

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This article was originally published in the newsletter on September 8th 2016.
On the evening of Tuesday 6th September, 45 children and their parents attended a hands-on “digi tech” workshop.
Last year, our workshops focused on coding. This year, we wanted to show parents how we incorporate tech into all aspects of the curriculum. All teachers use the Australian Curriculum to program for children’s learning. Digital tools (ICTs) are used in every curriculum area. The part of the curriculum we refer to for this is called the ICT general capability. Skills are general with things like using social and ethical protocols (copyright, cyber safety, etc.) and managing and operating ICT (saving and backing up, locating information).
If you would like to read more about the ICT general capability, here’s the link:
The aspect of the curriculum that drives our teaching in using digital tools and systems is the Technologies: Digital Technology area. This is more specific in the skills and concepts that children must understand around the use of ICT, ICT systems, using ICT to solve problems and so on.
Here’s more information about that area:
The workshops that teachers offered were:
Writers’ Workshop and Puppet Pals (digital tools to improve literacy), unplugged coding (developing computational thinking skills), Beebots, Spheros, Scratch and Lego Mindstorms (digital tools to learn coding) green screen movie making (digital tools for creating and communicating).
Parents asked for a list of apps and websites shared at the workshops:
Apps: Bookcreator, Puppet Pals Directors Cut, Scratch Junior
Louisa Guest
Assistant Principal

Parent Library

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As well as great books and resources for our student population to borrow, through the CLG Resource Centre parents can also borrow from the collection of resources for parents.

Click here to download the list of resources available. We hope over time to add more details and some reviews about the books to this list but parents can ask at the Resource Centre to get more information or view a book.  Just some of the themes in this parent library include; parenting boys, parenting girls, kids online, attention deficit disorder, sensory processing disorder, bullying, conflict resolution strategies for kids, dealing with grief, loss or change.

To borrow books you can email CLG’s Librarian, simone.petherick915@schools.sa.edu.au.

Include your details, your child’s name and their class.  The book will be borrowed out under your child’s name.  Simone will either deliver the book to their class or you can pop into the Resource Centre and collect it if you’d prefer.

 

Beyond Google: Inquiry Learning

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As originally published in the newsletter on July 30th 2015
Inquiry learning is not something new (just ask Socrates!) but it has become increasingly relevant and achievable in schools because of class sizes, the impact of technology on learning and simply because of the changing nature of students themselves. Our students are active, inquisitive learners who want to have choice and a say in their learning! Inquiry learning is the teaching and learning method most predominant in the Australian curriculum and is reflected throughout the South Australian ‘Teaching for Effective Learning’ Framework’ (TfEL).
Following our work with Kath Murdoch last Friday, here are some of the explanations of inquiry written by our teachers:
‘Inquiry is a way of learning that encourages students to wonder about the world around them, ask questions, make discoveries and develop expert learner qualities and skills. They relate their learning to personal experiences and the learning is in a relevant, meaningful context.’ Inquiry is about building student skills and the ability to ask questions, organise information, make connections to real world situation and take practical action. It is about learning to learn and using
I – nformation, not just knowing ‘stuff’.
I – ndependence
N – ot about the teacher (student centred)
Q – uestioning
U – nderstanding and applying skills in the community
I – nvestigations and exploration
R – elevant and authentic
Y – es! It develops the Expert Learner Qualities!
Inquiry is a pathway to open up the world to the curiosity of children’s minds; undertaken in an environment where they feel empowered to make their choices, safe in the knowledge that they will be guided through the relevant skills. Inquiry involves students having more control, but also more responsibility in driving their learning.
They ask quality questions and decide how they can use new understandings to improve / impact their world. Inquiry allows students the opportunity to make deeper meaning of their learning and to transfer skills to new situations. Learning is intentional, purposeful, challenging and collaborative.