Tim's update - Week 4, Term 1

​Our start of year connection and education change:

The last couple of weeks have been hugely important. Giving staff the chance to begin to share our thinking around why we do what we do meant that you were able to share, question and discuss with them what this meant for their child. It all helped strengthen that understanding and relationship between us that is so important for learning success.

Below is a 'TED Talk' by Sir Ken Robinson who is a very respected educationalist and an individual who travels the world talking about the need for our education system (and the politics that surround it) to change with the times and be fit for purpose for our children and the changes they face in this century. Take the time to watch it and be inspired. It's a great encouragement with what we as a school are talking about and working at doing with our teaching and learning. Sir Ken Robinson outlines 3 principles crucial for the human mind to flourish — and how current education culture works against them. In a funny, stirring talk he tells us how to get out of the educational "death valley" we now face, and how to nurture our youngest generations with a climate of possibility.

Board News:

Last week at the first Board meeting of the year some of the decision highlights included: 

• To complete the installation of heat pumps throughout the rest of the school and decommission and remove the existing radiator system. This project is scheduled to be completed in the April term break.
• The current resource room is being moved to the far end bay of the library (where the computer bench was). This will give us more workable storage in our resource 'hub' and will allow the old resource room to then become a Teacher Release and Teacher Aide work area.
  
• E-Learning investment - The Board have committed to support the investment to purchase and roll out the new digital device and storage solution rollout scheduled for day one Term 2 (all things going to plan). To this end we are working on the backbone of our network so we have a seamless, simple and robust system of school wide management. At the same time we're developing a plan to support the professional learning and challenge of the teaching team across the school as we develop our practice to integrate these devices appropriately into our learning programmes. The actual device numbers we're working towards for each learning space are:
  • Y5/6 per room - 10 iPad Airs / 10 Chromebooks
  • Y3/4 per room - 10 iPad Airs / 5 Chromebooks
  • Y1/2 per room - 10 iPad Airs
  • NE team - 30 iPad Airs
  • Storage - 8 or 9 secure and charging trolleys with device 'baskets' for roughly 1 cart between 2 rooms.

Reporting Changes

Last year your end of year portfolio was not updated with specific examples of work. Instead of committing significant teacher and class time to this task I asked the teachers to instead focus on their teaching and learning programmes and in summarising the work exampled from their daily work in your child's end of year report. As a school we are serious about providing a vibrant, engaging and enriching learning environment for each and every child and their individual needs. Our start of year process has all been about re-engaging with you about your child and their learning needs. 

By law all schools must report to parents in plain language and in writing at least twice a year on students' progress and achievement in relation to the National Standards. Going forward Waipahihi School will develop a written report that is concise and easily understood, outline a child's progress and achievement, and be free from educational jargon. Benefits of this  include:

• helping you understand where your child is at and where they need to be
• giving parents, families, whānau, and communities confidence when talking to our teachers about progress and achievement
• building more effective home-school relationships that help our children reach their learning goals.

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Individual assessment snapshots, displayed and viewed out of the big picture, do not give due consideration to the wider learning contexts that examples your child as a learner. They provide a very nice learning artefact, but it is our children's everyday work and how they interact with others, that really examples the effort, attitude, progress and achievement of them as a learner. That's what we want to summarise for you and talk to you about.

Upcoming Staff Professional Learning Days

There are two scheduled for staff over the next couple of months. One is in term time and is booked for the Thursday before Easter - Thursday March 24. The other is booked for the last Friday of the term break - Friday 29 April.  A staff professional learning day during the term time is not an option we take lightly as we understand the logistics of organising family and work can be difficult. Thank you for your support and understanding of this day.

The first day focuses on the relationship between teacher practice and professional practice and the interactions that go with that - all based on our code of ethics as teachers. This will then lead into the reflection tool we will be using this year as part of our staff appraisal process.

The second day in the term break is a first aid refresher course for all staff who hold a current first aid certificate. Keeping these up to date is an important part of our duty of care and health and safety procedures.