Paul Sibson - Principal

Really important website

2010-10-19T09:20:00.001+13:00

The New Zealand Principal's Federation have released a new website that explains the profession's concerns about National Standards. I would like to encourage all members of our community to visit the site and watch the video!

http://www.ourprincipals.co.nz/

Looking forward

2010-09-09T15:31:00.001+12:00

The school is still waiting for a second inspection by a structural engineer from the Ministry of Education. We sustained some new damage in Wednesday's aftershock. It is likely that this damage is only superficial but we want to be absolutely sure before we allow the staff to return to school.

Miranda, Toby and I attended a very useful meeting run by the Ministry of Education's Traumatic Incident team this morning. They had lots of useful information on the best way to support children and the families after last weekend's events. The staff will be meeting tomorrow, hopefully at school but maybe in another location. Here is a summary of what we will be talking about and the plans that we have put in place to help you and your children on Monday:

Our first priority will be to restore a sense of normality and routine for the children and staff.

What we will do:

• The school day will start how it always starts. Teachers will be in their classrooms from 8.30am and I will be in the playground along with Toby and Miranda.

• We will not be holding an assembly because it is better for the children to be with their teacher and classmates in their familiar classroom environment.

• The teachers will have key and accurate information to share with the children – for example if any teachers are not in school, they will be able to explain why.

• The children will want to talk about what has happened to them and what they saw. Teachers will support these conversations through discussions, drawings, story telling etc, and by ensuring the positive aspects of events are emphasised.

• if children have lost possessions or things that are important to them, the teachers will acknowledge this loss and speak about ways that they can do to work towards replacing these items

• If there are after-shocks, we will follow our well-established earthquake drills. That drill is to drop, take cover under a sturdy piece of furniture, and hold on, or shelter against an interior wall away from windows, bookcases etc.

• The teachers will have been through the Civil Defence advice carefully.

• We will give the children an opportunity to tell their stories and keep the focus on how well families and community have managed.

What we need parents to do:

Parents will also be anxious about their children starting back at school and may want to hang around the classroom after 8.55am. To help the children settle back in to routine and to help reduce any anxiety, it is best if parents can leave the classroom before or as soon as the school bell rings. The trauma team has advised us of this action. Asking parents to leave is not easy for teachers so I would really appreciate your help with this. We will be putting on tea and coffee in the village for any parents who want to stay close to their children for the start of the day.

The earthquake will have resulted in a range of reactions and questions from children depending on their experience of the event and their dispositions:

• anxiety, fear of reoccurrence of the event

• some children may revert to behaviours of younger children such as thumb sucking, bed wetting, etc

• wondering what will happen next

• concerns about being separated from their parents and whānau.

Typically most children will be coping with what they have experienced – but they will still have questions, want to talk about it, and hear from others. Children will be looking to us to provide a sense of safety and security. Children who experience high levels of social support from parents, friends and teachers have been found to cope well.

Helpful approaches:

• Provide assurance that all reactions are normal.

• Provide opportunities to keep routines going as much as possible and highlight what is and can be done to get things back to normal.

• Remember that children listen closely to what adults talk about and they pick up on adults' reactions very well. Keep things positive and emphasise how people have coped and what’s being done - at a government, council and community level, at a school level and family and neighbours. Buildings and homes have been damaged and that makes people sad but we have all done well.

• Focus on how things will be in the future.

Stay safe this weekend and I look forward to seeing you all on Monday morning.

Paul

iPad or laptops? A whole school inquiry.

2010-08-10T11:37:00.003+12:00

At Fendalton School, we like to make sure that our children are given great opportunities to use technology. We believe that technology is an integral part of children's lives and will continue to be so as they move into the workforce in the years to come.

Each year we spend some money updating our hardware so that it is useful and effective. This year, we have a choice to make. The new Apple iPad has a great deal of potential for education and we have decided to explore this potential with our children. However, the children are already very familiar with laptops so these might be a better option.

We have an iPad in school and it is being tested by all the classes to see what works and what the problems are. We will use the feedback from the teachers, children and community to make our final decision on buying new laptops or iPads.

This is a great opportunity for our children to take part in some authentic and purposeful writing. So, if you have an opinion on this and would like to have your say, please visit our new blog and present your ideas!

Reports and Standards

2010-07-30T11:13:00.001+12:00

After many hours of work, we are close to having the format for National Standards reports ready to go out this term. I will be sending out more details about this next week and I will be running a parents meeting on Thursday 19th August at 2pm and again at 7.30pm.

We have also been working on the online version of Learning Reports and are at a stage where we really need some help from a web security expert. The system is up and running but needs auditing to ensure it is safe from hackers. If you are, or know of, a web security expert please contact me at paul.sibson@fendalton.school.nz. Thanks.

GCSN website launch

2010-06-02T11:20:00.005+12:00

Last week, I attended the official launch of the GCSN website at Burnside High School. I am a member of the technical and curriculum advisory groups and I sit on the principal's steering group and so it was great to be at the event along with the Minister for Education, Anne Tolley.

The website will now form the hub of activity for schools involved in the Greater Christchurch School's Network, providing information on services and learning opportunities for staff and students among other things. In addition there are news feeds and the opportunity to subscribe to newsletters and RSS updates from the site.

This is the culmination of a great deal of work by many people over the last five years. We are all very proud that Canterbury is leading the nation in this area. We have more schools signed up to the network than any other region in the country and we are now starting to make use of this high speed connection between our schools and the internet. Fendalton has been connected for a couple of months and we are currently looking at ways in which we can link up with other schools to take advantage of the possibilities now open to us. High definition video conferencing is something that we are very keen to explore as we seek to offer our children the very best learning experiences that we can. Exciting times.

Reflections on the Board

2010-04-27T11:10:00.002+12:00

Last night we had the final board meeting for the outgoing Board of Trustees and I have been reflecting on the work of the Board over my time as Principal. Working with our Board has been a very productive, supportive and entertaining experience and I am very grateful to the members of the Board for the dedication and enthusiasm that they have all brought to the role. Highlights of this Board have included some very successful building projects, the launch of the Learning Reports and the introduction of our new curriculum. It was all capped off with a very positive ERO review at the start of this year. Indeed, ERO were highly complementary of the Board, their systems and their thoroughness.

I would like to thank Paul Bryden, Chris Davies and Dave Wilding for the time and effort that they have put into the school. The skills that they have each brought have been invaluable and will be missed.

It is interesting to compare the New Zealand system with the UK system of governance. A school the size of Fendalton would typically have a governing body of around eighteen people if it were in the UK. In contrast, our Board is made up of six parents, a staff representative and the Principal. The New Zealand model allows for strong relationships to develop between the board members and certainly makes for a more efficient organisation. I am excited to find out who will be joining us when we form our new Board next month and I am looking forward to working with whoever the successful candidates are.

