Red Cross Grant entitlements and forms
The New Zealand Red Cross 2011 Earthquake Commission has relaxed criteria for some of its grants, opening them up to thousands more Cantabrians. For example the Independent Advice Grant of $750 is now open to all people whose properties are zoned Red or TC3 or with more than $100,000 of damage, regardless of age or medical status. http://www.redcross.org.nz/cms_show_download.php?id=617 The same goes for the Winter Assistance grants .http://www.redcross.org.nz/cms_show_download.php?id=616
Freeville School
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Monday, July 30, 2012
Tū Kahikatea Tour
Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori-Māori Language Week
Last week Tū Kahikatea - Room
13 wanted to celebrate MLW.
The focus for this MLW
was 'Arohatia Te Reo' that
means Cherish the Language.
On Monday we went to Avondale
Kura and sang outside to the
whole school with the Avondale
Kapahaka group.
On Tuesday we practised our
waiata for the rest of the week's
performances.
On Wednesday we travelled to
Southbrook School, in Rangiora,
in our mighty school vans.
We sang to Whaea Steph's class
and they played the recorder to
us. It was super and we enjoyed
ourselves.
The next day we went to St.
Andrew's Primary School and did
kapahaka to over 150 children.
They sang us a song with
instruments and their beautiful
voices. They thought we were
impressive because we were
young and there were only 16 of
us in our group.
On Friday we headed off to Villa
Maria College and we performed
to the girls only school. Whaea
Robyn told us "kia kaha!". After
she told us 'we owned the stage'.
The girls thought we were cute
and loved Jack. They wanted to
keep him, but we said no!
Villa Maria sang to us and
with us. We all stood on stage
together to sing 'A, ka, ma'. It
was a thrilling experience.
To finish a fantastic Māori
Language Week we sang
the final waiata at our school
assembly.
'He toki mātou!'
By Tū Kahikatea Rm13
Bilingual education survey
Yesterday we sent home a survey asking for feedback from families about your interest in bilingual education. Please could you complete that form if you are interested in finding out more or you know that you want a bilingual option for your child. This will help us with planning for 2013. Forms can just be returned to the office.
Information meeting
On Wednesday 15th
August at 5.30 p.m. in Room 13 we will have a meeting introducing bilingual
education. If you are interested in finding out more about what our bilingual
programme offers this is a great opportunity.
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Creativity
I was reading a blog post last night and thought it was worth sharing the headings. If you are interested the whole post can be read here.The title of the post was
Twelve Things You Were Not Taught in School About Creative Thinking
1. You are creative.
2. Creative thinking is work.
3. You must go through the motions of being creative.
4. Your brain is not a computer.
5. There is no one right answer.
6. Never stop with your first good idea.
7. Expect the experts to be negative.
8. Trust your instincts.
9. There is no such thing as failure. .
10. You do not see things as they are; you see them as you are.
11. Always approach a problem on its own terms.
12. Learn to think unconventionally.
The only difference between people who are creative and people who are not is a simple belief. Creative people believe they are creative. People who believe they are not creative, are not.
If this interests you the whole blog post is worth reading. Each of the headings is expanded with some explanation and examples.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
The Hidden Lives of Learners
I have been reading a book by Graham Nuthall called “The Hidden Lives of Learners”. Graham was a very well respected and internationally acclaimed educational researcher based at the University of Canterbury until his death in 2004 (http://www.nuthalltrust.org.nz/profile.shtml).
A useful idea for us to understand from his research is that children must experience new learning at least three times for it to transfer to long term memory.
Now I’m sure, if your children are anything like mine, you will realise that when it comes to things like tidying their bedrooms, putting their clothes in the washing basket or brushing their teeth, that it takes considerably more than three experiences for them to have a new behaviour automatic. But I thought it was a useful reminder to us that just because a child hears something once that will not be enough for that learning to be cemented in their brain. For many children it will take many more experiences and interactions with a new learning concept.
