Smartboards, sport and a swelling roll for Takaka Primary in term one
After making aeroplanes, from left, Oscar Chubb, Joe Ogle and Liam Potts check GeoNet for details about Takaka’s earth tremor on 3 March. Photo: Maria Polglase.
To support students’ classwork, two interactive whiteboards were installed at Takaka Primary School this month— “a first in Golden Bay, I think,” says headmaster Neil Batten.
“They’re called Smartboards, and they have a data projector attached to them. They’re like a computer that can be seen on screen. You can write on them with a special pen, and the kids can save what’s on screen. That’s only a fraction of what they can do. Our teacher Linda Wootton was using them a lot in London.”
The boards have been installed in the school’s year six classrooms. Smartboards feature touch recognition and allow high-quality graphics to be displayed to the whole class at once. Teaching can be augmented by accessories like portable microphones and digital writing tablets.
“There’s a lot of software that comes with them—geography and things—and they can be used by all levels,” said Mr Batten.
Geography is also part of the schoolwide “essential topic” for this term. Staff agreed that the children needed to learn more about their own country, so all classes are studying New Zealand itself.
“We’re also running on the new curriculum this term. Its emphasis is on imagination, talents, and the gifts of all children, really. We’re heading toward the creative side of things, looking to keep a really good balance and not narrow the curriculum down just toward literacy and numeracy. They’re important, of course, but other things are as well.”
The after-school academies are running again, this term with Garth Bray’s group constructing model aeroplanes, and others having swimming instruction and cricket.
It was also a very sporty term, said Mr Batten.
“We’ve started the Swimsafe programme, where children will get certificates for reaching certain levels. We’ve started the Grasshoppers tennis programme, which extends over a three-year period and involves children getting three coaching sessions per year. We’ve also got a whole lot of new tennis equipment. We’ve got Nelson Cricket after school, and Nelson Hockey coaching coming up. There’s also Have A Go sailing later this term for the year sixes—with Optimists coming along.
Of wider community interest is a visit by international educator Joseph Driessen in May.
“All the Bay’s teachers have been invited to attend. He will be talking about ‘Seven ways to improve boys’ education in your school’. The night before there’ll be a session for parents on bringing up boys. We need to try and get 100 parents to attend because of the cost factor, but he’s a really entertaining speaker with a lot of ideas about boys’ education, and in the home as well.”
The parents’ evening will be on Monday 5 May in the Takaka Primary School hall. There will also be a teachers-only day for professional development.
Takaka Primary is also growing, said Mr Batten. “We have 11 new enrolments and our roll is up, and this means we can run two extra teachers for most of the first term. This has been really beneficial; it’s allowed Uta Gay to spend time with the smaller children in the pool and Garth Bray has extra hours.” A new teacher to the school this year—Alana Dalzell—is teaching year six, and Wally van Lier is the new cleaner/caretaker.
“There’s heaps going on,” said Mr Batten. “We’re here to have a lot of fun, let’s put it that way.”
Maria Polglase