Is the iPad for us?

2010-02-04T14:44:00.004+13:00

I have been thinking a lot about the possibilities of the new apple iPad for education. A lot of comments have been appearing on blogs and in the news media about the limitations of the new device, however I am becoming more and more convinced by the possibilities. They offer a cheap (ish) computer which will allow our children to do everything that they currently use Macbooks for (with the exception of video editing). The price point means that we could look at buying 3 iPads for the price of one laptop and that means more technology in the hands of more children, more of the time.
I have believed for a long time that the iPod touch had a lot of potential in the primary school classroom but the screen size was prohibitive. Now that obstacle has been removed, we can really start to look closely at the opportunities of this new technology. The iPad would nicely compliment our pedagogical approaches and support the children's ability to blog and share their learning online. So roll on April when we can get our hands on an iPad and test it out with our children!

The debate on "National Standards"

2009-11-26T09:15:00.006+13:00

I have, over the past few months, commented on my concerns regarding the new National Standards in my newsletter to parents. As the Standards approach implementation in the new year, it seems timely to again look at why so many principals and teachers are opposed to this initiative.

There is a wealth of educational research from around the world that shows National Standards do not work! When I first moved from the UK system into the New Zealand one, it was like a breath of fresh air. The schooling system here is based on children's needs, it is fun, exciting and challenging and the new curriculum is wonderful. In contrast, the UK system has suffered greatly from years of National Standards that have forced schools to focus their attention on the few children who are on the cusp of "crossing the line". The children who are safely meeting the standard do not, therefore, get the extension that they need to keep their learning moving forward. Our New Zealand curriculum aims to educate the whole child and at Fendalton the key to that is knowing our children. It the relationships between teachers and children working together to meet individual needs that make a difference to their progress. National Standards risk narrowing the curriculum and over-simplifying learning.

If you would like to read more about some of the concerns with National Standards please follow these links.

Fact Sheet from the NZPF
New Zealand Principal's Federation
Academics’ Open Letter to Hon Anne Tolley

An interesting article

2009-11-24T16:18:00.002+13:00

This link was recently sent to me by a parent, it makes for very interesting reading.

Fabulous Middle Team Performance

2009-10-22T14:40:00.005+13:00

This afternoon, the Middle Team performed their 'Sparkle Taker' show for the rest of the school and they were spectacular!

If you have tickets for tonights performance (few tickets still available), then you are in for a real treat. The children were so impressive with their confident acting, singing and dancing. When I think back when I was seven or eight years old, I would have been terrified by the idea of performing in front of a packed theatre, but it didn't seem to phase the children at all. There is no danger of any of these children losing their sparkle!

Congratulations to everyone involved in putting on the production. The teachers, parents, children and extra helpers worked their socks off in the lead up and today. Special thanks goes to Kiri and Nick for their efforts in bringing it all together and sharing their sparkle.

Powhiri for Rob

2009-10-12T15:43:00.003+13:00

Today we farewelled Rob Clarke and delivered him to his new school, where he has taken over as principal. It was a daunting, but very rewarding day for me personally, as I took on the role of speaker for the visitors, during the Powhiri. Speaking in Te Reo Maori for the first time was certainly a challenge and hopefully I didn't offend anyone with my pronunciation.
The Powhiri is an impressive tradition to be part of and it is a great way to bring to school communities together and formally hand over a staff member. It was a pleasure to be able to take some 30 children from our school down to Burnham and for them to be part of the experience. Burnham is a lucky school to have Rob as their new principal and we all wish him the very best of luck in his new role.

My part from the Powhiri:

Ko te mihi tuatahi ki te atua, tena koe.
E te whare e tu nei, te papa ki waho ra tena korua.
Ki nga mate kua hinga i te po moe mai i roto i te ringa o te atua.
Tatau te hunga ora e huihui mai nei, tena koutou, tena koutou
tena koutou katoa.
Tena koutou e te iwi kainga mo te reo powhiri ki a matau.
He honore tenei kua tae mai matau ki waenganui i a koutou.
E nga mana, e nga reo, rau rangatira ma, tena koutou, tena
koutou, tena koutou katoa.

Library plans!

2009-08-28T14:07:00.008+12:00

The new Library plans are here and ready for viewing. Over the next week, we are seeking feedback on the plans for our new library. The images here show the proposed library at the current stage of planning (Click on the images to enlarge them). At the end of next week we will finalise the plans based on feedback from the staff and community and will then move on to the working drawing and council approval stage.
The location for the new library was decided after surveying the school staff on the best option. The site is just next to the main school office beside the basketball court. This is a central location that puts the library where it should be, in the heart of the school.
This project is being funded by the Ministry of Education as part of the ratio changes being introduced at year 1. The Ministry have given the school $320,000 to help us meet the classroom space requirements of reduced class sizes in year 1. As a board, we decided to spend this money on building a brand new library and using other funds to convert the existing library into classrooms. The new library will be slightly smaller than our existing one but will provide us with a much lighter, brighter and more welcoming space for our children to read and learn in. The Ministry property funding guidelines limit the size of library that we are able to build.
Please have a look at the images here or pop in to the school office to see the printed versions. You can make comments via the drop box in the office or by completing the form below. Please let us know what you think of the ideas and plans, we want to make our new library a place that children a rushing to go to and we need your ideas to help make this a reality. Thank you!
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Thank you to the workers!

2009-08-05T11:56:00.004+12:00

Thank you very much to the parents who joined me last Saturday morning to dig out the pathways for our new seating area in the playground. The day saved us a heap of money and we had a good chat whilst we worked. Thanks to David, Dale, Darin and Rob your help was much appreciated.

Health and Safety Review

2009-06-29T10:00:00.005+12:00

Each term at Fendalton, the Board of Trustees review a different aspect of school life and the policies in place to support that aspect. As part of this review we like to survey the community for any feedback. This term we have been reviewing "Health and Safety" across the school and so would like to know if there are any concerns around this within our community.

The review looks at the physical spaces within the school, the systems that we have for managing risk and those for ensuring child safety. If you identify areas for us to develop, please provide ideas for how the system could be improved by completing the form below. The form is now open and will remain so until the end of week 2 of term 3 (Friday 31st July). Please take a moment to complete the form.

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Swine Flu

2009-06-12T11:02:00.003+12:00

I am closely monitoring the regular updates from the Ministries of Health and Education on the Influenza A (H1N1) Swine Flu. There has been some mixed messages and inconsistencies, which is frustrating for parents and for the school. I have asked for children to be kept away from school for 7 days after they return from an overseas trip, even if they are not showing any symptoms. This advice came from the Ministry of Health and is not a requirement but a strong recommendation. Decisions about asking staff to stay away from school have not yet been made, the Board will discuss this at our meeting on Monday night.

