Sunday, January 31, 2016

WELCOME BACK - Senior School 2016

Term 1 2016

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Welcome back!  I hope that your summer has been a relaxing and enjoyable one.
Firstly, I should introduce the Senior School team; some familiar faces to the Senior School and some fresh ones!  Melissa, Carl, Ruth and I are very much looking forward to the year ahead and to working alongside you.

While the students will be in one of three classes as indicated below, we very much wish to continue to build the strong team culture that has been so successful in the Senior School in previous years.  Students will have many opportunities to work across the classes, both with outher students and other teachers within our team.

The classes are:

·     Room 22 Melissa Coton
·     Room 23 Annette Borgonje (3 days a week), with Ruth Hooke each (Wednesday & Friday)
·     Room 24 Carl Woodhams

We have an exciting term planned!  Here is an overview.

Integrated Studies / Inquiry

The first couple of weeks of the term the classes will be building their class cultures and thinking about their leadership roles for the year. Students will be asked to apply in writing for these positions in the first couple of weeks of school. This unit is also set up to create a positive environment where children understand, appreciate and support one another, while taking an active role in their learning.

Our first Inquiry focus is The New Zealand Flag Consideration Project, which offers a strong, relevant context  for students to explore their sense of national identity and citizenship. This will have a strong Social Studies focus, but also makes links with Technology, The Arts, English, te reo Māori, and Mathematics and Statistics.  Each class will explore what they stand for as individuals, groups, and ultimately as New Zealanders.  They will look at the symbolism (historical, cultural and geographic) that is used in flags, the contexts in which they are flown and differing perspectives between different cultural groups.  Students will be encouraged to take their project in their own direction, depending on the aspects they are most interested in.  Finally, they will engage in a referendum that replicates the real decision-making process that is taking place around the flag so that they may experience the way decisions are made in a democratic process.

Literacy:
The focus for Term 1 is looking at report writing and oral language, with letter writing alongside to support the applications for leadership roles. As always, we try to link our literacy programme with our integrated studies. These two topics fit nicely into learning about different cultures, perspectives and decision making. We will also be studying a variety of novels throughout the year, both in small groups or as a whole class, with a focus on deveopling students’ deeper comprehension of texts.

Maths:
This year students will be working in their own classes for Maths. We have thorough processes in place to ensure that students will still be working at their own level and appropriately extended or supported.  We start the year looking at Number, specifically place value and addition and subtraction, alongside Measurement, which allows us to explore Mathematics within real life contexts.

Muritai School is continuing to use the online maths maintenance programme www.mathletics.co.nz. This will be used in class but predominantly for homework to support the work being done at school. We found this programme extremely worthwhile last year. Many students achieved excellent results from the regular maintenance and it is a great way for parents to see what learning is happening in the classroom. Expect your child to have between 5-10 mathletics activities to be completed either at home or school throughout a week.

Health & Physical Education

Swimming will start on Monday 22nd February. Students will have 8 sessions over the two weeks (Weeks 4 & 5) until 4th March, swimming daily except Fridays. 

Times are as follows:
Room 22 Monday – Thursday 10 - 10.30
Room 23 Monday – Thursday 10.30 - 11
Room 24 Monday – Thursday 11 - 11.30


These sessions will be run by Hutt City swimming instructors. All students are expected to swim in every session unless we hear otherwise from you so please let us know if your child is unable to swim on any day.  As we are fostering indpendence in preparation for high school, we ask that students be responsible for remembering their own togs on their swimming days!

Our annual swimming sports are scheduled for 10th of March at Huia Pool. We would love to see you all there to cheer on your child!

After our swimming programme concludes, we will move into Batting, Striking and Small Ball Skills, with a focus on Cricket and possibly tennis (since it's the season for it!).


Once into the regular routine we will meet for fitness daily as a whole syndicate.  Everyone is expected to take an active part and so we ask that, should your child not be well enough to participate, you drop us a quick e mail or note.  Students who are not well enough to take part in fitness will also be encouraged to have a quiet morning tea and lunch. 

