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.
Monday, 27 April 2009
Monday, 30 March 2009
Friday, 27 March 2009
Heroes at Fendalton
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!
Monday, 16 March 2009
Gifted Conference in Rotorua
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.
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.
Friday, 6 March 2009
Friday, 27 February 2009
Engineer wanted!!
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.
Friday, 20 February 2009
Fendalton on Google
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.
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.
Thursday, 12 February 2009
Soaring Blade!
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!
Monday, 9 February 2009
An exciting year ahead.
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.
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.
Thursday, 18 December 2008
Another year draws to a close
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
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
Friday, 5 December 2008
Read, Feed, Speed photos
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:
Here is the form for you to complete if you are able to help out:
We need your help
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
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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