Class Placements 2008

In preparation for next year we are seeking feedback from parents and caregivers regarding class placement. Forms are available at the school office and also from your class teacher, or they can be Downloaded here. 

Many parents do not fill out forms, leaving the judgment to the classroom teacher. Please note that any comments written should refer to your child’s needs. It is not appropriate to request particular teachers (and these have not been finalised in any case) or to create a wish list! Forms should be returned to your child’s class teacher. Any forms that are not considered acceptable will be forwarded to me. 

Please note that information from parents is just one of the many sources of information we consider when placing children. The ultimate responsibility is the schools and we take this role very seriously. We do try to address the needs of all 500 children to the best of our abilities - it is a complex task!

About me

BA Hons PGCE MA NPQH

I am the Principal of Fendalton Open-air Primary School. I joined the school in August 2007 when I moved to New Zealand from the UK. My teaching career began in London, England where I trained at London University’s Institute of Education before taking up my first teaching post at Bruce Grove Primary School in Tottenham, North London.

My second teaching post was at Coleridge Primary School, also in North London, where I became firstly an Advanced Skills Teacher and then the Deputy Head teacher.

Web 2.0 tools to explore

Google Docs - spreadsheeting, word processing and presentations.
Picasa - photo sharing from your google account.
Mindmeister - mindmapping tool.
Delicious - bookmark sharing site.
Flickr - photo sharing site.
Bubbl.us - mindmapping tool.
Bubble Share - photo sharing.
Mosaickr - photo mosiacs.
Teacher Tube - videos with an educational slant.

Our wonderful teachers

This Friday is World Teacher Day. This is a perfect opportunity for you to be extra specially nice to your wonderful teachers.

NZEI is asking New Zealanders to thank a teacher this World Teachers' Day. Get in touch with a teacher who helped you along the way, or take time to thank your children's teachers.

World Teachers’ Day (WTD) provides the opportunity to draw public attention to the important role of teachers within society.

21st Century Fendalton

This video forms part of my presentation to parents and the community on Tuesday 16th, Wednesday 17th and Tuesday 23rd October. Please watch it and join the conversation by adding a comment below.

Another triumph for English Sport

This Tuesday we had a visit from Canterbury Cricket to give our children the opportunity to meet some famous cricketers, play some cricket and learn some new skills. This was a wonderful experience for all our learners and I would like to thank Shane Bond, Amandeep Singh and Andrew Shaw for their time and energy. On a personal note I had the chance to face some fast balls from Shane Bond and despite 5 airshots I did manage to clip one ball down to the boundary! One for the scrapbook.

Kapa Haka

Today I briefly joined some of our children taking part in a Kapa Haka session in the hall. As you can see I may need to do some work on my stance! The boys taking part were very impressive, quickly picking up the moves and putting me to shame.

Principal's Diary

Kia Ora

Welcome back to a new term at school, I hope you all had a great holiday and managed to escape for a few days. I spent part of my holidays moving house and part up in Auckland at a conference about learning and ICT. It was a wonderful course that gave me a whole heap of new ideas about ways in which we can use the latest web technologies to improve the learning of all our children. Part of this involves the PTA and I would like to explore new ways for us to use the web to communicate the great work of the PTA to the community.

Just a quick reminder that I will be holding meetings next week to introduce myself to you all formally and to share with you my educational philosophy and vision for Fendalton School. I hope that you will be able to make it to one of the sessions.

Tuesday 16th October @ 8pm - Parents with children in the Junior School.
Wednesday 17th October @ 8pm - Parents with children in the Middle School.
Tuesday 23rd October @ 8pm - Parents with children in the Senior School.

All the sessions will be held in the Village and will involve some interactivity (I promise not to make you work too hard.)

Last week we put adverts into the education Gazette for new teachers to start in January 2008, this is partly to fill some of the long term relieving positions that we have had this year but also because of the news that Anne-Maree Tippen will be leaving us at the end of term 4. We are very sad that Anne-Maree will be leaving us but would like to congratulate her on her appointment as Associate Principal at Remuera Primary School in Auckland. Anne-Maree has taught at Fendalton School for nearly 10 years and has done a wonderful job, I would like to thank her for all her hard work and dedication and wish her the best of luck with her upcoming wedding to Tim and her new life in the North Island.

Congratulations to Kim and Jamie Wilson who had a baby boy during the holidays – mother and baby are doing well and we are all looking forward to meeting Max over the next few weeks.

I am also trying to finalise numbers for next year so I can work on class organisation. Thank you to those who have let us know that they will not be back next year - if you have not yet informed us please do so now! Likewise, if you know of children moving in zone who have not yet enrolled please let us know. We are not looking at class placements yet and we do not know which teachers will be teaching at particular levels. You will receive information about this as it becomes available.

Sadly we had a series of incidences of vandalism over the holidays, including several broken windows, if you see any suspicious behaviour around school please let us know and report it to the police.


Paul Sibson

Report to the PTA - October 2007

Welcome back to a new term at school. I hope you all had a great holiday and managed to escape for a few days with your children. I spent part of my holidays moving house and part up in Auckland at a conference about learning and ICT. It was a wonderful course which gave me a whole heap of new ideas, that I will be sharing with the staff, about ways in which we can use the latest web technologies to improve the learning of all our children. Part of this involves the PTA and I would like to explore new ways for us to use the web to communicate the great work of the PTA to the community. I would like to set up a small group of interested PTA members to pursue some of these ideas. Any volunteers?

In April next year the Ministry is implementing a new 1-18 staffing ratio for New Entrant and Year 1 students, and this will impact our current teaching spaces. At the most recent Board of Trustees meeting we discussed this and the future of our school library and what developments we would like to see. We talked about combining any monies that may come into the school from the Ministry to help with junior staffing ratios to the building of a new library and ESOL block to free up new teaching spaces. A small group of staff on our Library QLC (Quality Learning Circles) has been carrying out a review of the Library and information systems that we currently have in place. This staff group will report back very soon so that we can make some decisions about the way forward. We would like to request that the money raised from the Spring Ball be put towards this library project.

Next week I will be holding the first of three meetings to formally introduce myself to the parents of the school. The meetings will be on the following dates:

Tuesday 16th October @ 8pm - Parents with children in the Junior School.
Wednesday 17th October @ 8pm - Parents with children in the Middle School.
Tuesday 23rd October @ 8pm - Parents with children in the Senior School.

All parents are welcome to attend and I would like as many people as possible to come so please spread the word! I will be using the meeting as a chance to meet lots (hopefully) of parents and to share with you my background, educational philosophy and vision for Fendalton. I am keen to gather people’s views and opinions during the evening so I hope people will come with lots of ideas.