08 May 2015

Faith Matters

“Be strong and let your heart take courage” (Psalm 27:14)

We encourage boys to develop resilience. Often resilience begins with being able to see the positive among the negatives.

The great Edison Industries in West Orange, New Jersey, was practically destroyed by fire in 1914. In one night, Thomas Edison lost equipment estimated to be worth ten million dollars. In addition, much of the record of his life’s work went up in flames.

His son Charles, ran frantically about trying to find his father. Eventually he saw him standing gazing at the flames. Charles Edison recorded, “My heart ached for him. He was no longer young and everything was being destroyed.”

Edison said to his son, “Where is your mother? Bring her here. She will never see anything in her like this again as long as she lives!”

The next morning, walking about the charred embers of many of his hopes and dreams, the sixty seven year old Edison said, “There is great value in disaster. All our mistakes are burned up! Thank God we can start anew!”

 

Transportation in Stage 1

As part of the conclusion to Stage One’s 2nd Unit of Inquiry, ‘Transportation systems are directly related to the needs of the community’, we visited the Australian National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour.

The excursion was split into three main parts, a guided tour of the museum itself, a look around the naval destroyer the HMAS Vampire, and finally a cruise around Sydney Harbour on board a harbour ferry.

The boys had a fantastic time and were incredibly inquisitive throughout. Whilst in the museum the boys got to study how boats have evolved through the ages and how important they are to Australian history and identity, both from indigenous perspectives to the First Fleet, from the feats of the ‘Oarsome Foursome’ in past Olympic Games to the one time world’s fastest boat ‘The Spirit of Australia’. Whilst on board the HMAS Vampire, the boys enjoyed themselves posing on the ship’s bridge but also learnt all about the conditions in which sailors live whilst at sea. Finally the boys spent some time on a harbour cruise, learning both about the history of the harbour itself and also all about the vital transport links that serve Sydney, including the train, road and water networks.

The excursion was a fantastic end to our unit on transportation systems, which helped to enhance the boys’ understanding of the central idea through really great hands-on experience.

 

Sam Watson – Year 1 Teacher

Student Representative Council – Semester 1 2015

Congratulations to the boys who were voted by their peers to be the Student Representative Council member for Semester One of 2015.

The Student Representative Council has been working collaboratively to create a set of Essential Agreements for all students at Newington College Lindfield.

The set of Essential Agreements that were created are:

Respect the people of our school, community and environment

Always do our best when learning

Make the right decisions in everything we do and enjoy our time at Newington College Lindfield.

The Student Representative Council look forward to being your “voice” who are able to share your thoughts and ideas with the greater school to make it an even more enjoyable place than it already is.

 

Jackson English – Year 6 Teacher

 

 

A Message from The Head of Lindfield Campus

A Growth Mindset is the only way to learn

Much of what you believe about yourself and the success or happiness you feel on a day-to-day basis comes down to your mindset. There are two types of mindsets.

“I am no good at Maths”

“ I am too old to try to learn how to play a musical instrument”

“You’re not good with computers, you have to be smart”

These are all examples of a fixed mindset. People with fixed mindsets believe that ability, talents and intelligence are fixed qualities and you can’t change what you are given. Fixed mindset people even believe that I.Q. and personality are set. It is hard to grow, learn and take risks if you think that you cannot change the hand that you have been dealt.

The opposite of a fixed mindset person is someone who has a growth mindset. Growth mindset people realise that with effort, strategies and drive, you can learn and improve all areas of your life. Growth mindset people thrive on challenge and see failure as opportunities to grow. A growth mindset creates a love of learning and sees mistakes as opportunities, rather than something associated with fear and anxiety.

Carol Dweck has studied the different mindsets and the impact of both growth and fixed mindset on our success in many facets of life. Her research combined with what we now know about neuroplasticity and the continuing development of the brain has meant that developing a ‘growth mindset’ in our students is imperative in our efforts to create enthusiastic life long learners, who are resilient, and successful.