I have been wondering why the swine flu situation has been receiving such attention, when the symptoms don't appear to be any more serious than the ordinary flu. The following background information (endorsed by Dr Alistair Humphreys, Medical Officer of Health for the Canterbury Westland region) helped to clarify the reasons for me:

The issue is the infection rate. With normal seasonal influenza the infection rate is about 1 person in every 20. This swine flu epidemic is forecast to infect as many as 1 person in every 3. Thus, in the peak week of infection, if nothing is done about it, there could be 60,000 new infections in Canterbury in that week alone. When a virus takes off in a community, the infection rate is very steep to start with, then peaks, and then slowly decreases. If the onset is too steep, so many people report for treatment at the same time that services are overwhelmed, and medical staff also succumb to the infection. The strategy is trying to flatten out the curve of the infection rate, to take the peak out of it, and make it longer and flatter. By slowing down the onset curve, medical planners seek to get us through with hospitals and GP's coping with patients; both those suffering from the swine flu virus, and those with other medical conditions. Schools' procedures are hugely important as they have the ability to amplify or reduce the effect of a virus on a community.

Learning conferences

2009-05-27T10:10:00.004+12:00

Last night, we had the first round of Learning Conferences and the first opportunity for parents to give us some feedback on the new Learning Reports. The feedback so far is very positive and includes some great ideas and constructive suggestions. This is very much an ongoing and developmental process but it seems that we are on the right track.

One really postive outcome so far is that teachers are starting to see a real benefit of the new reports in the classroom, and that they are becoming part of the learning journey rather than just a description of it. As the system develops and becomes embedded in what we do, the benefits to the children will increase. The links to the new curriculum are becoming more clear, however the next stage is to represent our Key Competencies more in the Learning Reports. The Key Competencies sit at the centre of our curriculum and they need to be more visible in the Learning Reports. If the old adage is true, what you measure is what you value, then we need to do a better job of showing what we value.

One disappointment from the Learning Conferences was the lack of children attending with their parents. The children are the learners in this journey and they need to be part of the conversations about their learning. How else can they take responsibility for their learning? Involving children in the process is a key element of the Learning Reports, and so involving them in the conversations around the reports is essential. I worry that children will see that learning is something that their teachers or parents control, or something which is done to them. I hope that we might see more children joining their parents on Thursday night. However, it might be that the after-school model is not conducive to including children and bed-time is dictating whether the children can come or not.

If you have not yet given us your feedback on the Learning Reports, please do so by clicking on this link. Thank you!

Learning Reports

2009-05-11T09:33:00.002+12:00

Our new Learning Reports will be going home to parents at the end of next week. To explain a little more about what we are trying to achieve, with the new reporting system, I have posted a couple of videos on YouTube. We have also created a Frequently Asked Questions page on the school website to help parents.
As with any new system there will be teething problems and feedback from the community, staff and children will be key to ironing these out. Please take a moment to complete the feedback form that will be included with the reports. There is an online version available here.

Important information for this term

2009-04-27T12:44:00.001+12:00

As part of our ongoing preparations for our new reporting system we have made a couple of changes that will affect parents next term. Feedback from parents suggested that it would be useful to send the new Learning Reports home before the Student Learning Conferences in May. To accommodate this, we have moved the Learning Conferences back by one week. Learning Conferences will now take place on Tuesday 26th and Thursday 28th May. Paul Norton will have his Learning Conferences on Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th May. Learning Reports will be sent home a week before the meetings so that you have an opportunity to have a read. It is essential that the report is then brought to the Learning Conference as it will form the basis of your discussions with the teacher.

We have a new system for booking appointments for Learning Conferences. To book a time to meet with the teacher, you need to go online to www.schoolinterviews.co.nz and put in our school code - VMECK. All interviews will be booked this way. If you do not have access to a computer, we will have one available in the office in week 1 of next term for you to use.

Next term we will be having a staff-only day in Week 7 on Monday, June 8th. The Ministry of Education gave schools two days to work on the new curriculum. We took one of those days in 2008 and this will be our second. The school will be closed on that day, so please make sure that you have arrangements in place for your children on that day.

Latest video from FOS News

2009-03-30T14:38:00.001+13:00

Heroes at Fendalton

2009-03-27T15:42:00.004+13:00

As part of our school theme on Heroes we had a very exciting day today with visitors from a RNZAF helicopter. We managed to keep the visit a secret from the children so the arrival from above was even more special. The children loved seeing the helicopter arrive and winch one of the crew in and out. All the children had a chance to sit in the machine and ask questions of the crew.

A huge thank you to the RNZAF for agreeing to come down to the school and give the children such a treat. It is fabulous when parents are able to use their connections to arrange exciting experiences for our children!

The Heroes theme is a year-long focus through which all the classes are looking at different aspects of the curriculum and learning about our key competencies: Thinker, Dream Maker, Team Player and Communicator. All these traits were on show today as the crew explained to the children what their job entails, how they have to work closely as a team, communicate well and are always thinking and problem solving.

We have also had visits from Police officers, Mid-wives and, of course mums and dads. Teaching the children about the key competencies through real-life people is so powerful and the learning is really coming to life!

Gifted Conference in Rotorua

2009-03-16T15:46:00.003+13:00

This weekend I attended the Reaching Forward conference in Rotorua. Attended by educators from all over New Zealand, the conference focused on how we differentiate our curriculum, teaching and schools to try and personalise the learning for all our children.

One of the most inspiring talks at the conference came from Robyn Boswell. She talked about the opportunities offered by the new curriculum to start by asking "who are we teaching" rather than "what are we teaching." I believe that this is key to changing the way that schools run and teachers teach to better meet the needs of 21st century learners. What and how we teach our children depends on who our children are. All children have different needs, understandings and ways of learning, and it is no longer acceptable for us to work from a one size fits all model for teaching. The challenge for all schools is to find a way to change how we teach so that we are meeting the individual needs of children much more effectively. There has been much talk in New Zealand in recent years about "personalised learning" but there has been no definitive answer to the problem. However we must continue to search for one. The world our children are growing up in has changed and education must change too, or we are doing them a great disservice.

The conference certainly got me thinking and excited about the times ahead. It is a great time to be in education. We are on the cusp of some really exciting changes and, at Fendalton, we need to be riding the crest of that wave.

Fendalton in the paper

2009-03-06T09:53:00.001+13:00

http://www.stuff.co.nz/thepress/4858754a6530.html

Engineer wanted!!

