Golden Bay’s schools and their plans for 2011
Motupipi School: started the 2011 school year with a very full roll
“We’re 112 and growing,” said Motupipi principal Mark Cullen, explaining that, in the last few days, they had enrolled a couple of students from Christchurch whose families had relocated while they made up their minds about what to do.
“That roll number is high for us and we’ve got to make sure we manage our resources the best possible way. The board will be having a look at an enrolment scheme this year. It’s not something we necessarily want to do, but we might have to.”
The school employs seven teachers, two of whom are part-timers.
Mr Cullen explained that this year the school would be paying particular attention to writing, maths and physical education, particularly swimming.
“We’re going to look at lifting our overall standards of achievement in writing and maths and build the confidence and competence of our swimmers. Recently we employed Jos and Margaret Pattison from Nelson to come and do a day’s swimming coaching. The teachers were released for two hours each, to go with their classes and observe how the Pattisons operated. We’ve already seen some good results from this.”
Last year Motupipi undertook a major consultation with its community.
“We had three meetings and really opened ourselves up to hear what people thought was going well and what we might be able to do better. Once you get that information you get some ideas about things we can focus on to improve a bit. One thing that did come out was that our parents feel comfortable and welcomed in the school and that’s something we’ll be working hard to maintain. ”
A whole-school visit to Onetahua Marae is planned for later this month. One class will stay overnight at the marae and the other classes will have a day visit.
“Our school organises the Junior Tinbum Triathlon each year, so lots of our kids trained for that,” said Mr Cullen.
“This Friday we are holding a mini fair at school to raise funds for the children of Christchurch affected by the earthquake. The fund-raising is by children for children. The community is invited.”
Neil Wilsom
Golden Kids: “Parents told us…they value what we’re doing”
The team at Golden Kids will continue to focus on the outdoor environment this year.
“Thanks to the generosity of the late Colin Baas, we had our landscape plan done by John Allen, a Christchurch landscape architect,” says Loretta Horton, the early childhood centre’s head teacher.
“We’ll keep working on our Enviroschools policy. We have to update each new group of children as they start with us. We have colour-coded bins for recycling and even our youngest children learn what can be recycled and which is the right bin. Each of our children gets a nylon wet clothes bag given to them. It has their name on it and it helps us to cut down on the number of plastic bags we use. When Marla Heuvel from the BNZ came to us for the bank staff’s day of working in the community, she brought her sewing machine. That allowed the kids to help make to make their wet clothes bags. Each bag stays with the child and it has to be in the backpack each day. It’s a good discipline for them to learn before they go off to school.”
The Golden Kids transition to school policy attracts plenty of favourable comment from parents.
“We’ve committed to a school visit for each child turning five,” says Loretta. “They get to go to the school they will be attending, along with a couple of teachers from Golden Kids and a group of their peers…usually it’s about four to six kids. They get to see that while each of the Bay’s schools has its own character, the junior rooms are all very similar and very welcoming. It’s a great thing for building and maintaining our relationships with the schools, too.”
Loretta says that the recent reductions in government funding have had their inevitable impact, but Golden Kids continues to attract excellent support from parents.
“We had to raise our resource fee for the first time in four years, but the parents told us they could cope because they value what we’re doing.”
Neil Wilson
Golden Bay High School: Literacy studies for students and staff
Golden Bay High School will be paying some serious attention to literacy in 2011, says principal Roger File.
“Two curriculum leaders, Paul Nield and Jim Barnes, are participating in a Nelson schools cluster looking at writing across the curriculum,” said Mr File. “We want to encourage our students to relate the skills of literacy to all the curriculum areas. We want them to be able read and write to the depth their studies require.”
As a result of their participation in the Nelson cluster, Mr Barnes and Mr Nield will be acting as school-based leaders for their colleagues, Mr File explained.
In term three, Mr File will take sabbatical leave, some of which will be used to look at some year seven to thirteen schools.
“I want to see how schools like ours organise their senior course structures and make best use of their staffing resources. I’m also interested in finding out how we can ensure that teacher development can be managed to lead to better learning in classrooms.
“I don’t think that the so-called ‘professional standards’ we use for appraisal have anything to do with learning in classrooms. Even in a highly experienced teaching work force like we have, the needs of young people require that teachers continue to grow.”
Mr and Mrs File will also take some time in term three to travel to Europe for the first time since 1981.
While Mr File is on his sabbatical Stuart Machin will be acting principal and other members of staff may get the chance to pick up parts of the senior management role, Mr File explained.
The school has been pleased to welcome a beginning teacher, Mr Matt Benassy, to the staff to teach economics.
Neil Wilson
Takaka Primary: Enviroschools focus for term one
Takaka Primary School is following its motto and “standing tall” in 2011, says principal Neil Batten.
“The senior children are gearing up for the Primary Schools’ Swimming Sports. The year sixes have had a great time sailing at Port Tarakohe, and the year fives and sixes have enjoyed a day’s Red Cross training. They are also about to go to camp at Totaranui, experiencing hiking, kayaking, swimming and having lots of fun. These camps are always looked forward to. It’s important our children enjoy their local environment.
“After-school academy has started this week with swimming, technology and the Junior Rock Quest. The technology academy also includes children from the other primary schools.
“The focus of topics in term one is Enviroschools, and term two will be our technology term with a display day as a highlight.”
The starting roll is up on previous years’, but the school still manages to keep its junior class numbers low, said Neil. There is also a new face on staff.