One of the ways you can help with this is by asking your children to explain what they learnt during the day. Having them think about their learning and talk about it with you will help reinforce those new ideas.
I know, I know. The usual after school conversation in my house often goes something like this…
Me: Did you have a good day?
Child: Yeah.
Me: What did you do today?
Child: Nothing.
Me: Did you learn anything new today?
Child: Nah.
Me: (with slightly desperate tone) You must have learnt something!
Child: Can I have something to eat?
Be reassured this is quite normal. Persevere though and you will help your child to become reflective and improve the chances of their learning sticking.
I’m trying to learn how to ask better questions so that I get a better response. Here are a few to try
(not all at once or they will completely ignore you)…
- Tell me about the best part of your day.
- What was the hardest thing you had to do today?
- If you could do today over, what would you have done differently?
- Tell me about what you read in class.
- Who did you play with today? What did you play?
- Do you think maths [or any subject] is too easy or too hard?
- What's the biggest difference between this year and last year?
- What rules are different at school than our rules at home? Do you think they're fair?
- Who did you sit with at lunch?
- Can you show me something you learned (or did) today?
Monday, July 16, 2012
Red Cross Winter Assistance Grant
Red Cross Winter Assistance Grant
Red Cross have stressed
that this grant is available to EVERYONE in Christchurch living in damaged houses or who
have moved to damp or harder to heat accommodation. Not just old, young and
sick. Everyone!!
Red Cross are keen to get
people applying this winter as they have the funds available, and to date
haven’t had many applications.
League Tables are in the news
This is a link to an article about the publication of league tables for primary schools.
It makes interesting reading.
At Freeville School we are not afraid of being accountable. We have just had the Education Review Office visit and their report will be released shortly. We are concerned about the possible negative impacts on education that the article discusses.
Interesting times.
It makes interesting reading.
At Freeville School we are not afraid of being accountable. We have just had the Education Review Office visit and their report will be released shortly. We are concerned about the possible negative impacts on education that the article discusses.
Interesting times.
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Welcome back to Term 3
Hello all.
Welcome back to Term 3. I'm sure we will have another busy term.
We welcome some new staff to Freeville School this term. Kate has been at Freeville working part time for a few weeks but starting today she will be full time in Room 10.
Caroline has traveled all the way from Ireland to join us in Room 7. Welcome Caroline.
Su will be teaching in LT4 for the first two weeks of the term and then Sharon will be taking over that role.
Over the term I will use this blog to highlight some things for your interest. I thought I'd start with letting you know about a few things that are on my radar for the term.
Last term we had a visit from the Education Review Office (ERO). This is the government organisation that monitors and reports on school performance. We will get the draft report in a few weeks and then later in the term the final report will come out. As we went through the process of describing the things that we are doing at Freeville I was reminded again about why I am so proud to work here. There are so many brilliant people and programmes and our strong focus on learning shines through in all the things that we do.
Nicole, Bernice and I had the privilege to present at a conference in Auckland in the first week of the holidays. We were sharing some of the things that we do at Freeville and again it was marvelous to be able to talk with confidence about innovative programmes and the many ways that we are meeting the learning needs of our children.
.... That said... we don't always get it right and we do care very much about sorting things out when they are small problems. If you have an issue we would much rather you brought it to our attention so that we can deal with it. If you have a concern about something that has happened at school the first point of call is your child's teacher. Allow them the chance to try and sort it out at the lowest level. If the issue is still not sorted then the Team Leaders are the appropriate people to talk to. If it is a more serious issue or you feel the issue has not been resolved then make a time to talk with Paul.
Professional development for our staff is important as we constantly look to improve our performance as a school. This year we have had a focus on Mathematics and we are continuing to have staff meetings and professional development activities to help us improve our Maths teaching.