2009-02-27T11:15:00.004+13:00

We are nearing the completion of the design stages for our playground seating and shade project, but we need some help! The footings for the wall and posts in the plan need to be looked at by an engineer. If there are any parents who are (or know) an engineer who might be able to help with this please could you get in touch with me! paul.sibson@fendalton.school.nz.

Thank you.

Fendalton on Google

2009-02-20T11:30:00.003+13:00

Throughout 2008 Rob Clarke and I worked on setting up FOS Live, a new way to share our learning online. We began with the aim of creating a new site which was easy to update by the right people in our school but more importantly was a portal for sharing the learning that takes place every day across our school. Running in parallel to our work on the website was the continuing drive to make better use of online tools that allow children to collaborate and share online. By combining these two strands we have been able to create FOS Live, a website which shows learning as it is happening across the whole school. Whenever a child, or teacher, in school posts to their blog it appears instantly on FOS Live. Whenever children upload new photos to their class Picassa account, those photos are instantly fed into slideshows on FOS Live.

This has all been possibly thanks to the incredible (and free) online tools that Google provide. Blogger, Google Docs, Picassa, YouTube, Google Apps and Google Calendar are all tools that we use extensively across the school.

Keep your eye out in The Christchurch Press next week for a story all about us and how we are using these online tools to support our children's learning. We also appeared on the official google blog in 2008, you can read the post here.

Of course, sitting underneath this is a robust digital safety programme designed to make sure that children understand the risks of using the internet and how to keep safe online. We never use the full names of children online. Parents give permission for all images and video footage that goes online.

Soaring Blade!

2009-02-12T11:30:00.004+13:00

This morning, year 4, 5 and 6 welcomed two visiting authors from Australia to Fendalton School. Meridith and Hilary Badger are hugely popular authors of the "Go Girl" and "Zac Power" series of books. They spent time with our older students, inspiring them with the power of stories and even giving some of them their own secret spy names (my spy name is Soaring Blade and I look forward to being referred to as such in the coming weeks!). It was great to see our students in awe of the authors and, from the discussions on the way out of the village, we will be seeing some budding story-tellers emerging very soon.

A big thank you to Desna for arranging the visit and doing a great job of organising the event, including another fabulous performance from our Kapahaka group. Meredith and Hilary were blown away by the welcome that they received, the boys and girls who performed overcame any nerves to do a stunning job, as always. Spine tingling!

An exciting year ahead.

2009-02-09T09:49:00.002+13:00

Welcome back to school! It has been a long, hot summer for those who sensibly stayed in New Zealand through the Christmas and New Year period, however for me it was a cold, cold winter in the northern hemisphere visiting all my family and friends back home. I had a fabulous time away and loved seeing my family, but it is great to be back and looking forward to a really exciting new year at school.

The staff kicked off the year with a bang last week with another very successful retreat in the mountains. We set up camp at Pudding Hill Lodge and had a very productive (and fun) time planning the year for the children.

One of the main discussion points over the two days was how we can do a better job of aligning our assessment and reporting procedures. It was broadly agreed that the current written reports sent home to parents in term 4 are not feeding into the children's learning as well as we would like. The reports are too late in the year to have a direct impact on learning and need to be more reflective of what is happening in the classroom.

I asked the leadership team to write down what they believed student reports should achieve and their thoughts are shown through the wordle picture below. It is pretty clear that "Learning" is the key element and we believe that a reporting system should be a natural part of our assessment process. We would like our reporting to be reflective of what is happening in class and feeds into discussions with the children about their learning and next steps. Over last year I visited or spoke with a number of other schools to see how they report to parents about children's progress. Those visits and the discussions with the staff last week have led to us revamping the reporting process for 2009. I will post more details about this in the next few weeks along with details about a series of meetings with parents to look at the new format and gather feedback.

Another year draws to a close

2008-12-18T09:25:00.003+13:00

Well, 2008 is nearly at an end and our Year Six children are preparing to say farewell. It has been a amazing final year for the children with a whole host of activities and learning adventures from camp to Kapa Haka. I'm constantly amazed by the amount that our children pack into their week, both in school and out. Good luck for 2009 to all our leavers. I hope that you keep fond memories of your time at Fendalton for many years to come.

On a personal note, I have had a very busy and fascinating first full year in the big chair! I have learned a tremendous amount, had a few frustrations along the way, but enjoyed every minute. The vagaries of the New Zealand funding model for schools have kept me on my toes and finding ways to fund all the learning experiences that we offer our children is a constant challenge. I have some exciting new ideas that I will be working on over the summer holidays and with the staff at the start of the year to try and make things even better in 2009.

Have a great Christmas and a peaceful New Year.

Paul

Read, Feed, Speed photos

2008-12-05T16:08:00.002+13:00

It was great to see so many Dads and other significant males around the school today. We had a massive turnout. Here are some photos of the event for you to enjoy:

Here is the form for you to complete if you are able to help out:
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We need your help

2008-12-05T06:46:00.003+13:00

Today is the fabulous Read, Speed, Feed event at Fendalton. The school will be awash with dads, brothers, grandfathers and male family friends. They will all be reading, playing and eating with our children. It is a great day, the children love having their dads, or other significant men, in school.

I am using the event as a shameless opportunity to lock the men in a room and ask for their help. We will be meeting in the village at 12, before the sausages!

We have a couple of building projects coming up in 2009 and we really need some help running these projects. The school has been working hard on the playground seating and shade and the junior playhouse projects and now we need to break ground and start creating. So, this is an appeal to all the men connected to the school. If you have any building skills, contacts or even just a willingness to help, then please complete the form below so that we can get started.

Thank you!

Paul

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How can we improve?

2008-11-13T11:10:00.005+13:00

Following on from the success of the last question that I posted on my blog, here is a new question for the community to ponder on. I will be putting new questions up fairly regularly throughout the year so that we are gathering information and ideas from parents and families consistently, rather than just at the end of the year.

The previous question, asking for words which are important to you, garnered nearly 100 responses. All the words used were fed into wordle.com and the picture shown here was created. The bigger words were used more often!

Please take a moment to complete the simple form below. Thanks.

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What a great day!

2008-11-10T09:49:00.004+13:00

Yesterday was our Summer Carnival and what a great event it was. The weather was kind to us and it was fantastic to see so many children and their families having a great time together. The line of children waiting to dunk me in the drink was a bit worrying but I'm not taking it personally. ;-)

The event was held to raise money for our playground project and the early indications are that we have made a significant amount, hopefully enough to make our playground dream come true. The next step is for us to have the plans priced by some building firms and start the building process.

A huge thank you to everyone who attended on Sunday; those who donated their time, goods and services and especially to the carnival committee who worked so hard to make the day such a success.

THANK YOU!

