Tena koutou katoa
Naumai e te whanau o te kura Muritai
Welcome to Noah Delaney who joins the Muritai School family in room 2 this week.
FROM THE PRINCIPAL
MID–YEAR REPORTING
We are just putting the finishing touches to our mid year reports and next Friday these written reports will be issued for all students.
The written report identifies your child’s progress and achievement using a 5 point scale ranging from well below to well above against the expected year levels of the NZ curriculum. Rather than just focussing on reading, writing and maths, we aim to cover all areas of the curriculum, including work and study skills and the key competencies. The report gives you feedback as to how well your child is tracking towards meeting the end of year national standard.
If a student is tracking AT the National Standard, the theory is that they are aligned to achieve NCEA Level 2, which is acknowledged as the minimum standard for accessing further educational opportunities beyond school. In old fashioned terms this is the 6th form qualification - UE or 6th form certificate which then leads into Bursary. We have about 90% of our children at the standard at reading, writing and maths. We acknowledge that some of our children are so young that assessing them in line with a qualification 11 years from now is a bit specious. With maturity our children grow into extremely competent learners in good time, with a wide skill set of competencies!
We have found over the years of National Standards reporting that there is quite a step up at each level. At primary school the children generally work through 4 levels of the NZ curriculum, starting at level 1 (Y1-2) and finishing at level 4 (Y7-8) - although some of the children are capable of working at different levels with some of our year 8s working at level 5. Every odd year level there is a noticeable step up for the children as they engage in work that is a bit harder and needs to be done a bit quicker than in previous years. Some children take a wee while to get in ‘tune’ and add depth and sophistication to their work, but in our experience the next 6 months sees the Y3, 5, 7 children really kick on as they step up to the requirements.
On Wednesday 6 July from 3:00-6:00 we have our ‘Celebration of Learning’. Children will guide their parents through their learning journeys and share the things they have done at school so far this year.. Teachers will be on hand for any clarification required. Children's day-to-day learning and class work is a very important part of reporting improvements for the children. It gives them a chance to share their achievements with you, to reflect on their own growth and helps them self-review their own progress supported by the teachers report.
The key thing however is to continue those ongoing conversations about your child's strengths and weaknesses and understand future learning goals for the next phase of learning. So far we have a very strong parent contact rate throughout the year and this frequent contact is appreciated. As always, if at any time you would like to meet your child's teacher to discuss any issue or progress, please feel comfortable to contact them directly to set up a suitable meeting time.
As mentioned in the last newsletter the year 7-8 team is exploring ‘The Internet’ as their Inquiry focus – including looking at the pros and cons, risks and how children keep themselves safe online. Annette and the team invite parents of Y5-8 to an informal ‘chat’ over a hot cuppa after our Learning Celebration evening on Wednesday 6th July at around 6pm.
The senior staff will also be able to share some resources that may be useful in talking about digital safety with your child. If you would like to attend, please RSVP either by email to borgonje@muritai.school.nz or your classroom teacher before Friday 1st July to let us know if you plan to attend.
FROM THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
The new Board of Trustees met again this week to continue our training and be brought up to speed on the governance issues of the school. We really appreciate the work of the previous Board who left the school in a strong governance position and with a clear plan going forward. The Board is required to have a Chairperson and the Board has decided to work collaboratively at present with an ‘Interim Chair’ in place. For the moment Nigel Cass is the Interim Chair.
Last Friday we were welcomed onto the school through a powhiri. This was a powerful experience for the Board. The kapa haka group were outstanding in their tikanga and we thank Charlotte, Sophia and Francesca for representing us at karanga.
The Board members will be engaging in NZ Schools Trustees Association development workshops over the next few months to build better understanding of the ‘nuances’ of school governance. As you can imagine there is a lot to take in but we will continue to work closely with the old Board and the teaching staff
FROM THE SCHOOL
YEAR 7-8 SCIENCE FAIR SHARING
Next Friday 1 July at 11am the children of the senior school will be sharing their science fair presentations. The assignments are starting to drift in and they are stunning. Families are most welcome to come and view the exhibits between 11.00 and 12.30 next Friday. It is a good chance for families of younger children to take the opportunity to see the senior children’s work.
RELIEVING TEACHERS
We have an excellent pool of relieving teachers that we draw on but during the winter months from time to time we are short of relieving teachers. We do have an agency that we can access if we need to but we would rather use our own people! If you are a trained teacher (or know of a trained teacher) that would like to do some extra relief teaching, please drop off your CV to Carole in the school office.