We also believe strongly in the value of bilingual education and the importance for us to have an understanding of Te Reo and Tikanga Maori. We will be looking at how we can promote our bilingual programme and grow it further. As part of that I will be sending out a survey to the whole school community asking for and indication of your interest in bilingual education for your child. This information will help us as we plan for 2013.
We value our families so much and want to continue to support you as we all work together through the next few years of recovery. Please remember that we have help available from the Methodist Mission and the Salvation Army. We want to be able to support families facing difficulty so please continue to let us know if there is anything we can do to help. We can access counseling for families and children and will do our best to put you in touch with whatever other support you need. Please just come and ask.
Later in the term we will be having our in4m conference. Look out for more detail on that coming soon.
We have been working on our Freeville Curriculum over the last couple of years. It has been in draft form for a while but is nearly ready to be launched. More on this will follow.
Finally I want to acknowledge the great work that our staff do. Our teachers and support staff are caring, motivated, adaptable, and creative. They work hard at communicating clearly and thinking critically about what they are doing and we all try to maintain a globalist perspective and be aware of how what we do has an impact on others.
Thank you for helping make Freeville School the fantastic school that it is.
Paul
Welcome back to Term 3. I'm sure we will have another busy term.
We welcome some new staff to Freeville School this term. Kate has been at Freeville working part time for a few weeks but starting today she will be full time in Room 10.
Caroline has traveled all the way from Ireland to join us in Room 7. Welcome Caroline.
Su will be teaching in LT4 for the first two weeks of the term and then Sharon will be taking over that role.
Over the term I will use this blog to highlight some things for your interest. I thought I'd start with letting you know about a few things that are on my radar for the term.
Last term we had a visit from the Education Review Office (ERO). This is the government organisation that monitors and reports on school performance. We will get the draft report in a few weeks and then later in the term the final report will come out. As we went through the process of describing the things that we are doing at Freeville I was reminded again about why I am so proud to work here. There are so many brilliant people and programmes and our strong focus on learning shines through in all the things that we do.
Nicole, Bernice and I had the privilege to present at a conference in Auckland in the first week of the holidays. We were sharing some of the things that we do at Freeville and again it was marvelous to be able to talk with confidence about innovative programmes and the many ways that we are meeting the learning needs of our children.
.... That said... we don't always get it right and we do care very much about sorting things out when they are small problems. If you have an issue we would much rather you brought it to our attention so that we can deal with it. If you have a concern about something that has happened at school the first point of call is your child's teacher. Allow them the chance to try and sort it out at the lowest level. If the issue is still not sorted then the Team Leaders are the appropriate people to talk to. If it is a more serious issue or you feel the issue has not been resolved then make a time to talk with Paul.
Professional development for our staff is important as we constantly look to improve our performance as a school. This year we have had a focus on Mathematics and we are continuing to have staff meetings and professional development activities to help us improve our Maths teaching.
We also believe strongly in the value of bilingual education and the importance for us to have an understanding of Te Reo and Tikanga Maori. We will be looking at how we can promote our bilingual programme and grow it further. As part of that I will be sending out a survey to the whole school community asking for and indication of your interest in bilingual education for your child. This information will help us as we plan for 2013.
We value our families so much and want to continue to support you as we all work together through the next few years of recovery. Please remember that we have help available from the Methodist Mission and the Salvation Army. We want to be able to support families facing difficulty so please continue to let us know if there is anything we can do to help. We can access counseling for families and children and will do our best to put you in touch with whatever other support you need. Please just come and ask.
Later in the term we will be having our in4m conference. Look out for more detail on that coming soon.
We have been working on our Freeville Curriculum over the last couple of years. It has been in draft form for a while but is nearly ready to be launched. More on this will follow.
Finally I want to acknowledge the great work that our staff do. Our teachers and support staff are caring, motivated, adaptable, and creative. They work hard at communicating clearly and thinking critically about what they are doing and we all try to maintain a globalist perspective and be aware of how what we do has an impact on others.
Thank you for helping make Freeville School the fantastic school that it is.
Paul
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