The power of words

2008-10-31T11:10:00.009+13:00

I have been working on our Charter for 2009 and I was reflecting on how to gather the views of the community more effectively. In the past we have always sent out an annual survey to the parent community but the return rate has been fairly low. So I am trying a slightly different approach. Over the next few weeks and months I am going to post short questions on my blog for anyone to respond to. I am hoping that by breaking the survey into small sections which only take a few seconds to respond to, we may increase the number of responses that we get. I will be including this in a newsletter for people who do not have access to a computer.

So here is the first question - (the words entered here will go towards making a "wordle" image, like the one shown above, that clearly shows what the priorities are for our community)

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Well done boys!

2008-10-17T16:30:00.004+13:00

Three boys from Team 14 had an amazing success today. They went to Auckland to attend the awards ceremony for the TVNZ Netguide Schools Web Challenge and they were awarded third place in the Primary category. To read more go to the Netguide website.

The boys produced a website called teamdyslexia. It is a fabulous site which Julius, Jack and Angus spent many hours working on, with some help from Sue and Rob. Great work boys, you should be very proud, we certainly are!

ESOL Wiki

2008-10-17T11:09:00.003+13:00

It has been a while since I explored the ESOL wiki that Glenys and June maintain, with the help of their children, so I thought I'd have a read and see what they are up to. It just goes to show the power of the Internet! The amazing progress being made by our children, for whom English is not their first language, is there for all to see.
Children's minds are truly remarkable. They are able to not only master the art of communicating in a new language but also distinguish between two, or sometimes more, languages. Reading through the children's pages on the wiki, you cannot fail to be impressed. The wiki's address is http://fendaltonesol.wetpaint.com/ and is well worth a visit.

A packed term ahead.

2008-10-14T20:14:00.003+13:00

Two days in and already term 4 is shaping up to be a big one. Reports, class placements, interviewing for teaching positions and solving some of our property headaches just for starters. Should be good fun!

We are hoping to open the swimming pool in a few weeks time and, if the good weather continues, it should be nice and warm for the first few classes taking a dip.

We are working hard on plans for seating and shade areas in the playground and I am hoping that we will have something to display in the next couple of weeks. Then we can start to get feedback from the whole community on the ideas. The project is the focus of our Summer Carnival fundraising efforts so fingers crossed for plenty of sunshine on the 9th of November.

Summer's back

2008-09-26T14:04:00.004+12:00

The sun joined us today as we ended Term 3 on a high. The children and staff love having the warm weather back and let's hope that it is a good omen for Term 4. I'm heading away to Australia during the 2 week break, which I'm very excited about.

Voting is now open for our Photography Competition and everyone and anyone is welcome to vote for their favourite snap. The children have been using their creative energies to take some inspired shots over the last few weeks and you can see the photos they have taken on the main school website. It is really simple to vote so please do!

Happy Holidays!

Arts Week

2008-09-17T14:36:00.003+12:00

The real sun is back this week, but last week the school was lit up in other ways, by the children's art work!

Arts Week was an unqualified success. Highlights included the senior school performance at the Ngai Marsh theatre on the Monday; a magical night of musical talent on Thursday; buskers in the playground every day; and the marvellous art gallery created with the children's work in the village all week.

The focus of the week was dance, drama and music as well as the visual arts. A photography competition was held through the week and we have some children with an amazing eye for what makes a good picture.

The children in Room 19 have been reflecting on the week and you can
read their thoughts here.

Student Led Conferences

2008-08-22T11:10:00.005+12:00

It is approaching a year since I started as Principal of Fendalton School and I am about to experience Student Led Conferences for the first time. I just missed these last year but I have been told that they are remarkable, a real insight into how our children learn. The idea behind the conference is that the children lead their parents or carers through their learning, explaining their successes and their goals while the teachers are present to add clarification on the very rare occasion where it is necessary.

I have spent time in the middle school this week, chatting with the children about Student Led Conferences and their preparations for them. It is great to witness how proud the children are of their work and how well some of them know what their next steps are. I look forward to seeing how the actual conferences run and talking to parents about the system.

Olympic Games and Elephant Birds

2008-08-18T17:23:00.003+12:00

Last Thursday, we held our very own Olympic Games! All the children took part in an opening and closing ceremony and, sandwiched in between, they competed in a wide array of sports from Welly Wanging (gumboot throwing) to Synchronised Swimming on dry land. Everyone had a fab day and I even got to dress up as a Greek God for my role in the opening ceremony.

This week is book week and it started with a bang this morning as children performed scenes from their favourite books in assembly. Miranda, Rob and I then performed our unique take on the Dr Seuss story, Horton Hatches the Egg. As you can see from the photo I became an elephant bird for the climax of the story!

Book week is an opportunity for our children to read even more than usual, to try out new genres and to share their favourite stories with each other. The staff are swopping classes to read their favourite books and tomorrow we will all be dressing up as characters from some of those books. Other highights of the week will include several DEAR moments where we will all stop whatever we are doing to Drop Everything And Read.

Dragons, Lambs and an Enchanted Forest!

2008-08-11T11:44:00.004+12:00

Last week was the first week that I was able to meet my new target of spending two days a week in the classrooms. I spent all day on Tuesday and Friday in the Junior team, working alongside the teachers and children, talking about their work and sharing in their successes. It was certainly an interesting week, which included meeting a couple of new born lambs with room 4, witnessing the creation of an enchanted forest in room 3 and learning all about the Olympic mascots in room 5.

The variety of learning experiences that our youngest children are being exposed to is truly remarkable. Our children were able to show me how they use laptops in class, how phonics work for them and they even explained what a unicorn's horn is for (apparently it is a bit like a steering wheel). Rooms 1 and 2 showed me how their topic based approach to literacy was making a difference to them and room 21 shared their impressive letter recognition and reading progress.

It was great to see how quickly our youngest children have adopted the Key Competencies as their own. I witnessed children being great team players as they shared the excitement of two lambs being fed; communicators as they taught each other how to use sign language in room 13; great thinkers in room 12 shared their peer assessments of each other's work; dream makers in room 6 told about their ideas for improving the junior play areas.

There was sparkle everywhere!

It's on to the middle team next for me and I can't wait to find out what they will teach me!

New Learning for me!

2008-07-21T12:21:00.003+12:00

Since I started in the position of Principal at Fendalton School nearly a year ago I have had one frustration that I have been unable to overcome. My mentor would tell you that I have consistantly complained about one thing in our sessions, that he has offered several very good solutions to this disatisfaction, but that I have still not been able to shake it. One single question, which seems simple enough, remains unanswered after 11 months in the job.

How can I spend less time in the office and more time where the real action is, in the classrooms?

I may have found an answer......

At the end of last term, Miranda, Rob and I attended the New Zealand Principals' Federation Annual conference here in Christchurch. It proved to be a breakthrough experience which may well change the way that I work.