PIZZA MONDAY - 4 JULY
Our wonderful Home and School are running another Pizza Monday on Monday 4 July. Envelopes will be sent out on Wednesday 29 June. Orders must be given to classroom teachers on FRIDAY MORNING 1 JULY to enable the orders to be placed ready for Monday. We have had a few children bringing orders to us on the Monday which is too late as the pizzas are already ordered and practically on their way to the school when we get them. Also, please note that Pizza Mondays are NOT EVERY MONDAY - only when you get envelopes and we send notifications to everyone.
RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE - CLARA ARCHIBALD …
Clara collected $375 for Ronald McDonald House last Thursday and Friday. That is much more than Clara was expecting, so thank you very much for all your support.
CYBERSAFETY WORKSHOP
Following on from last week’s newsletter Susan McLean is presenting on Cybersafety on Monday 4 July at Wellesley College at 6.30pm.
“Susan McLean is Australia’s foremost expert in the area of cyber safety and young people and was a member of Victoria Police for 27 years. Widely known as the ‘cyber cop’ she was the first Victoria Police Officer appointed to a position involving cyber safety and young people. In 2003, she was the Victoria Police Region Four Youth Officer of the Year. Susan brings a wealth of knowledge and a practical down to earth element to her presentations. She is a mother who has had to live and parent in the digital age for many years so knows how tough it can be and knows all the tricks that kids will pull to get what they want. She also has a unique understanding of the education system having worked with schools for over 20 years.” You can acquire tickets here - http://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2016/caring-for-kids-in-an-online-world-susan-mclean/wellington
LOST PROPERTY
This is starting to build up - having said that things are better than usual. If you are missing some key clothing items they may be in the corridor opposite room 7. Please make sure clothing is named and then things can be returned if found.
LUCKY BOOK CLUB
Your Lucky Book Club order needs to be into the office, or made online by next Wednesday the 29th of June. If you haven't already had time, please take a look through the brochure that was sent home with your child to see the great range of books on offer. We are grateful for your support of Lucky Books which enable us to purchase new books for our school library.
MURITAI SCHOOL HOLIDAY PROGRAMME
The July Holiday programme brochure is out and available from the school office. Lots of fun and interesting events to keep your children happy and busy during these holidays: Glow in the Dark Disco, Creative Ceramics, Zombie Day, Lighthouse Cinema, EHock and Beach combing, Ice Skating, Pizza and Pasta Day, Wacky Wednesday, Badminton and a Puppet Workshop. Complete the brochure and drop into the office or go to our website and complete the online form: http://muritaiafterschoolcare.blogspot.co.nz/
NETBALL
Results from our Netball teams for this week…some good battles with other schools.
Muritai Y7-8 draw 22-22 v St Brendans
Muritai Magic loss 7-18 v Rata St
Muritai Bullets win 18-8 v Our Lady of Rosary
Muritai 3 loss 7-12 v Sacred Heart
Muritai Minions loss 1-7 v Our Lady of Rosary
CROSS COUNTRY
Our students had a great time at the recent InterZone Cross Country championships recently. The following students placed in the top 10 of their race and will now represent Lower Hutt in the Regional Cross Country championships on Tuesday 5 July
Rosa Blair - 1st - Y5 Girls
Mia Campbell - 3rd - Y5 Girls
Lola Campbell - 5th - Y5 Girls
Greta Woolloff - 2nd - Y6 Girls
Elodie Bain - 7th - Y6 Girls
Fraser Belliss - 6th - Y6 Boys
Ollie Sliper - 1st - AWD Boys
Mason Donnelly - 10th - Y7 Boys
Charlotte MacFarlane - 4th - Y8 Girls
A fantastic result and we wish all our runners the very best.
BASKETBALL
Congratulations to our Year 6 Basketball team who finished runners up in their competition in term 2 - an excellent result.
DIARY DATES (staff may contact you with more details about these events)
Tue 28 June Y7-8 Zone Football
Thurs 30 June Y5-6 Rugby v Wellesley / PolyFest 2016
Fri 1 July Y7-8 Science Fair sharing / Mid year reports go out
Mon 4 July PIzza Monday and Y7-8 Shaun Greaves visit
Wed 6 July Y5-6 Rugby v Eastern Hutt / Celebration of learning 3pm - 6pm
Fri 8 July Last day of term 2
Mon 25 July First day of term 3
TERM DATES FOR 2016
Term 2 = Monday 2 May - Friday 8 July
Term 3 = Monday 25 July - Friday 23 September
Term 4 = Monday 10 October - Friday 16 December
We have a teacher only day at Labour weekend.
Teacher only day two = Tuesday 25 October
TOWARDS 2020
We are currently sharing the main points of our Towards 2020 strategic document. These 7 key themes maintain the integrity of what Muritai School has now, but take us forward towards 2020 to innovate, progress, and modernise the way our teachers teach and our children learn.
