Psychology

The Year 11s have started their new topic: Social Influence. They have been learning about conformity this week and how people change their behaviour to fit in with the behaviour of the people around them. In order to find out which factors cause this behaviour, they had to draw on the knowledge they acquired this week to solve three puzzles, the answers of which gave them the combination for each lock. Inside the lock boxes, they found the factors and some chocolate!

Music Mondays

It was great to see students take to the stage once again for Music Mondays and Mr Laird would like to say a big well done to Arman and Alannah for stepping up to perform to the crowds for the first Monday of term. There will be more opportunities to perform throughout the term, so if you are wanting to perform, be sure to watch out for the sign up process.

It is important to note that all the Music ECAs begin next week and it would be great to see as many people attend as possible. There is something for everyone, and if you are unsure about joining, please speak to Mr Laird. There is also a school production this year, so make sure you look out for the sign up process on SOCS or via email.

Whole School Music Ensembles

JAS Singers - Monday lunchtime

JAS Strings - Tuesday before school

Jebel Gents - Wednesday lunchtime

J-Band - Thursday lunchtime

Production Ensembles (see Ms Channon or Mr Laird)

Production Band - Sunday morning, Tuesday lunchtime

Production Tech Crew - Monday after school

Production Cast Rehearsals - Sunday lunchtime, Tuesday after school, Wednesday before school (principals only on Wednesdays)

News on our peripatetic music tuition is also due soon so please keep an eye out for the sign up process.

COVID-19 Useful Addresses and Links

ReportingCovid@JebelAliSchool.org

Use this email address for:

• The submission of medical reports and PCR results (if required).

COVID-19Documents@JebelAliSchool.org

Use this email address for:

• After traveling, a negative PCR test certificate stating child’s name, class, DoB and arrival date in the UAE.

Distance Learning Intent Form

Use this link if:

• You intend for your child to distance learn.

• Available only until 3rd October as per KHDA protocols.

Please click this link for the updated procedures when reporting COVID-19 positive or close contact cases.

Article of Interest

What is growth mindset and what has it got to do with me, my children and JAS?

Whilst I would argue that every year is exciting at JAS, I feel that this year is particularly remarkable, mainly due to the launch of our new Mission, Vision and Values (you can find more details about them here). Our mission, vision and values will provide a roadmap for our staff, parents, and, of course, our students, on their educational pathway through JAS. Many of the facets of the mission, vision and values will be familiar and instantly recognisable to you and come with your own internal sense and experience of their meaning, for instance: kindness, belief, belonging, resilience, and inclusivity. However, several students and parents have been asking us about the term ‘growth-mindedness’ and ‘growth mindsets’. I hope to give you a potted history of the term and an introduction to the concept below and to consider why it is so important.

The term itself was coined by the academic luminary, Carol Dweck, a professor of psychology and multiple academic award winner who conducts her work and research at Stanford University in the United States. Her research into frames of mind, including examination of career pathways, characteristics of successful individuals, resilience and motivation culminated in her penning the worldwide best-selling Mindset: the product of her life’s work and research. In short, her work examines students’ attitudes towards ability and subsequently what this enables us to predict about the likelihood of their future success and ability to cope with adult life.

Dweck discovered that the more wedded to a belief in natural ability that students were, the less likely they were to succeed, fulfil their potential, or to display the resilience to overcome obstacles. On the other hand, students who perceived ability or talent as fluid and changeable according to their own actions, efforts, strategies and coping mechanisms, were more likely to succeed, more likely to exceed predictors of their performance based on standardised testing (such as CAT4 predictions) and more likely to cope with adversity in their adult life. Much of this boils down to a single concept: coping with failure.

Students with growth mindsets (those who believe either consciously or unconsciously that through hard-work, doggedness, training and learning that they can achieve success) are able to perceive mistakes and failure as opportunities to learn and gateways to self-betterment, as opposed to students with fixed mindsets (those who believe that ability alone underpins success) who perceive setbacks as a negative and permanent statement about their abilities and capacity for success.

Put more simply, a student with a fixed mindset is more likely to give up, less likely to improve and less likely to fulfil their potential, because their internal belief is that success is based on a fixed and immovable ability. Furthermore, Dweck draws causal links between fixed mindsets and increased rates of depression, stress and anxiety. Whilst a person with a growth mindset believes in their ability to change their fate and circumstances, a person with a fixed mindset perceives their circumstances as concrete and unchangeable. If their ability has not enabled them to succeed, then the story is that they are simply not good enough, and that is the end of the tale.

At JAS, we have always believed that ‘better is always possible’ and now this has been codified as our mandate in our mission, vision and values. This statement encapsulates our belief that every student has the capacity to exceed their own or externally set expectations, and that by empowering students with the gifts of belief, resilience, innovation and the willingness to explore alternative strategies when confronted with failure, all of our students can achieve things to be truly proud of, and, more importantly, be instilled with a mindset that will enable them to cope with life’s setbacks and unpredictabilities. A growth mindset.

You may wonder how it is that a school, or teacher, embeds such a belief in a student. The answer is that it is achieved through myriad ways: through a commitment to comment-driven marking that praises skills, habits and processes and not just outcomes; through fostering a belief in the benefits of hard work; through celebrating people not just for their achievements but through revealing the stories behind their achievements; through sharing stories of other students whose commitment has led to success; through using language with our students that avoids praising ability and instead praises the behaviours and roads to success that manifest themselves as perceived ability; through giving students attempts to correct and redraft work; through explicitly discussing and teaching how mistakes can be overcome and are essential to learning. The list is long, and this is just snapshot of how we seek to instil growth mindsets and the belief that ‘better is always possible’.

If you are wondering how you can help your daughter or son on their path to grit, resilience and the development of a growth mindset, there are some excellent tips in this online article, in fun activity books such as this one for younger students from 8-12, or any of the following titles for teenagers: The Grit Guide For Teens, The Happy Confident Me Journal and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. Of course, for parents who enjoy a read, you could always enjoy the original Mindset itself.

I would like to leave you with the story of one of our Sixth Form students, Malak Shabaro, as a brilliant and inspiring exemplification of the growth mindset at work. As an English as a second language student, many of Malak’s GCSE target grades hovered around the 4-5 mark based on predictions drawn from CAT4 standardised testing. However, having spent three years in the lead up to Year 10 being taught about the growth mindset, being shared stories of the stories that lay behind success and being inculcated with a belief in the power of hard work, Malak refused to accept that her target grades were the limit of her aspirations. In her own words, through believing in herself, through taking the time to work on mistakes on coursework and practise exams and through recalling stories of those who succeeded through their determination and resilience, Malak was able to outperform her target grades by an average of 3.33 levels across her 9 GCSE subjects, including achieving five Level 9s (a Level 8 represents an A* when converted from previous GCSE levels).

And Malak was not alone. Across the entire GCSE cohort, our students exceeded their baseline predictions by over 2 full GCSE levels across the span of every single one of their subjects. For five years we set out to show our students that through a growth mindset ‘better is always possible’, and, brilliantly, at the end of that journey, it was our students who showed us that this was true. Now, we cannot wait to breathe further life into our mission, vision and values with the next generation of JAS students, embarking on the path towards growth mindsets with them too, and we are delighted to have you all on board for that journey.