Red Cross Grant entitlements and forms

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

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 15^th 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.

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.

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)…

1. Tell me about the best part of your day.
2. What was the hardest thing you had to do today?
3. If you could do today over, what would you have done differently?
4. Tell me about what you read in class.
5. Who did you play with today? What did you play?
6. Do you think maths [or any subject] is too easy or too hard?
7. What's the biggest difference between this year and last year?
8. What rules are different at school than our rules at home? Do you think they're fair?
9. Who did you sit with at lunch?
10. Can you show me something you learned (or did) today?

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.

To apply for the Winter Assistance Grant or for more details on criteria go to www.redcross.org.nz and click on Grants or call the grants hotline 0800 754 726 between 8.30am and 5pm

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.