Production

What an amazing Production this year 'Kia Kaha Kiwi' the script for this including a song sung by the whole school was written by Kara Fleming. The main characters spent time working with Petrina Hodgson to develop voice projection and acting skills. The hard work by both of these teachers was evident in the final Production. All teachers had put a great deal of effort into their class items and our wonderful support staff had made sure that all costumes were amazing! Thank You to everyone.
We had approximately 120 Grandparents and special friends at the morning session and then approximately 300 at the evening performance. This is a true reflection of the wonderful supportive community we have!
We all know that Productions can be quite stressful, but when we see results like this it makes it all worthwhile!!

Curriculum

I am continuing to work with Sue Holmes to design a local curriculum for Oruaiti School. We met again on 27th June. We looked at the checklist of where we are currently at   https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jZ1e_Vbjor6nkY2MnFoDWMz1Z6MyYxOyfIZjAedZirE/edit

We alo looked at how the curriculum could be developed as a school site. I will start working on this using the site template that Meg created for our term overviews. Some of what we currently have in our curriculum will be able to be used. I ave started re reading Elwyn Richardsons book  'In the Early World' This is helping me to think about the history of Oruaiti School and what makes us special. There is a great deal of what Elwyn was doing that we would like to continue. I am meeting with Sue again on 6th August. The notes from our last meeting and next steps are attached.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I12xf1NBmZwMowEBlEKEDvTg1C0efQey9d2LS4eEu68/edit

Local Curriculum Design

Each school in New Zealand is required to develop their own school-based curriculum that is aligned to the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC). The Education Review Office (ERO) expects that the school-based curriculum should be relevant, broad, comprehensive, and engaging in nature for the learners of the school. It is also expected that the development of the school-based curriculum is undertaken through extensive consultation with all stakeholders including: Board of Trustees (BoT), staff, parents, local marae, community resources, and students.

Last week I worked with Sue Holmes from Cognition on the initial planning for the design of a curriculum for Oruaiti School. The initial steps for this will be looking at the History of Oruaiti School, talking with local Kaumatua and also looking into the history from when Elwyn Richardson was principal from his book 'In the Early World' I will also talk with other Local Principal's who have been through this process. My aim is to create a school site that shares our curriculum. Surveys will be created and shared for community input.

Learning Progression Framework 23.05.19

Today Kara and I worked with Jenna Crowley and Sue Holmes from Cognition looking at the learning progression framework and how we can use this to help with student assessment.
In this first session we were loking at Mathematics and how the aspects of the learning progression framework align with the curriculum levels and also numeracy stages. We will also look further into possibly recording the information from this using the PACT tool. We will share our learning with the whole staff at a staff meeting later in the term which Jenna will also help to facilitate.

Reading Together 22.05.19

This week Kara and I started the Reading together programme to help parents to develop skills to help when reading with their children. This is a programme which runs over 4 weeks and involves sessions where parents will be working alongside their children, we had 8 parents attend this first session, which went really well. The resource book that we use in this called 'Brock' gives parents a really good insight into what it is really like for their children to learn to read.

Lesson Study 21.05.19

Today we did our first observation for lesson study. Kara, Jorja and I had one traget student each who we observed as part of a lesson facilitated by Petrina. This lesson had been planed in detail previously with all resources provided.
We had recorded how we thought each of the students would respond during the different parts of the lesson.
We recorded all responses made by the students and then discussed if they matched what we had thought.
We discussed the observation with Rhona, all responses were recorded and Rhona will collate the information and send it back. It will be linked to this post.

Lesson Study 07.05.19

Yesterday some of us met with Rhona Leonard to discuss a lesson study cycle to be taught this term. We will plan lessons collaboratively which will be taught in one class with observers looking at three target students. This is to examine how particular students learn and what they bring to the learning experience. The observers do not observe the teaching, they observe the learning for the targeted students. Students are interviewed after each lesson to discuss the learning which has taken place. Teachers then discuss their findings from the lesson, the information is then used to plan subsequent lessons. There will be three lessons in this cycle.

Rhona shared the following questions for us to reflect on:

1. What role does reflection and collaborative practice play in your current practice, before actually starting LS?

As a staff we currently plan collaboratively for each term. Our involvement in coaching means that we all have a 'professional buddy' who we are encouraged to meet with on a regular basis to discuss our target students in particular, reflect on what we are currently doing for them and talk about what we might do differently. Reflection is a huge part of all planning and should inform any future teaching and learning. As a staff we will always 'debrief' after any schoolwide events, reflecting on what went well and what we could do differnetly in the future.




2.      Thinking about effective teaching and learning, what do you consider to be examples of this in your current practice, before starting LS?

As Principal it is my role to lead this within the school. To observe current practice and give feed back and feed forward. The collaborative nature of our current staff show examples of effective teaching and learning. We are currently collecting student voice around the ways our students learn to help us continue to provide effective teaching and learning.