One of the Keynote speakers at the conference was Malachi Pancoast from a consulting firm in the US called "The Breakthrough Coach." He spoke three times at the conference about how to apply effective management practice to the running of school front offices – practices that free Principals up from technical front office work and instead allow them to spend two full days a week in classrooms. It was as if he had felt my frustrations and flown over to answer them directly!

Much of what Malachi had to say was common sense and obvious when you think about it but he was able to clarify ideas in a way which made me question the way I work and the kind of jobs that I have been doing. It is little wonder that I haven't been able to get into the classrooms.

So I will be making some changes to the way I work. These changes may well take a while to fully implement and probably a year or two to perfect but they will have an impact and put me where I need to be, where the learning is! These changes will mean that it becomes harder to make an immediate meeting with me but we will work hard on the system to make sure that it works for everyone.

Marvellous Music

2008-06-27T12:28:00.004+12:00

Last night our school choir performed in front of a packed audience at Burnside High School's Aurora Centre. The event was the North West Schools Music Festival and was outstanding. Our children were up first but showed no signs of any nerves as they performed two pieces. The choir were buzzing all day in anticipation and they certainly worked incredibly hard in the days and weeks leading up to the big event.

Speaking as someone with zero musical talent, I was hugely impressed by the talent on show, not only from the children but from the teachers who helped bring it all together and accompany the choir. Special thanks to Maggie, Letesha and Kirsty for making it such a special occasion for our children, one I'm sure they will never forget.

Terrifying Tuesday

2008-06-24T15:58:00.002+12:00

Today was Terrifying Tuesday at Fendalton School. All the children came to school in mufti to raise money for Marchar Sarita, an Indian girl who the school sponsors.

We had everything from witches and pirates through to mummies and the grim reaper as the children attempted to find the most imaginative way to live up to the name "Terrifying Tuesday". More photos are available here...

Dyslexia Awareness Week

2008-06-16T09:18:00.004+12:00

This week is Dyslexia Awareness Week, this also marks the high point of Team 14's inquiry on dyslexia.
The children in room 14 have spent the last few weeks researching dyslexia, talking with the dyslexic children in their own class and putting together a roadshow for this week.

All week the children are presenting their roadshow to groups from all across the school, explaining about dyslexia and making suggestions as to how we can all help to make a difference. Not only is their work helping to remove some of the stigma attached to dyslexia, it is also helping us teachers to understand more about what life is like for these children. The dyslexic children from room 14 were able to, very eloquently, explain what it is like, but also what helps to make reading and writing easier for them.
The message from room 14 is:
"It's not a disease, it's a different way of thinking!"
Well done room 14.

Kidnapped by Pirates

2008-06-03T09:38:00.003+12:00

Last Friday I was kidnapped by pirates!
There I was, working away in my office, quietly, not bothering anyone, when I was jumped on by a large gang of enormous pirates and dragged away. I tried to fight them off but they were just too strong for me.
As it turned out these vicious pirates were part of a gang calling themselves the Fendalton Junior School. They had a wicked plan to turn me into a pirate too and set about training me in their pirate ways. They taught me how to make treasure, sing sea shanties and use a treasure map. I had a fantastic time and by the end of the day I was transformed into Captain Sibson.
Thank you to all the pirate trainers (teachers) and the Junior team for all their hard work on Friday, it was certainly an experience. It took me most of the long weekend to get my voice back but it was well worth it!

The joy of teaching

2008-05-09T16:15:00.004+12:00

Ah, the smell of the wet grass, the sound of leather on leather and the joy of a goal.
It's winter sports season and today I was out on the field, in the rain, with our year 5 and 6 children to help them prepare for the games ahead. Friday sport is an institution at Fendalton school at I'm very excited to be taking the A and B football teams to Hagley every Friday this term. It is great to be working directly with the children again.
This Principalship lark is all very well but there is nothing like being with the kids! It reminds me why I became a teacher in the first place, watching children have fun, learn and work together as a team. It is very easy in my job to find yourself knee deep in paper work, finances and systems and lose touch with what it is really all about, the children.
So roll on next Friday and the start of the season!

Well done girls.

2008-04-18T08:13:00.003+12:00

Congratulations to the blue Milo cricket team who are now officially the best girl's cricket team in Canterbury. A match report of yesterday's victory in the final is online at Canterbury Cricket.org.

Perhaps we have a few White Ferns in the making! Well done girls.

Turning up the heat

2008-04-14T17:14:00.005+12:00

As we prepare for the installation of our new heat pumps in rooms 1- 11 over the school holidays it is interesting to note how much times have changed. The following advice is from the New Zealand Journal of Education in April 1908.

Teacher's Mutual Help
Soon we shall have the cold weather upon us. It is certainly a time when all our energies are called forth, but how often do we see children working and shivering with cold? Such will be the case as long as our classrooms are heated, by the primitive and extravagant open grate. Especially do the children feel the cold on clear, frosty mornings. No teacher who has the interests of his pupils at heart should allow them to work under such conditions. Take them outside, and let them run two or three times around the playground. When they come back they will attack their work with added energy and comfort.

Musings on the new Curriculum

2008-03-19T17:44:00.007+13:00

Yesterday Miranda, Rob and I attended a seminar entitled The New Zealand Curriculum held at Riccarton Racecourse. I left the day feeling genuinely excited about the future of education in New Zealand. It is refreshing to see a system that is willing to listen to the education community and to trust the professionals working in our schools. I have come from an educational system which demands that schools conform to a rigid and over-full curriculum that limits possibilities for teachers and children. In contrast, the new draft curriculum in Aotearoa is flexible, manageable and child focussed.

The greatest triumph of the new curriculum is that it allows schools to create their own curriculum, for the children in that school. Fendalton has a well established and creative curriculum in place and the advent of new national guidance is not a time for us to throw out what we already do or try to reinvent the wheel, rather it is an opportunity for us to reflect and renew. We need to reiterate our beliefs and fundamental values and make sure that how and what we teach is inline with those values. It is vital that we make our values explicit so that we have a shared understanding of our vision for Fendalton school.

Therefore, I would like to share my own educational values and I invite the community of parents, staff and children to add their own comments to this.

I believe that learning should be fun and challenging for all children. We should seek out the gifts and talents in all our children and look for ways to extend them. We should celebrate diversity and offer opportunities to everyone so that we create a sense of wonder in our children.

I believe that we should question everything that we do and ask whether it will make a difference. Learning should be relevant and purposeful as we seek to prepare our children for the unknown future. Learning and progress is a personal journey and children will grow, develop and progress at different rates. Our job, as educators, is to make sure that the challenge and expectations we set push children to stretch their own limits. We have to create an environment that allows children to take risks and explore new worlds in a safe and supported way.