These 7 concepts are -
1. Achievement and success for all
2. Thinking globally, acting locally
3. Science, technology, engineering, maths
4. Growing great citizens
5. Lead with pedagogy, accelerate with technology
6. Using community expertise
7. Using learning spaces and resources to enhance learning.
This week we are going to expand and define the 2 concepts of Science, Technology, engineering and maths and Growing great citizens.
Lead with pedagogy, accelerate with technology
Our children have grown up in a digital world and are naturally tuned to working online. We can use this massive resource to seek, find and use information as well as create presentations of outcomes using this digital platforms. We acknowledge however the critical place of quality teaching for this learning to be effective. We also acknowledge that digital devices are just a tool to support and strengthen the learning environment.
Using community expertise
Eastbourne and the Muritai School community is rich in talent, experiences and expertise. We will actively seek out people to work with our children to share their knowledge and skills to ‘raise the bar’ of information sharing. Our community has access to many global experiences and issues and not only does this provide ‘real life’ contexts but also inspires the children to see professionals, and thus their future, in action.
Concept 5
Lead with pedagogy, accelerate with technology
Objective
Enhance student learning through the use of digital technologies, used innovatively and strategically, to produce quality outcomes in a cybersafe world.
Strategy
Build leadership and teacher capability to understand the effective and purposeful use of ICTs in the classroom so that we ‘lead our learning through good teaching, but accelerate our learning with technology.’ We will...
- Continue investment in resources to enable accessibility to modern ICTs.
- Build understanding of
- Technologies that enables diversity to flourish.
- The importance of quality leadership for effective ICT structures.
- The importance of quality teaching and the use of effective and flexible pedagogies.
- How children can safely use applications and technology to enhance their learning.l
What we will see…
- The use of ICTs in learning is natural, integrated and purposeful.
- Learners have a strong understanding of safe ICT practices.
- All learners have access to technologies at Muritai.
- Learning is highly collaborative – peer-to-peer teaching is part of learning.
- Learning is anywhere, anyhow anytime and so a link between home and school is enabled through Google Classroom.
- Learners are digitally connected.
- Technology supporting assessment at student profiles.
Concept 6.
Using community expertise
Objective
Enhance our children’s teaching and learning by enabling members of the community, with expertise, to have access to our classrooms to teach children’s higher levels of content knowledge.
Strategy
Team’s curriculum planning allows for our parents and Eastbourne residents to share their content knowledge and skills with our learners. We will …
- Develop a database of community expertise.
- Link this concept with the concept of thinking globally and acting locally.
- Connect with institutions to invite them to be part of our learning landscape.
- Open our doors to experts.
- Use this concept to drive Y7-8 career education.
We will see…
- Teachers collaboratively thinking about how to integrate community skills into learning contexts.
- Parents and experts working in classrooms with teachers and learners.
- Adults and children collaborating in learning projects.
- A link with businesses and institutes that have the the expertise to strengthen our learning community.
COMMUNITY NOTICES
Baring Head Major Planting
Your help is needed in planting 2800 natives around Baring Head Wetlands. Join Friends of Baring Head and the Ranger, Mark McAlpine to help plant 2800 natives around the wetlands at Baring Head as this area has been recently retired from grazing .
Please email mark.mcalpine@gw.govt.nz if you plan to come so we can contact you encase it is cancelled due to weather. Holes will be dug for you so bring the kids.
When: Sunday 3rd July, 10am
Where: Meet at Baring Head Bridge Car park approximately 16km south of Wainuiomata on Coast Road.
What to Bring: Jacket, gumboots and warm clothes. Gloves, but we have some if you do not have your own. Lunch if you plan to stay that long.
SPOTLIGHT PERFORMING ARTS
Singing, dance and drama for students aged 4-16 yrs old.
Led by London West End performer Sherene Clarke.
Every Saturday during term time in Johnsonville and Lower Hutt.
BOOK YOUR PLACE NOW!
Save the Maui’s Dolphin
You may have noticed that in the last Bird's Eye View, the post about the Maui's Dolphin leads to the wrong website. I have found the correct link, and pasted it here.
RICH NUTRIENTS POP UP SHOP - this Saturday - 25th June 9am-5pm in "The Royal" - old Montage building, next to the Eastbourne Library
Come along! Lots of health food products - Coconut oils, Flax seed oil, Kombucha, Coconut Yoghurt, Sauerkraut, Seeds, Nuts, Baking Ingredients, healthy Breakfasts, Snacks, Bars, Protein Powders, Superfoods, Superfood Powders, Books, Tea, Cordials, Pantry Goods, Nut and Seeds butters...there will be tasters available throughout the day! Cash & EFTPOS available. Come along and support a local business - www.richnutrients..co.nz
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