1. Principal's News Term 2 Week 7 2021

Celebration of Oral Language - Come to Breakfast

We would like to invite you to come to our celebration of oral langauge next Wednesday starting in our hall at 9.15am.  Our community kitchen in the hall will be open from 8.30am and we encourage parents, family and friends to come and share breakfast with us.  Croissants, jam, marmalade, tea, coffee and Milo will be provided.  Please take the opportunity to have a sit down and a chat and meet other parents.

Learning

I have two short video clips that I took on our playground that I'd like to use to share some thoughts about learning.

Learning is natural.  It is not something we "do to" children through teaching.  I believe that teaching is about picking up specifics in a learning process and providing a bridge between what is already known and the next step.  At the same time as this though there is a whole range of new information and skills being taken on board all the time that we have no direct "control" over - and that is brilliant.  The way we are doing student reporting through Seesaw is moving us into a more narrative-type reporting.  We are trying to create rich learning experiences which give us opportunities for direct and targeted teaching but which, in themselves, are experiences of learning and growth.  

The questionings and wonderings that came through last term when we did our visits in our local area have deepened this term into questionings and wonderings about the children's own lives and their families.  All around the school, children are preparing for their "Children's Museum" and for their oral language presentations.  Children are walking around with cue cards, sitting in quiet places practicing and giving feedback to each other.  They are talking about their families, interesting things they never knew and about the places they have come from and who they are.  When learning is rich and natural it goes way beyond the classroom.

A lovely example of this is Milah here who sat me down in the playground at lunchtime to insist on sharing her speech.  

Another great example is this group of children playing "Buses."  I've done drama lessons in my time with learning intentions such as: the children will group together to create a representation of an object; the children will improvise how people might interact with this object; the children will collaborate so that they combine shared movements and voice; the children will work as a team so that each player has a role to play.  Now in this "Buses," example, the children grouped together using a piece of playground equipment to create a bus; children ran in and joined or left just as people might jump on and off a city bus; they collaborated without a team leader but nevertheless figured out where they were going with each verse and the combined actions, and they sang in tune.  I wouldn't add much more to this as an effective drama lesson that didn't need a teacher.  Well done to our clever children.

Rippa Tournament

I was very privileged to spend the day with our Rippa Team yesterday.    The year 5 and 6 Rippa team have had a great season.  They qualified from the North Otago tournament to represent North Otago and played teams from mid and South Canterbury in Timaru, winning two games, drawing two and losing one.  Lee Woodhouse coached them during lunchtimes and he and Paula Brien focused on them being a team.  There certainly was no "I' in this team.  Even though they are of different ages and from different classes, they worked as one.  Well done to the team and what a great experience they had!

The team enjoyed meeting Kendra Cocksedge, Black Ferns halfback

Learner Capabilities

As part of our Seesaw reporting, we are hoping you are becoming aware of the Learner Capabilities we are helping the children to grow.  For each stage of their school life, there are particular attitudes and skills which they need to develop.  These are based on the key competencies and principles of the New Zealand Curriculum and we have illustrated what they look like at St Joseph's School.  Please cross-reference these with the work your children are sharing through Seesaw and hopefully, you will be able to see them in action in your child.

Click on the link for a better view of the document.

We held two information sessions this week for parents to help understand our reporting and feedback was that sharing our learning progressions was useful and so I will email these out to families for those who would like to cross-reference further.

Reminders

Mufti Day and Sausage Sizzle

Our annual International Food Festival is Sunday 26th September at St Joseph's.  On Thursday, 24 June, we will be having a mufti day (please bring a gold coin donation) and a sausage sizzle for lunch.  The sausages will be $2 for sausage and bread.  Please bring the $2 on Tuesday 22nd and orders will be taken in the office before school.

Teacher Union Meetings

All teachers are attending a compulsory union meeting next Tuesday at 1.30pm.  They will be leaving school at lunchtime.  I will be on site with the support staff.  School is open but I recommend that you collect your child at lunchtime if you can.  Children who are at school in the afternoon will be supervised in the hall by myself and the support staff.  If you pick up at 12.30pm please go to the classroom verandahs and tell the class teacher you are picking up.  If it is after that please sign them out at the office. 

Also please note the two TEACHER ONLY DAYS next term when school will be closed:

Monday 30th August, and Friday 10th September.

God Bless and Aroha

Lorraine