All this is only possible with excellent relationships that engender trust, co-operation and collaboration.

Everyone has an opinion about education. Please add your opinion by clicking on the comments link below.

Happy Campers

2008-03-07T14:30:00.003+13:00

Our youngest learners had their very own camp today! Whilst our year 5 and 6's have been preparing or recovering from their camp experience in Wainui the four year 0/1 classes had fun in the sun today as they established a camping ground on the field at Fendalton School. The children had a sausage sizzle, played parachute games, relays and had special reading time in their tents. It was fabulous to see learning happening outside the classroom and it was a day that the children will remember for years to come. Special thanks to all the teachers and parents who organised the day and made it so much fun for the children.

Team Paul were super

2008-02-29T12:31:00.002+13:00

Team Triathlon took place in school yesterday and it was great fun. Loads of children and adults took part in the swim, cycle and run event including the much anticipated first appearance of Team Paul. We won't dwell on the unceremonious dismount from my bike or the fact that we came last in the men's event. Instead let's celebrate the fact we were the top teachers' team and that falling off my bike at the end was entirely intentional and well practised....honest.

The Team triathlon was another example of the Fendalton community coming together to support the school and our children. Once again Paul Norton did an outstanding job of organising the day and making sure that everyone had a fun and safe day. Thank you Paul.

Future Knowledge

2008-02-27T19:00:00.002+13:00

This morning I attended a fascinating breakfast conference called 'Future Knowledge'. Richard Millwood from Core Education talked about a project that he has been working on with UNESCO to find out what the world's children think about education, learning and their experiences of learning. The youtube playlist below shows some of the interviews that have already been recorded.
Richard talked about how the education world needs to adjust to meet the new expectations of the world in the 21st century.

Children having a voice is such an important part of education and one which we must not lose sight of.

This morning served to further my own determination to ensure that Fendalton children have a say in their school and their learning so that they remain central to everything that we do. One only has to watch the videos of our year 6 from 2007 reflecting on their time at Fendalton to see how sophisticated and knowledgeable children can be about their own learning, we just have to remember to listen.

Triathlon

2008-02-25T16:27:00.004+13:00

Last Wednesday 150+ children took part in the individual triathlon at school. This amazing event demonstrated the incredible resilience and self motivation that our children posses. Children overcame fear of the water, the lack of their own bike or simply the challenge of making it all the way round. All those who started the event managed to complete the course on water, bike and foot and they were cheered the whole way round by parents impressed by their determination.

This week the team triathlon takes centre stage with both adults and children taking part. I will be cycling for "Team Paul" (Paul Norton, Paul Page and myself) so come along and cheer us and the children along from 9am on Thursday.

Former Fendalton student is still a dream maker

2008-02-19T09:28:00.004+13:00

Former Fendalton pupil, Tyla Johnson appeared in the Christchurch Press today. It is fabulous to see our children continuing to embody the Key Competencies that we teach. Tyla is a real dream maker and was a very successful sportsman throughout his time here, it seems nothing is going to stop him in his pursuit of his dream!

Fendalton Male Teachers hit top 14!

2008-02-17T12:26:00.005+13:00

Amazingly the youtube video of last year's Movember shave off is the 14th most watched youtube video for New Zealand Education! The video has been watched an incredible 3,697 times.

Not quite sure what that says about our moustaches but lets see if we can break into the top 10!

Interesting links

2008-02-17T11:12:00.001+13:00

Class room blogging - Moderation and Protection
Top New Zealand Teachers Blogs
Out of the mouths of children

Welcome back

2008-02-04T09:24:00.000+13:00

Happy New Year and welcome back to another year at Fendalton Open-air School!

We have undergone a bit of a transformation over the summer with a fresh new paint job. The staff and I spent a lot of time looking at colours and choosing nice, bright, child friendly colours for our school and we are very pleased with the result.

Last week all the staff went away for a couple of days at Pudding Hill for a retreat. This was a very successful experience. We had lots of fun and welcomed our new staff in style. The strong relationships between all staff, parents and children are one of the key factors in the success of our school and long may that continue. This year we will be exploring more ways to strengthen those relationships even more and further improve the communication from the school to the community.

I would like to formally welcome our new teachers, Paul Page (New Entrants), Carolyn Silby (Junior Team leader and year 2), Hazel Holland (year 3), Jo Murphy (year 4), Marama Buck (year 5)and Paulette Newton who has returned from maternity leave. We know that they will be fabulous teachers and make a real difference to the children.

My own summer holiday was a great success with lots of sunshine and relaxing as well as a visit from my parents all the way from Yorkshire back home. It is great to be back at school though and wonderful to see all the children smiling and happy, ready to learn.

How to subscribe to a blog - like this one.

2008-01-24T13:55:00.000+13:00

Why we should teach philosophy to kids

2007-12-15T12:37:00.000+13:00

Via the BPS Research Digest: A recent study on the long-term benefits of the Socratic method. In a study of 105 children, all around 10 years old, teachers spent an hour a week for 16 months teaching lessons based on philosophical inquiry.

The philosophy-based lessons encouraged a community approach to "inquiry" in the classroom, with children sharing their views on Socratic questions posed by the teacher.

The result? At the end of 16 months,

Compared with 72 control children, the philosophy children showed significant improvements on tests of their verbal, numerical and spatial abilities

And two years later, when the philosophy children were tested again, their higher scores persisted -- while the lower-scoring control group were, in some cases, declining further. Researchers Keith Topping and Steve Trickey point out that these gains persisted even though the kids had switched schools as well, from primary to secondary, showing that the influence of philosophical inquiry works across contexts and over time.

Or in the words of Socrates, "If this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth, my influence is ruinous indeed."

Socrates image from Wikimedia

Read, Speed, Feed

2007-12-07T15:18:00.000+13:00

Today I experienced my first Read, Speed, Feed!
What a fabulous event for our children. The opportunity for dads and other significant men to come into school for a couple of hours to read, eat and play with their children makes such a difference and is a wonderful innovation. The event has been running for 6 years now and is a credit to the school and the staff who organise it. Paul Norton takes a lead role in the organisation and all the staff take part, helping the smooth running of the day.
It was a great opportunity for me to meet some of the dads and join them and their kids in a game of football on the field. Thanks to all the men who came along and to the PTA for providing the sausages (even though I was too late and missed out on my feed!).

Read the article Paul Norton wrote for The Boys in Schools Bulletin about Read, Feed, Speed.

Kids teaching kids (and adults)

2007-11-29T13:14:00.000+13:00

Our children are amazing! This week a group of our year six Tech Wizard's took part in a children's conference in Australia but they did it all from the comfort of the Village.

