Term 1 2017
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Welcome back and a special
welcome to those families who are new to the senior school. I hope
that your summer has been a relaxing and enjoyable one – I am resisting the
urge to put “…” around the word summer but trust that you still managed to have
some quality time with family and friends?
Our Senior School is one
third new this year and we are very excited to welcome the wonderful Julie
Small to the team as Room 24 teacher.
Many of you will know Julie from last year when she was teaching Room 14
in Year 5/6 and we are delighted that she is joining us in the senior
school. We are also welcoming Melissa
Coton back from her exciting two terms working with Zealandia through the
Science Teaching Leadership program run by the Royal Society. She will be sharing her expertise across the
school as she assists us to further develop our Science teaching.
Melissa, Julie, 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. Students
will have many opportunities to work across the classes, both with other
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 (Wednesday & Friday)
· Room
24 Julie Small
For those of you new to the
senior school, I have also posted a ‘Typical Week Timetable’ below this
newsletter for your information.
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 considering
the leadership roles they may take on for the year. Students will be asked to
apply in writing for these positions in the first full week of school. Classes
will also explore the school values and what is takes to ‘Be the best we can
be’ as learners. This focus is 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
builds on this with the Big Idea: ‘What Can I Do To Make My World A Better
Place?”
Students will have the
opportunity to take part in the Keep New Zealand Beautiful ‘Young Reporters for
the Environment’ project. This involves
reporting on a local environmental issue either through writing, video or
photography and therefore has a strong Social Studies focus, but also makes
links with Technology, Environmental Education and
Health.
More information on this
project can be found here:
Our Literacy, Visual Arts,
Statistics, and Leadership programs will all be centered around providing
students with the skills they need to participate in this project and also
become skilled and independent leaders and learners for the subsequent three
terms.
In addition to this we
have the Life Education van visiting us from 2nd -15th
March and we hope to use these sessions to build on the theme of ‘Healthy & Positive Relationships,’
which is so important in the beginning
of the year.
Literacy:
The focus for Term 1 is expository
writing (essays, autobiography, reports and articles) and visual language, with
letter writing alongside to support the applications for leadership roles. Students
will be reading articles and reports and considering what makes these
effective. They will be learning to
identify key ideas, summarise information and consider the author’s point of
view. 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 developing students’ deeper
comprehension of texts.
To support students with
their spelling classes will focus on common spelling rules and units of sound
as needed.
Te Reo Maori:
Our
Te Reo focus also builds on the idea of myself and my environment by exploring
Maori greetings and introductions, mihi and classroom objects and instructions.
Maths:
Students will continue working in their own classes for Maths.
We have found this has been successful in encouraging a positive mindset
towards Mathematics across the syndicate and we are keen to build on this in
2017. Please rest assured that we have thorough
processes in place to ensure that students specific strengths and needs are
identified and that they are supported accordingly. We are trying to
build our students awareness of Mathematics as a multi-faceted subject,
encouraging them to value questioning, discussion and exploration of
mathematical ideas and relationships.
They will be encouraged to show their thinking in multiple ways
(materials, pictures, words and symbols) to consolidate their understanding. We
start the year looking at Number, specifically place value and addition and
subtraction, alongside Statistics, which allows us to make greater links to our
Inquiry considering local environmental issues.
Muritai School is
continuing to use the online Maths maintenance program 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 program 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.
If they are given more, our expectation is that they spend 30 - 40
minutes in Maths practise each week.
Technicraft
This programme starts on
the 15th of February.
This year we have 5
groups. Technicraft takes place every
Wednesday in our middle learning block on a rotational basis. 3 groups will travel to Wainuiomata
Intermediate by bus for either Food, Fabric or Wood Technology. The 2 groups
remaining at school will either be taking part in Dance & Drama with Ruth
Hooke or Computer Coding with Melissa Coton. All students will get the
opportunity to do all sessions over the year.
Health & Physical
Education
Swimming will start on Tuesday 7th February for 4 weeks. Senior
students will have the pool available for the first session every day for the
first two week and your child may swim
on any day of the week so please ensure that they have their togs every day.
