23 November, 2011

BIRD'S EYE VIEW

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Dear parent's and caregivers,
 

As the year draws to a close, like any other organization, the school reflects on how it has performed over the past 12 months. We feel we have achieved a lot, it certainly has been very busy and a well-earned break isn’t too far away.  It's also been a time to plan for the year ahead, establishing targets and objectives and making decisions on teaching staff and classes for 2012.

School life over the remaining weeks will be about finalizing our achievement reporting, reviewing curriculum goals, confirming our strategic plan for 2012 and of course the important task of setting class placements for 2012. With swimming starting proper next week, teams are preparing for the education outside the classroom programme in weeks 6 and 7; and the year eight’s are preparing for their end of Muritai schooling with a trip to Abel Tasman and their final week leaving ceremonies.

The school’s 2011 overall student achievement report that is presented to the Board, the community and to the Ministry of Education through its Annual Report procedure, is an impressive read and will be posted on the school’s website in December. Student achievement data collected across the school over 2011 affirms that the school overall is a very high performing school against the New Zealand curriculum and the national standards.

Of particular interest is the performance level of our Year 7-8 classes, as this group can provide a picture of a child’s learning journey over eight years of schooling at Muritai. Many of these children started slowly in the early years and have flourished with time and maturity. Achievement indicators provide excellent evidence that this group of children achieve well in advance of the national norms for literacy and numeracy.

Staff are working through class placements for 2012. This is the responsibility of the senior management team in consultation with current classroom teachers.  There are many variables relating to the teaching and learning needs of every child that require careful consideration when making placement decisions.

Staffing:

We will say goodbye at the end of 2012 to Stephen Eames from our teaching and senior management team. Stephen, who is moving his family up the coast, has secured a job at Pukerua Bay School as the Assistant Principal. Stephen has been leading the senior school for 7 years and is much loved by the children and parents in the senior school. He will be a huge loss for Muritai but is keen for a new chapter in his life. We are also sad to have to say goodbye to Hayden Ray (who is traveling to teach in Cambodia in 2012), Sally Ingram ( having a baby), Pippa Grant and Hayden Wyllie.

Replacing Stephen as associate principal is Deane McKay. Deane is an impressive teacher with great credentials and joins us from St Josephs School where he is currently leading the year 5-6 team. He is a family man with four children, and alongside classroom teaching has a passion for sport - he is just about to complete his first half iron man. In addition to Deane we have one more new teacher – Murray McMillan - who joins the year 5-6 team. Murray joins us from Clifton Terrace School, and is an experienced teacher who will add to the school with his skills in ICT and sports.

Stephen’s departure enables us to change things around a bit and provide some new opportunities for our teaching staff.

In 2012, the current year 5-6 teaching team of Stu Devenport (AP), Lisa Allen and Melissa Coton, will be transferring across into the senior school to teach year 7-8. Stu Devenport will be the leader of the senior school.

Deane McKay (AP) will lead the year 5-6 team with Kirsten Berry and Raihania Chadwick coming across from the senior school and Murray McMillan will join them.

Richard Dobson (AP) will lead the year 3-4 team with Karen Chao (Y4), Annabel Capper (Y3) and Sheena Naik (Y3)

Maureen Buckley (DP) will lead the year junior school with Morag Roberts (Y2), Mikaela Cody (Y2 and back from maternity leave), Karen Jones (Y2), Barbara Ryan (Y1) and Maureen Buckley (Y1) with Gabrielle Heath. Margs Mills will start the first new entrant class of the year.

Based on the information we have about our roll next year we are starting at 393 and going through to around 435. It is anticipated that classes in the Y1-2 area of the school will have an overall lower pupil/teacher of around 1:21; year 3-4 around 1:25; Year 5-6 around 1:28 and the year 7-8 to have a ratio of 1:24.

Year 5-6 will move from straight level classes to mixed level classes in 2012. We believe that in year 5-6 a composite structure is the best composition, and it continues to work particularly well in year 7-8 where it is now the norm. Our teacher’s focus much more on a student’s learning needs rather than a student’s age. Structurally it helps balance the class size numbers, provides a useful challenge to both the 2012 year 5 children who will be required to step up quickly to meet higher expectations, and to the year 6 group who can provide leadership and an older buddy type relationship as they push on further with their learning. It also provides social enrichment through developing different types of relationships than what they are use to. In year 5-6, at level 3, there is a very open, self-directed curriculum in literacy and inquiry where learning is developed around student needs and not from a set year level ‘textbook’ type arrangement so there will be no learning differences for the children. Maths will continue to be streamed across classes.

We are very pleased with the structure for 2012, in particular the balance of the skills and experience of our teaching staff and the new challenges for the children.

Andrew Bird

Principal