Because your child will be exercising everyday in the hot weather we will be asking the the children to bring a spare change of clothes to wear. We recommend the students wear their school sports uniform if they have them. We would appreciate it if you have support us by reinforcing this expectation at home.

Believing a healthy, balanced attitude to life is important, we will be encouraging healthy eating in the Senior School and building on the ‘Nude Food’ work we did last year.  Our school is in a beautiful place so it would be great to keep our lunch waste to a minimum.  This website:


has some good tips on how to do this. We ask that students do not bring chocolate bars or lollies as part of their daily lunch, but rather reserve these for treats; rewards, birthdays, celebrations, etc.  Please also note that we have a couple of students in the senior school this year with a severe allergy to peanuts and consider this when thinking about your child’s lunch.


Art
This term, to link with our Inquiry and developing a class culture for the year, we will be looking at the New Zealand artist Tiffany Singh and creating Tibetan- style prayer flags.  Students will symbolise their aspirations and dreams for the world on their flags.  These flags are traditionally believed to spread the goodwill and compassion into their surroundings.

Kapa Haka
Kapa Haka this year will be continued by Carol Algar from the main school, alongside Ruth Hooke. They will be taking each class for a 45 minute session on Thursday mornings beginning in week 3 or 4. From there, Ruth and Carol will select a performance group to prepare for Polyfest in Term 2.

Things to note:

• Technicraft: This programme starts on the 11th of February (awaiting confirmation from Wainuiomata Intermediate). This year we have 5 groups. 3 groups will travel to Wainuiomata Intermediate by bus for either Food, Fabric or Wood Technology. The 3 groups remaining at school will either be taking part in music with Ruth Hooke or Spanish with Melissa Coton.

• Cell Phones: We understand students may require the use of cell phones before or after school, so they are permitted at school, but they are not to be used during school time. If your child needs to contact you throughout the school day they must use the school phones and ask permission from one of our staff members first. If students bring their valuables to school they are responsible for them. Our advice is to keep them at home.

• Parent Interviews: Our first set of interviews are scheduled for Thursday 4th February. This is an opportunity for you to come and share information about your child with us. We look forward to meeting with you all. Carole in the office will be in contact with your shortly on how to book at time to meet with your child's classroom teacher. We will have another round of longer parent interviews towards the end of the term at a date to be confirmed. The purpose of these meetings is for us to share your child's testing information with you.

* Homework: Weekly homework will start in week 1. Every child should bring their homework book home on day one which will include a letter from the classroom teacher explaining expectations.

• Blogs: We will continue to share our learning with you using the blogging platform. You are welcome to visit the class blogs anytime and we would love to hear your feedback.
Room 22: http://misscoton.blogspot.co.nz/
Room 23: http://mrsborgonje.blogspot.co.nz/
Room 24: http://mrwoodhams.blogspot.co.nz/
Team: www.seniorschoolmuritai.blogspot.co.nz/

• Portfolios/Learning Journeys This year your child will have two platforms for collecting/sharing their work. Firstly, an online folder that can be shared with you which will contain all completed work they have created electronically. This folder may also contain images of your child throughout their year at school. Secondly, each child will have a clearfile presentation folder which will contain any work that has not been completed electronically. This may be copies of assessments, art, handwritten stories.

· Days Bay Day Wednesday  As part of our teambuilding for the beginning of the year we plan to head to Days Bay on Wednesday afternoon (3rd Feb).  If you would like to join us you are most welcome!  Please ensure that your child has their togs, towel, sunscreen, water bottle and anyting else they might need for a fun afternoon in the sun on Wednesday.

· Communication:   If you need to contact your child’s classroom teacher please feel free to drop by the classroom before or after school. The easiest way to touch base with us otherwise is by email:

Melissa: coton@muritai.school.nz
Annette: borgonje@muritai.school.nz
Ruth: hooke@muritai.school.nz
Carl: woodhams@muritai.school.nz

Please note that we will respond to emails during work hours, but it can be tricky to check these during teaching times so please consider this when sending urgent messages.

Thank you again for your support

Annette Borgonje and the Senior Team



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