From 20th
February – 2nd March students will have 8 sessions of instruction over
the two weeks swimming daily except Fridays.
Times are as follows:
Room 24 Monday –Thursday 10
- 10.30
Room 23 Monday – Thursday
10.30 - 11
Room 22 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 independence
in preparation for high school, we ask that students be responsible for
remembering their own togs on their
swimming days! If students do not
remember their own togs, to help them remember for the following session, they
will be required to do something to help around senior school!
Our annual swimming
sports are scheduled for Wednesday 8th of March at Huia Pool. We would love to
see you all there to cheer on your child!
There will be no technicraft this week.
After our swimming program concludes, we will move into batting, striking and small ball skills.
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 every day in the ‘hot’ weather we will be asking 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 can
support us by reinforcing this expectation at home. Please
ensure that all student clothing and personal items are clearly named.
Believing a healthy,
balanced attitude to life is important, we will be encouraging healthy eating
in the Senior School. Our environmental inquiry
focus will be on litter and 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
Although all classes will
have varied art projects to begin the year, this term, to link with our Inquiry
our main Visual Art focus will be photography.
Our aim is to give the students some background on the elements of a
good photograph and some practise in composition so that they are able to use
this effectively in their visual communication of ideas.
Things to note:
• Cell Phones: We
like to operate on a trust system in the senior school. 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. Please do not call or text your child
unless you are happy they do not receive the message until 3pm. If your child
needs to contact you throughout the school day they must 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.
* Homework: Weekly
homework will start in week 1. Our aim with homework is to build student’s
independent study habits and self-management skills in preparation for high
school as well as provide opportunities to consolidate or build on learning in
class. It will be managed using Google
Classroom – each week the task and instructions will be uploaded by the
classroom teacher and they will go through the expectations with the students.
You will receive letter explaining expectations
(this may be by e mail). Homework will
be set EVERY week, unless you are otherwise informed. Generally, homework will
be set on a Monday and due back at school by Friday morning.
This week, due to Waitangi Day, homework (applications for
leadership roles) will be set on Friday 3rd February (the roles will
be published on the blog on this date also) and due in Friday 10th
February – though leadership applications may still be submitted until Monday
13th as we realise these may take some time.
• 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://mrssmall.blogspot.co.nz/ (please be patient while this is set up for
senior school!)
• Portfolios/Learning
Journeys:
This year your child will
have two platforms for collecting/sharing their work. Firstly, an online folder
in Google Drive 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 8th Feb:
As part of our
teambuilding for the beginning of the year we plan to head to Days Bay on
Wednesday afternoon of the first full week back. If you would like
to join us, you are most welcome! Please ensure that your child has
their togs, towel, sunscreen, water bottle and anything else they might need
for a fun afternoon in the sun on Wednesday.
Capital E Trip Thursday 23rd March:
We are all booked in for an
all day visit to Capital E to enjoy ‘Un roi Arthur’, ‘Young & Cinematic’
and ‘Mata & the Mysterious Musical Maunga’ as part of their Arts
Festival. See https://www.capitale.org.nz/national-arts-festival-2017/
for more information. We will need about
7 parent helpers for this visit to go ahead.
If you are keen to be a part of it, please let your classroom teacher
know.
· Gardening / Sports Assistance:
We are on the hunt for
people who might be keen to assist our Enviro leaders in maintaining the senior
school garden. The students usually work
on this on a Wednesday afternoon, so if you are available and would like to get
your hands dirty please contact Melissa (coton@muritai.school.nz). In addition to this, we are hoping to enrich
our Wednesday afternoon sports program with visits from experts in our
community. If you have a background in
coaching or even if you are just passionate about sport and keen to run some
sessions (or support our sports ambassadors to do so), please contact Julie
(small@muritai.school.nz).
Communication: Any
questions – just ask!
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
Julie: small@muritai.school.nz
Please note that we will
do our utmost to respond to emails within 24 hours, but we may well not see
these during teaching times (8.45 – 3pm).
If your message is urgent, please
call the office to ensure that we receive it.
Thank you for your
support and we look forward to an exciting Term 1!
Annette Borgonje and the
Senior Team