“Rachel Houston and her new husband Richard moved to Golden Bay six months ago from Temuka. She has taught on the West Coast, in Southland and Otago. Rachel is teaching in the year 3 and 4 area of the school.”
Creativity is being cultivated at TPS, said Neil. “We encourage inquisitiveness by valuing children’s questions and priorities. We give opportunity for children to try things out, to experiment and to make use of their imagination. Children need experience—outdoors, at play, listening to a piece of music or carrying out a science experiment. Children should be seekers, users and creators.”
Some students are operating as Cool School Mediators, “and our playground is a busy place full of children playing and having fun”.
Assemblies are on Thursdays at 1.30pm and the community is most welcome to attend. Each assembly is taken by a senior class in combination with a junior class.
Takaka Primary is indeed Standing Tall.
Maria Polglase
Golden Bay Kindergarten: pets, wild things and farm animals
Golden Bay Kindergarten is teeming with busy little bodies intensely concentrating on activities at different stations.
Up to 60 families, from Upper Takaka to Wainui to Puponga, are involved with the kindy and up to 30 children can attend at any one time, with three teaching staff present.
The emphasis is on the natural world and sustainability in and around the garden, providing lots of different learning opportunities and inviting input from the community into the children’s learning, says head teacher Biddy Leigh.
“We are drawing on the expertise of the families and the wider community, and we see ourselves as a community of learners.”
The children also learn about caring for pets, wild things such as Petal the green gecko, and farm animals. Families are encouraged to bring in four-legged creatures, such as Woolly the lamb or Midgie the calf, who came and stayed for six weeks in the wendy house.
A weekly perceptual motor programme is popular and Biddy has observed children making remarkable progress over time. The programme helps with overall brain function and motor skills, upper body strength, eye/hand coordination and memory, she said.
The kindy’s credo was about empowering children, and learning was very much about independence and taking charge of their own needs, teacher Susie Bassett pointed out. Proof of this is the pizza table, where children make their own pizza dough (gluten-free if need be), get ingredients for their pizza from the garden they have designed themselves, and bake it any time of the day they like.
New staff member Evelyn Green applied for a job after a five-week teaching placement last March and joined the teaching staff in November.
And though the kindy has been affected by funding cuts, the staff remain positive.
“The government has a very short-term view and sees early childhood education as a cost rather than an investment,” said Susie, “but we will do whatever it takes to maintain our high standards of early childcare and care, and we are committed to it.”
Ina Holst
Central Takaka School: learning in a family-style setting
Central Takaka School is ready for a year of fun and creativity. After a splashing term one swim sport event, the school is gearing up for its annual pumpkin fête.
Principal Liz Batten explained the school’s approach to the children’s sense of inquisitiveness.
“Each term the children will be using their inquiry learning to look at different aspects within Golden Bay, for example, buildings, local heroes and history, what brings people to Golden Bay, the pros and cons of living in the Bay and how we can promote our special place in New Zealand.”
New electronic devices are helping with the learning: two mimios or interactive whiteboards were installed in the classrooms during the summer holidays, and can be hooked up to a computer. These came courtesy of a grant from the Canterbury Community Trust, said Liz.
“Teachers spent a day in the holidays on a workshop learning how to use them and are already discovering many ways that they can be used to support the children‘s creativity and learning. The children are catching onto these new resources quickly.”
With a small roll of 33 children this year, including 10 children in the new entrant class, the school has a particular pull for families who prefer their children to learn in a family-style setting, added Liz.
“A small new junior class gives them a fabulous support for the beginning of their school life. I encourage families looking for a school for their child to come along and explore what we have to offer.
“We had a shuffle of levels and I am excited about teaching again in the junior room with our new permanent teacher, Denise Morgan, sharing the junior class teaching.”
Denise has a background of 15 years’ preschool experience. Andrew Wooster is teaching the senior class and brings a wealth of familiarity with multilevel education to the school.
Ina Holst
Collingwood Area School: big building project awaits final approval
Collingwood Area School’s fairly static roll—around 120 pupils again this year—was boosted this week by the arrival of five displaced pupils from Christchurch, their parents all known or related to staff members at the school.
At least two CAS parents involved in Search & Rescue have gone south to help with the recovery effort, and the school’s technology teacher, Michael Pitcon, a member of the Territorials Army Reserve, has been recalled to assist in the quake-hit city. Around 15 billet places in at least four homes in the Collingwood area have been made available should extra Christchurch students need respite in the area.
Said Collingwood Area principal John Garner: “So far we’ve only seen older students, in our case years six to thirteen, because junior ones generally can be expected to stay with their parents. Some of our new arrivals may not stay long, but some definitely could, depending on their situations back home.”
The new arrivals have been good news for CAS’s senior school (years 11 to 13), which now has 26 students, the highest number in years. In one year there were just 10 students over the three classes.
John Garner says a big project coming up at CAS, pending final approval expected soon from the Ministry of Education, will be a big refurbishment and partial rebuilding of the library block and some of its adjoining classrooms. Essentially, the new library area will be a large open space with movable interior partition walls to “future-proof” it for uses down the track.
“It’ll be a good opportunity to go hi-tech. You’ll be able to borrow laptops as well as books, and it’ll also be a venue for things like hui and performances.”
After attending the recent Learning at Schools Conference in Rotorua, John and deputy principal Steve Beck took the opportunity to visit Mt Maunganui College’s similar library redevelopment. “It really showed us it could work here,” says John.
On the sporting side, CAS will again send a team to the regional Area Schools Tournament, this year in April at Karamea.
Overall, it’s business as usual at Collingwood Area School.
Gerard Hindmarsh