The Staff at Lindfield have been learning about Mindsets and discussing how we can teach and model a ‘growth mindset’ with our boys. We want resilient, boys who focus on their effort and learning and realise that with persistance, strategy and planning, they can learn anything.

Our first parent workshop next week will be introducing Mindset as we want everyone at Newington to understand the role a growth mindset plays in the education and success of our boys and all members of our community. Make sure you mark in your diaries to come and learn about how to cultivate a growth mindset for yourselves.

 

Discover What’s Possible

Discover What’s Possible, that was the first statement that I read when I looked into Newington College last October.

The phrase, Discover What’s Possible, is how Newington describes its approach to boys’ education.

This phrase said to me that Newington is a school that actively challenges the boundaries, actively imagines and re-imagines education to enable Newington boys to meet the complex paradigms of our time.

So what have I discovered in my short time at Newington?

Newington is a school with high expectations for its boys, staff and parents. We are a Uniting Church school and we aim to develop a dynamic, personal relationship with God which we live out through acts of justice, compassion, courage and kindness.

This resonates with me as issues of social justice and civic engagement are very important as I have lived a lot of my life in a region of the world, where there was often the absence of justice, the absence of equality and the absence of societal care for the less fortunate.

What else have I discovered?

I have been going around meeting and talking with the boys and finding out what it is that is important to them and it seems we like sport, we seem to successfully train, play and enjoy rugby, cricket, soccer, basketball and swimming, you name it Lindfield boys play it. I have also discovered we have a love for music, the arts, family and our close school community.

I have also discovered we are an inclusive school. We accept boys from all faiths, all cultures and all backgrounds. We want to make a difference in the lives of our boys and the lives of those people Newington boys will engage with as members of this great Australian society.

A Lindfield education aims to equip boys for whatever future they envision, so they actively contribute to the creation of a better, more just society. It will develop in each and every boy the confidence to discover for themselves what it is that makes them happy, successful and fulfilled throughout their lives.

 

Anzac Day

Anzac day at Lindfield this year was a time to remember the courage of so many young Australian people and the sacrifices they made.

It was also an opportunity to reflect on the privileged position that as Australians we enjoy as a result of the sacrifices of others throughout history.

We all reflected on how we can contribute, to building a better Australia through our actions, as the ANZACs did before us.

What does the ANZAC legend mean to us 100 years after that terrible landing in Gallipoli? I think it celebrates the courage those young men showed fighting to protect their country, their families and our free and fair way of life. The ANZAC legacy reminds us of the necessity of always choosing peace over conflict and the irreparable damage that war does to the lives of so many people who are affected.

The Australian men and women who served this country made incredible sacrifices, they showed great courage and their legacy helped build a country that loves and values peace. We as a school reflected on how we as Australians could contribute to the development of this great country in a courageous and peaceful way.

 

 

 

 

 

Stage 3 Excursion – State Parliament and Library

Last week Stage 3 were given the opportunity to visit the NSW State Parliament House and the State Library. At the NSW State Parliament House we went to both houses, the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. Similar to the different houses in the National Parliament House in Canberra, the Legislative Assembly is green and the Legislative Council is red. When we went inside we were amazed by all the artefacts and paintings of previous members of parliament.

Firstly, we went to the Legislative Assembly where the seats were green. We participated in a role play using some of the important positions. We role played the introduction of a new bill that school should be extended to include Saturdays as well!.  We got to sit in the real house and on the seats that our government use when debating bills which was very exciting. Once we finished the role play we went outside and went into the Legislative Council and learnt about what happens there as well at it’s unusual history.

After Parliament House we visited the State Library and saw the biggest book in New South Wales as well as hearing that the collection on display in the library is only one percent of the books that they have. We then went through some very long corridors and explored amazing artefacts (primary sources of information) that the library had in their collection. A few of the artefacts actually came off Captain Cook’s ship, the Endeavour, which is truly amazing to consider.

