New Learning

Don't you just love learning new things? I do. I thrive on discovering about new ideas and things and I guess I like change and challenge. Today I sat in a meeting with a project manager, an architect and 3 engineers ( I felt old as 2 of these engineers appeared to be rather young but I guess that is a sign I am getting older!!) I found out about spandrels, daylight harvesting, proximity detection and lux measures. I don't know what BMS's are yet or what TRV means but I guess given time I will figure it out. Of course this is all to do with our remodel of the main block and it is incredibly exciting and somewhat worrying at the same time. I think what becomes obvious is the need to be clear about what you want as an outcome and for me we want the very best learning environment we can achieve within the constraints we have to operate within. It highlights for me just how important it is to be able to find out information that is relevant to what you need to know and how we can never ever possibly expect anyone to know everything about their field of interest because new knowledge is being created all the time. They just need to know where to find out more. It reinforces how important it is that we are developing in kids the skills, attitudes and values that will allow them to continue learning, seeking information and creating information as they head to an amazingly complex world. Knowing which questions to ask is incredibly important for all learners. I find myself writing a list of all types of questions before these meetings and asking rather a lot during them and the thing is even with this room full of specialist you can guarantee they all have questions to ask of each other to inform their learning as well. It shows how important all our key competencies are especially those relating to collaborating with others.

Community Whanau Time

On Friday afternoon we held our first real Community Whanau time session. I spent time with a couple of groups and then was able to wander around and see how things we going looking to see what might need some attention. I left school on Friday on a real high because of what I saw. I saw kids, teachers and parents actively engaged in meaningful work. I have been interested in "student voice" for a long time, that is letting students have input and make decision about what happens at their school but also in what they learn. Initially in developing community whanau time we were hoping to ensure that kids were getting an opportunity to commit and follow through on something they wanted be involved in. we have found it is harder and harder for kids to develop these interests due to all the time constraints in their school and personal lives. We also saw this as a really authentic way for students to develop the key competencies of ;

• managing self
• participating and contributing
• relating to others
• thinking
• using language symbols and texts

Students have chosen their areas of interest and being supported by teachers they are deciding what is they wish to develop that will contribute to their community whether it be our school or the wider community. some of these areas are;

• developing the Washdyke Lagoon
• community art - art to improve our environment or that of others - hospitals rest homes etc...
• community service - building relationships with others in our community by visiting and supporting them in some way
• student council
• kaitiaki - looking after and caring for our school environment
• Bay guardians - establishing ways we can ensure Caroline Bay is well looked after
• PALs - physical Activity leaders - supporting younger students with games and activities at break time
• CHAT - Children's Healthy Action Team
• Jump Jam leaders - teaching and leading others in jump jam for learning teams and at break time
• and many others - there are 21 groups in total.

During this time the year 1 students are all taking part in a developmental discovery programme where they are able to spend time exploring a variety of them based activities whilst developing key competencies and in particular their range of experiences that they can share with others.

What has struck me is the depth of thought the students have displayed, they are very aware of what it would be good to do for others and now they are actually being supported to do this in a problem solving way. This all contributes to our vision of Wai learners - motivated, happy, reflective, curious, respectful team players.

Watch this space.............

Wai Learners

Wai learner Awards
This year we are introducing a Wai Learner award for each learning team. At the end of each term one child per learning team will receive the Wai learner award for the term. This award will be presented at the last assembly for the term. The recipient of the award will keep this award for the following term until the new next recipient is announced.

Students who display outstanding Wai Learner attributes will nominated by each class teacher and these will be considered by the leadership team. Students in Learning Team 2, 3 and 4 will also be able to nominate their peers or class mates also providing an explanation for their nomination.
We will present these awards will be on Friday 3 April at 12.40pm. This assembly will be the inaugural presentation of these awards and therefore we have invited the people who have donated these awards along to present them for the first time.

to find out more about Wai learners at Waimataitai visit http://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/digital_stories/school_snapshots/waimataitai_school