Olympians!

This afternoon I was at a Canterbury Primary Principals Association meeting which was very worthwhile.

The senior class were back from camp today and were feeling a little on the tired side.

The juniors had their mini Olympics this afternoon which is a great lead up to tomorrow. All parents taking cars have been emailed details for the day, including a safety action plan which we do for all events such as this. The weather forecast looks bright and it promises to be an exciting day. My goal is to get a photo with a gold medalist, check back here tomorrow to see if I succeeded.

Olympic visit Friday

Due to the support we've had from parents able to transport, we are able to take the school to Pioneer Stadium to welcome our athletes on Friday. A large crowd is expected and they are looking to have a big screen outside for those who can't find a place in the stadium to watch the proceedings from 12:00 to 12:30 before the athletes come out to meet everyone. It should be a wonderful event and it is great that the school will be there to experience it.  A big thank you to those who are taking transport, if you are able to take transport and have not let us know, please email rebecca@governorsbay.school.nz or ring the school first thing in the morning. Rebecca has organised who is going with whom and we will send this out tomorrow once we know if there is anyone else who is also ken to go.  There will be no pub lunches on Friday and the children will need to take their lunch with them. Everyone will be back at school by 3:00pm. The forecast is for no rain so let's hope it stays that way.

Camp fun

After a wet start that did nothing to dampen spirits yesterday, today was sunny, warm and dry. The aero jumping yesterday was popular as was the orienteering, climbing and shooting today. The last activity of the day was the rather high flying fox, which was a lot of fun.  Other ongoing activities have been trampolining, mini-golf and pillow fighting. Go-Karts tomorrow and I'm sure there will be some tired children coming home. Everything has run smoothly, thanks to Val's organisation and the help of the wonderful parents on the camp.

Camp

I am away to camp this afternoon so won't be able to post a blog then, hence doing it early.  Visiting the classes this morning I see that everyone is straight into their Monday morning routines and getting set up for a week of positive learning where very child will experience a degree of both success and challenge. There is some diversity on how this done across the school but it all works towards the same goal and our results reflect that it is being done it in an effective manner.

Kereru are all looking forward to what promises to be an exciting camp and judging by the lollies and biscuits bought in this morning there will be not shortage of energy! Good luck to the parents dealing with the resulting crash on Wednesday night.

Runaway Car

Apologies for this post not going live on Friday.

Today we had our second visit from Cheapskates, which involved practicing on various modes of transport such as inline skates and skateboards.  This time round there was much more action on the ramp and it was good to see the progression of skills from last time. While my personal skills are no better, a number of students listened carefully to the advice given and made visible improvements.  Of course there were some who were great from the start and their next step is to compete at the X-games.

The afternoon got even more interesting when a silver Alfa Romeo was spotted sailing down the road; driverless. This caused much excitement and when it stopped all of a sudden outside our gate, the theories abounded as to what might have happened.  In the end the owners were found dining at She Cafe and were most surprised to hear what had happened.  We believe the culprit is a dodgy handbrake, although how the car managed to avoid a car parked in front of it and why it stopped as it was rolling down the hill is anybody's guess! The couple were most appreciative of our noticing and informing them, another good deed by the children of Governors Bay School.

Hard maths

Some of the senior class were involved in an Otago Problem Solving test this morning. It consists of 5 mathematics questions which start hard and become fiendish. I managed the first four but got the fifth one wrong, as opposed to Kaspar who got them all right, nice work Kasper.  I have no problem with the fact that a student got one right that I got wrong.  In the school there are students who are faster, play instruments better, draw and create better than me so why shouldn't there be students whose problem solving approach to a particular problem is better than mine? As teachers it is important that we are able to show students we don't know everything and we don't always get it right. Mistakes or failures are a hugh part of learning. Very successful companies such as Pixar celebrate their failures as much as their successes as they realise the value of them and the learning that can be gained from them. There is no shame in making a mistake, getting something wrong or just failing completely, the shame is in not taking the opportunity to learn from it.

Student Voice

As we develop the school one of the most important areas to embrace is that of student voice. This afternoon I worked with two classes in the library to find out what they liked about the school and what changes they'd like to see.
It was interesting to see what came through and to hear the commonalities across the groups.  Some of the things they listed as being good about the school were: happy learners, fun activities, helpful friends, the teachers are nice and not mean, the library, amazing teachers, happy teachers, big and lovely playgrounds, ipads, awesome principal - this last one was obviously from one of our very perceptive students.
The pleasing thing is that there were a lot of comments that talked about how the students appreciate the environment, each other, and the teachers. This is a great place to be and they appreciate that.
Apart from longer lunch hours and more holidays some of the changes they'd like to see were: library open all of the time, bigger cloakrooms, the gardens, earthquakes.

As we continue to develop our vision and the direction in which we want the school to head, we will be sure to take in to account and listen to the ideas and opinions of the students.

Gold!

Thank you to those who braved the weather to come to the  information session last night. It was a good opportunity to have a talk, answer any questions and listen to ideas.  Now that everyone has been emailed the details please feel free to be in touch if you have any questions or thoughts.

The Year 8s went through our emergency bins today to see that they were well stocked and contained what they should. It was a worthwhile exercise and they found the powdered milk was approaching its best before date. They also had a number of recommendations for what should be in the bins and we'll be looking at those recommendations and making some decisions.