Farewell

Today was marked by the weather, a torrential downpour to offset the 30degrees we had earlier in the week.

I was teaching all day again today and it was great to see the improvement in the classes skills as they worked on their goals from yesterday, some had obviously been putting in time after school. The interesting thing was that those who achieved their goal looked to push themselves by going even further with more difficult challenges.

After school I went to Cholmondeley House for an afternoon tea to say thank you to all of the people who had worked with them and helped them over the year. Then I came back to school for Sarah's farewell, which was very well attended. Sarah gave a wonderful speech, all 5 pages of it, and Warren and Moira gave accounts of the long history between them. It was a lovely occasion and a fitting farewell to a most valued member of staff who will be really missed.

Goal setting and Leadership

Sorry this didn't post last night. (Thursday) And it didn't post Friday either! Must be the end of the year.

This morning our Year 8s went to Hanmer for 2 days as a celebration of their time at the school. I worked with the Year 6s & 7s on leadership and goal setting. It was a valuable day and it was great watching the students set goals and go about achieving them. Even after numerous setbacks and failures, they persevered to achieve what they had set out to do. We hope to have a demonstration of their achievements at the final assembly next week.

Powhiri

This morning I attended a Powhiri for the French visitors involved in the Te Putake garden project. It was a good opportunity to find out more about the project and to meet those involved.
In the afternoon as the temperature soared the senior classes made for the pool while the juniors rehearsed their performance in readiness for next week.

Viva La France

Yesterday we had a visit from Mrs Sarra from a school in Laquenexy, France. We welcomed her with some songs and she told us about the area she comes from and what her school is like.  She has a school with 3 classrooms in a village with a population of around 1000 people. She gave us a book all about her village and its history; it's all in French of course, but has some great pictures. Pascal, who visited with her and is in charge of the French end of the garden project, gave us an artwork. But the piece de resistance was undoubtedly the mascot she gave us to take photos with and return in June for the opening of the gardens. Mrs Sarra loved our school and thought the teachers were doing a wonderful job. 'Calm' was the word she used to describe the children and the atmosphere and she remarked on how polite and friendly all of the students were.

Feedback

It is always good to get feedback about the school and we have had a lot of feedback from the tutors at the swimming lessons recently.  They have spoken about how polite and well mannered our students are and how well they listen. The tutors are dealing with five schools at the moment and they commented how good ours was compared to the others, which is always nice to hear. They also remarked on the professionalism of the staff and the way the staff interacted with the children.

We know we've got a stunning school here, but it's always nice to hear it from others.

Viva La France

I met with Nuk Korako from Rapaki Marae yesterday after school and we discussed details of the visit from Marie-Laure Sara, who is principal of a three teacher school in Laquenexy in France. She is involved with the setting up of a Maori garden in Laquenexy, due to open in June next year. Marie-Laure will be here on Monday morning so we will be having a special assembly to welcome her. Then her and I will meet to discuss how we can mutually benefit from developing a relationship between our schools. There is a rehearsal on Friday morning for us to practice some songs of welcome and the seniors may even try out some of the French they have been using.

Still no photos sorry. I'm going to try deleting old ones and see if that works.

Cluster plans

Yesterday I met with Eddie Norgate, principal of Diamond Harbour, to discuss plans for our cluster.  As part of the Education Renewal Plan every school in the greater Christchurch area is in a cluster and ours is with Diamond Harbour. We have plans for sharing our ideas and resources through shared professional development for our staff and our boards. They share similar foci to us with their strategic goals for the year and we will be looking to work closely on IT and Maori development in our schools.

This afternoon saw the juniors busily rehearsing their production and the seniors and middle school away swimming.

Wide Game

One of the aspects of this school I enjoy the most is the way the children interact with each other. Sure there is the odd bit of niggle from time to time but on the whole it is hugely respectful and positive.  There was a wonderful example of it this morning during interval when most of Kereru and Piwakawaka were on the field playing a game that Lucy and Richard taught them.  It was a fast moving game that was hard to understand at first but after watching for a bit and then clarifying my understanding by talking with some students it all become clear. One thing I did note was that the way the game was structured there was a big opportunity to cheat; the pleasing thing is that no-one took advantage of this. Throughout the entire interval everyone was good natured, played fair and just enjoyed the game. These interactions are a joy to watch.

No photos I'm sorry as I follow up my quota issue.

Top secret

I was teaching all day today with half of the seniors in the morning while the other half were at sailing and I had the juniors in the afternoon while half the seniors were at swimming, half at sailing and Moira and Sarah were at an NZEI meeting.

I can't tell you much about what we did as it was top secret and if a particular person read the blog they would find out so best you ask your children and they'll fill you in.

The sailing was a wonderful success and the children had a great time thanks to the structured programme the instructors run.

I just went to upload my photos and found that I have exceeded my storage limit. I wasn't aware there was a storage limit, so I'll look into that. In the meantime there may be no photos for a few days. Sorry about that.

Tomorrow I am working with Eddie Norgate from Diamond Harbour on our cluster plan for the Ministry so there may not be a blog.

The 3 Rs

It was another quiet lunchtime and afternoon session as Piwakawaka and Kereru were again out of the school with swimming. This morning was business as usual with every focused on the 3 Rs. It is always good to visit the classes and see equal measures of success and challenge so that the students are progressing but are having to work to get there.

ERO report

Everyone settled back into their work today after the long weekend and the senior classes began swimming this afternoon.

On Thursday the draft strategic goals for the school were in the newsletter. If you have any feedback on these, please be in touch. They form the basis of our Charter, which is the guiding document for the school.

Today we received copies of the confirmed Education Review Office report which I will leave in the office for you to view and we hope to have a copy up on the website soon. If you have any questions regarding the report or its contents, please be in touch.

Finger prints

Thanks to Blue showing up this morning with a kit full of goodies, the students in Kereru were involved in finger printing, making casts of footprints and learning about concepts such as blood splattering.  It was a great hands on morning with so much rich learning involved. The juniors were involved in followup activities from their visit to the fire station and Piwakawaka were busy with Maori and Music.

It's all gone dark

We were very fortunate to have Larry from the Astronomical society here today to work with us during the eclipse.  He gave us some solar viewers and let us use the telescope with a special filter to watch the event.  Everyone in the school, except those at technology, got the opportunity to see the eclipse and the changes over time.  An interesting sideline was the effect of the shadows under the tree. Larry pointed out how they were all crescent shaped, it was an amazing effect.

For lunch the juniors went to the fire station where they had a fun filled afternoon involved in activities that integrated with their current topic of study. The whole crew at the fire station were wonderful and are to be commended for the effort they have put in to the organisation of the activities and their enthusiasm when working with the students.

Robina was here helping with the gardens again today and she is looking to make a documentary on these sorts of activities in the community. She commented that she hasn't seen a garden so well integrated with the maths and technology curriculum as this one, so all credit to Karen and the children for that.

We're really cooking now

On Monday I was at a course so there was no blog and yesterday this didn't go live sorry.

This morning, every class in the school was involved in the Kids Can Cook experience. Chris was a wonderful chef and kept the children informed, involved and entertained. He was impressed at the caliber of our children and particularly noted our senior students enthusiasm and knowledge.

Athletics and Performing dogs

Athletics afternoon went off without a hitch thanks to the parents who helped and Ren, our reliever, who spent time changing the tyre on Val's car as soon as he arrived.
The sprints were marked by a number of false starts, showing that everyone was still keen and full of energy after all the other events.
The juniors had a visit from the fire department and there was a special guest appearance by a dog that knows how to stop, drop and roll, then crawl out safely at ground level!