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Western Heights School  
Week 5 T2
 
 
 
 
Western Heights School
Our Vision
We are … Caring, Curious, Creative, Critical, ConfidentConnecting, Contributing.
Our Mission
Our children love to learn to lead as they dream, grow, shine and reflect. 
Love                - ourselves - others - our world 
Learn about     - ourselves - others - our world 
Lead                - ourselves - others - in our world

We Love to Learn so we can Learn to Lead so we can Lead with Love
Our Charter
 
 
 
Calendar of Events
Whanau Time is every second Friday in our hall, starting at 9:45 am sharp. Everyone is warmly welcomed to join us for these special WHS family occasions. 
Next Whanau Time - Friday 9 June - rooms 8 and 22 hosting.
WHS Calendar
 
 
 
Monday 05/06
Queen’s Birthday Monday Holiday - no school today
 
Tuesday 06/06
Author James Russell visiting WHS - speaking to our children.
 
Wednesday 7/6
Rooms 16 and 18 visit Maritime Museum
 
Thursday 08/06
Rooms 20 and 21 visit Maritime Museum
 
 
Friday 09/06
Rooms 13 and 14 visit Maritime Museum
 
Friday 09/06
Whanau Time in our hall - 9:45am. Rooms 8 and 22 hosting - all welcome.
 
Tuesday 13/06
Rooms 15 and 26 visit Maritime Museum.
Rainbow Bears pre school visit to WHS
 
Wednesday 14/6
Rooms 11 and 12 visit Maritime Museum
 
 
Thursday 15/6
Rooms 24 and 25 visit Maritime Museum
 
Friday 16/6
Rooms 22 and 23 visit Maritime Museum
 
Wednesday 21/6
WIG Wednesday - get your Wig On for Child Cancer - bring a gold coin if you can.
 
Wednesday 21/6
Board of Trustees Meeting - Ash’s Office from 7pm. Visitors welcome.
 
 
Pink Shirt Day Celebrations at WHS:
 

Thanks parents, children and teachers - as usual, you did our school proud.

We have a wonderful spirit of caring, engagement and participation at WHS.

One of the aims of Bully-Free New Zealand is that we learn to accept people for who they are and as they are.

My message at Whanau Time on Pink Shirt Friday was that we live in an awesome world. We need to have a spirit of gratitude and thankfulness. We need to share that thankfulness as a blessing to others. 

I believe this is something we do well at Western Heights.

We are a really multi-cultural school, full of children with a vast array of personality traits, passions, interests, strengths, skills and experiences. I love that we can celebrate this diversity and that our children are largely free to be who they want to be.

A great example of this can be seen on our outdoor dance stage - most days lately as dance parties have become the in-thing at WHS.

On the stage you see Spiderman - in full costume - Batman, a variety of princesses, and children of every age, culture and creed, all dancing and moving with joy and abandon.

I watch Aeris, Ella and Maithri dancing with flair and style and Jagger and Chance strutting their stuff. Paris moving with fluidity and style that I could only dream of. It is just wonderful. Most days there are 200 children out there having the time of their life, not a bully in sight.


While we are far from perfect, there is so much to be proud of and we will keep working to inculcate tolerance, acceptance, understanding and inclusiveness into our school culture, so that all children and seen as awesome for who they are and what they bring to our school whanau.

 
 
 



 

 
 
Growth Mindset Revisited:
 

Eight Tips for Helping Promote A Growth Mindset in Children:

1.  Help children understand that the brain works like a muscle, that can only grow through hard work, determination, and lots and lots of practice.

2.  Don’t tell students they are smart, gifted, or talented, since this implies that they were born with the knowledge, and does not encourage effort and growth.

3.  Let children know when they demonstrate a growth mindset.

4.  Praise the process. It’s effort, hard work, and practice that allow children to achieve their true potential. 

5.  Don’t praise the results. Test scores and rigid ways of measuring learning and knowledge limit the growth that would otherwise be tapped.

6.  Embrace failures and missteps. 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.

7.  Encourage participation and collaborative group learning. Children learn best when they are immersed in a topic and allowed to discuss and advance with their peers.

8.  Encourage competency-based learning. Get kids excited about subject matter by explaining why it is important and how it will help them in the future. The goal should never be to get the ‘correct’ answer, but to understand the topic at a fundamental, deep level, and want to learn more.

Honest Reflection:

Let’s acknowledge that (1) we’re all a mixture of fixed and growth mindsets, (2) we will probably always be, and (3) if we want to move closer to a growth mindset in our thoughts and practices, we need to stay in touch with our fixed-mindset thoughts and deeds.

If we “ban” the fixed mindset, we will surely create false growth-mindsets. But if we watch carefully for our fixed-mindset triggers, we can begin the true journey to a growth mindset.


As a parent or teacher what triggers YOUR fixed mindset?

Watch for a fixed-mindset reaction when you face challenges. Do you feel overly anxious, or does a voice in your head warn you away?

Watch for it when you face a setback in your teaching or parenting, or when children aren’t listening or learning. Do you feel incompetent or defeated? Do you look for an excuse?

Watch to see whether criticism or complaints brings out your fixed mindset. Do you become defensive, angry, or crushed instead of interested in learning from the feedback?

Watch what happens when you see another parent or teacher who’s better than you at something you value. Do you feel envious and threatened, or do you feel eager to learn?

Accept those thoughts and feelings and work with and through them. And keep working with and through them.

Remember, you’re on a growth-mindset journey, too.


It is so easy to judge ourselves on our mistakes, rather than judge our potential by our mistakes.

Every mistake should be seen as an act of bravery. A mistake isn’t a failure, it’s a FAIL - First Attempt In Learning.


 
 
Room 12 Pay It Forward with Haiku:
 

“Pay It Forward” is one of our core values at Western Heights. This provides a practical way to teach our children they are part of something bigger than themselves and that they have the privilege and opportunity to be caring, connecting and contributing citizens. 

Martin Luther King said it well, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?"

Last week children from room 12 wrote Haiku on scrolls, then took them to the Palomino Shopping Centre, where they read them to shoppers and then presented them as a gift.

It was beautiful to see. Thank you to teacher Jessie Eyre and room 12 children.

 
 
   
 
 
 
Samoan Language Week - Talofa Lava:
This week is Samoan Language Week and we have lots of cool things happening at Western Heights to celebrate this special event.
A small group of Samoan boys will be playing traditional drums in each of our classes - sharing their talent and their culture.
We have a mini concert from a Samoan Language Nest, some grandads coming in to read and tell traditional Samoan tales, and a number of other events.
A special Fafetai Lava to Kakapo Team Leader Alannah Lupe-Houben for coordinating all the activities.
PS: I love the quote above - “Birds migrate to environments where they survive and thrive.”
We want all our Pasifika children, and everyone else, to feel this is a home worth migrating to, because it is one where they are free to fly, free to thrive.
 
 
 
   
 
 
  Love Our People
















Jessica Kim teaching English as a Second Language and Nic Yelash and her Perceptual Motor Programme
 
 
 
  Love Our Place


http://www.thecoconet.tv/
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
  We Teach...
 
 
 
 
 
Thoughtful Thursday
I've learned to not sweat the petty things, and not pet the sweaty things.
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
Welcome to our Newest Western Heights Whanau
 

The warmest of warm Western Heights welcomes to
Cassia You.
We are delighted to have you join our Western Heights whanau and hope and trust you all feel right at home here, are happy, and Loving, Learning and Leading.
  

 
 
 
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Western Heights School
126 Sturges Road
Henderson
Auckland 0612
P -  09 8361213
M - 021 779 009
 
 
 
 
 
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