After looking at all the artefacts we went to the big Mitchell Library. Our tour guide told us that they have all the books published in NSW in the library. After going to the Mitchell Library we went into this dark room. We all read about and explored one of our favourite objects in the room and many of them came from World War 1 and 2. I choose a pair of socks knitted for a soldier by an 11 year old kid. There was something special about those socks, they had a letter in them to encourage a soldier who the socks went to.

We had to collect information and record it onto a paper template that we then folded into a box to represent a brick. After building the boxes we stacked them up on each other to make the Mitchell Library.

This excursion was an excellent way to consolidate our inquiry into how we organise ourselves and our work on systems of government. We were certainly able to ask some great open ended questions and our guides were impressed with our knowledge and inquisitive nature.

 

Hamish Taylor – Year 6C

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Positive Attitudes and Life Skills (PALS)

Last week, the boys in Year 6 began their leadership responsibility in the Positive Attitudes and Life Skills Program by preparing and delivering a lesson to all the other classes at our school during our weekly PALS time. Their first lesson on courage was timely as the boys had been learning about the actions of many Australian through our ANZAC day commemoration. Class teachers are now continuing to build their students’ knowledge and understanding for the next couple of weeks before the Year 6 boys introduce the next concept in this program.

During the lesson, the Year 6 boys asked the other boys to examine what courage is? They gave examples, showed YouTube clips and got the boys to think, discuss, draw and try to explain this abstract but important concept. After discussing and teaching about courage the boys in Year K to Year 5 came up with numerous insightful responses.

  • ‘To forgive your classmates, when they do something that you believe that has wronged, well that takes courage.”
  • ‘To be patient and calm, even if we sometimes feel like getting angry and retaliating, takes courage.”
  • ‘To think about others more than yourself, that takes courage.”
  • “It is easy to get angry when something goes wrong, to want to make someone pay, but to forgive and to work out a solution, that takes courage.”

Following the lessons, the boys in Year 6 reflected on the challenges of teaching and the success they achieved. The boys felt that it was an overwhelmingly positive experience and are now keenly awaiting their next lesson so that they can build in their reflections and make the lesson even better, with the support of the classroom teacher.

 

Pascal Czerwenka – Prep Team Leader

 

 

Northside Gifted and Talented Network – 20 August 2015

Northside Gifted and Talented Network are offering parents an invitation to attend a session on:

“The Gifted Child and Friendship”

to be held at Ravenswood Centenary Centre on Thursday 20 August 2015 at 7:00pm.  The cost for the session will be $10 per ticket available via Mrs Katrina James kjames@newington.nsw.edu.au.

Northside Gifted and Talented 20Aug2015 cropped square

UN Mock Conference

Year 5L have been researching about the United Nations so we decided to hold a UN Mock Conference.

We were all split up with a partner into different countries. There were three different scenarios we were going to debate. The first one was about the death penalty and whether it is morally acceptable in 2015, the second was about refugees and whether they should be allowed into safer countries and the third was about foreign aid and whether rich countries should be giving money to poorer countries for aid.

Edward Timpson and I were on the Judiciary Panel which meant we had to run the whole meeting and we also had to find out about what all of the countries said about  refugees, the death penalty and foreign aid.

The UN conference was a great success and we heard lots of different opinions from different countries. Australia and China debated lots and Edward and I always had to scream ‘Order!’.
Edward and I challenged the countries and made them confess why they did different things.

Overall, we all enjoyed the UN Mock Conference and I enjoyed listening to all the countries debating.

Adi Apana – 5L

 

Last Thursday morning 5E had a mock UN Conference which included 8 countries from the Pacific region and also the UN Panel members- Laksh, Ollie and Connor.

We had 3 weeks to prepare for our big conference. Each of us had different scenarios – including  the death penalty, refugees and foreign aid. We had to debate against the other countries to make our point.

It was harder than it seemed and you had to be fast thinkers. It was really interesting and great fun.

Laksh and Ollie – 5E