The conference was being held in Victoria and our children were beamed in via Skype to teach some of the participants how to make their own blogs. They spent several hours working on laptops, video conferencing and emailing the Australian children. It was incredible to watch and hugely successful.

Earlier in the week we entertained a group of 35 teachers from around the South Island; Tech Wizards came to the fore again, this time teaching the adults. There is nothing so amazing as watching 11 year old children confidently talking to a large group of adults and teaching the teachers how to use new technologies.

2008 School Survey

2007-11-19T15:45:00.000+13:00

Download the Survey (if you are using a PC please right click on the link and choose "save as" from the menu. Mac users please control click and select "Save Link As" from the menu)

Your feedback on how we are doing as a school is really important to us. It helps us to plan for the future and ensure that we are offering the best possible education to our students. This form can be completed on your computer and emailed directly to me where all the forms will be collated. The survey is anonymous and ends on December 14th. At the bottom of the form there is a submit form button which you need to click and follow the instructions.

Next week I will have a table set up in the playground with a few laptops so that you can complete the survey with technical help from one of our student council members. Paper copies of the survey are also available in the office.

West Zone Athletics

2007-11-19T12:43:00.000+13:00

Last Thursday I was able to make a quick visit to see some of our children compete in the West Zone Athletics championships. It was an amazing event with schools from all over Christchurch competing in all the major disciplines. I only managed to catch our relay teams in action and was delighted to see us come away victorious in all 5 of the races I saw. What impressed me most though was the support provided for the athletes by their peers and parents. It was great to see such impressive school spirit but also fair play towards the opposition. Congratulations to all our athletes but also all our supporters.

Movember - the serious bit.

2007-11-13T09:27:00.000+13:00

As you may have spotted in the playground I am sporting a new facial growth! However I do have a good excuse for my razorly challenged appearance.

Every year in New Zealand 2,656 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and about 600 die of the disease, making prostate cancer the second largest cause of male deaths, after lung cancer.

The average life expectancy of a man in New Zealand is 4 years less than a woman.

To sponsor my Mo please go to http://www.movember.com/nz/donate, enter my registration number which is 64713 and your credit card details. Or you can sponsor me by cheque made payable to the "Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand" clearly marking the donation as being for my Registration Number: 64713. Please mail cheques to: Movember, PO Box 87 150, Meadowbank 1742, Auckland. All donations over $5 are tax deductible.

All donations are made directly to the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand who will use the funds to create awareness, increase support networks for those men who suffer from prostate cancer, fund research and scholarship programs.

New staff for 2008

2007-11-08T09:51:00.000+13:00

The Board and I have been working through the process of appointing new staff for 2008. We have now made several appointments for the new year and we are extremely pleased with the high calibre of the teachers that we have awarded positions to. We are still working on the exact positioning of teachers for next year and I will add more details soon. The new appointments are as follows:

Carolyn Silby will be joining us as Junior Team Leader. She is coming to us from Southbridge School and is an outstanding teacher and leader.
Paulette Newton is returning from her maternity leave to become our new Transition to School leader.
Karen Brown and Louise Dennis have both won permanent positions at FOS.
Deborah Kennedy and Letesha Campbell will also be with us in 2008.
Joanne Murphy is re joining the school after a year in the UK. She taught a year 4 class at FOS in 2006.
Hazel Holland is joining us from Nottingham, UK. She is another outstanding teacher who comes to us with a glowing reference.
Marama Buck worked with us during her Graduate School training earlier this year, and we are delighted that she will be starting her teaching career with us.

I am very excited about all the new appointments and I look forward to working with them all next year.

Library upgrade

2007-11-06T14:17:00.000+13:00

The Board have been looking at the library blog and discussing the findings. They have agreed that we need to look into building a new library more closely. A sub-committee has been formed for this. The Library sub-committee met for the first time on Monday 29th September to look at ways to take the concept forward. They looked at funding options and possible locations for a new library.

The impact of the new government 1/18 ratio change for New Entrants and Year 1 children means that we will need more teaching spaces during 2008. It is our hope that we can free up the existing library for teaching spaces by building the new library and ESOL space together. However the reality is that this will take longer than a year, so we need to look at how we can find spaces for the new children at the end of 2008, when we will need to open more classes than we have in the past.

The current Library can house much of the computer and shelving needs of the completed library, and it seems sensible to buy those things now and then move them into the library when it is completed in a year or so. Therefore I would like to request that some of the money raised by the Spring Ball be spent on this. There are two main reasons for this:

1. The money raised by the Ball should be spent on today’s children.
2. The library needs to be improved for 2008 not just 2009 and beyond.

My report to the PTA

2007-11-06T14:13:00.000+13:00

I would like to thank the PTA for providing tea, coffee and phenomenal Afghans after my talks at the start of term. Those nights were a really important opportunity for me to connect with lots of people and talk through ideas about education and the development of the school over the next few years and the refreshments helped greatly.

I would like the PTA to help promote my blog (fendalton-principal.blogspot.com) as a good source of information about what is happening in school and another way of keeping in contact with the school community and me. Rob has been working with some of the PTA on setting up their own blog.

Blogging is a very powerful tool which allows us to very quickly make web announcements and keep websites active and live. We need to look closely at how we are going to organise it in terms of moderation of comments and postings but at the moment it is a good start for the PTA to learn some of the possibilities.

The real power of blogging is in subscriptions as this allows the school community to be automatically notified of updates without having to go to the web to check. I will be putting some guides to making effective use of blogs onto my blog in the coming weeks.

Movember

2007-11-02T22:37:00.000+13:00

This month Mr Norton, Mr Clarke and I will all be growing moustaches for Movember!

The obvious question is why?

The answer is because men lack awareness about the very real health issue they face, have an attitude of "she'll be right" and are reluctant to see a doctor about an illness or to go for regular medical checks.

The aim of Movember is to change these attitudes, make male health fun by putting the Mo back on the face of New Zealand men and in the process raise some serious funds for the number one male health issue, prostate cancer.

We will be asking for sponsorship in honour of our sacrifice and at the end of the month we will be having a special "Mo day" where the children can get involved by wearing a moustache to school for the day!

So try not to laugh at our efforts when you see us around school, it is for a good cause!

Class Placements 2008

2007-10-24T12:12:00.000+13:00

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

2007-10-24T10:47:00.000+13:00

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

2007-10-24T10:45:00.000+13:00

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

2007-10-23T09:55:00.000+13:00

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

2007-10-16T18:37:00.000+13:00

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

2007-10-16T11:20:00.000+13:00

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

2007-10-11T16:34:00.000+13:00

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

2007-10-10T14:27:00.000+13:00

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

2007-10-09T12:35:00.000+13:00

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.