Be proactive and nip things "in the bud"

Here is a copy of a post from the Staff as Activator section of this blog from last June. It is worth revisiting it at this time of the year when the end of term is looming and our staff find themselves caught up completing assessments and reports, preparing for interviews and in our case a school production. I have adapted this post.

image credit to all-father4.rssing.com

We have just finished the seventh week of a ten week term. Staff are busy completing assessments for mid year reports as well as continuing their normal teaching and learning commitments. Winter is upon us with student and staff absence increasing due to sniffles, coughs and splutters. This is the exact time when 'little' niggling behaviours across the school can sometimes begin to escalate. The very time when staff and families need to be proactive and nip everything "in the bud".

Learn more about this saying at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nip_in_the_bud

Isn't it easier just to count down to the end of term and hope it all 
goes away in the holidays ? NO. 

Let's be proactive and nip things in the bud. So....what can we do ?

This is the perfect time to revisit our school values and behavioural guidelines 

with all learners and families. 

It is a chance to meet with learners and parents about real time concerns 

that might need more time than just the end of term parent meetings. 

Be explicit and work towards solutions collaboratively.

These are our school values and guidelines:

3 key ways to be proactive and nip things "in the bud":

1. Be transparent. Share links to this information in the weekly emails to 

parents and on the school news blog. Ask parents to have conversations 

with their children around the guidelines. 

2. Ask staff to link certificates and awards to school values and guidelines. 

3. Capture photos of the values in action and create videos with 

student leadership groups to reinforce these messages.

It's important to understand that these behaviours arise naturally 

towards the end of a term at all schools. They can be positively actioned 

when we focus on building quality learning relationships as a whole 

school community together. 

Be proactive and nip things "in the bud".

What are you doing at your school to ensure a stressfree and 

successful end to the term for all ?

Parents are tutored by their children at the Family Learning Hui

Coming together and sharing our learning is an important way to help parents understand how they can be supporting their children.
This year, all of our teachers and children have received professional development around Peer Tutoring. We have ben focussing on writing across the school through peered writing and the teachers have already seen remarkable improvements in more than just writing.

Peered tutoring raises children's awareness in social, emotional and academic skills as well. Research proves that when children support, challenge and give feedback to each other with learning, their progress and achievement excels. When peered tutoring takes place in a purposeful and planned manner with tutors and tutees receiving training, the results speak for themselves.

Thank you to Linda Schofield and Belinda Brosnan from the RTLB service for their support with this whole school project. Thanks to our teachers who enthusiastically shared their experiences with families at our Family Learning Hui. Thanks to the children and families who came to the hui. You can gain insights into how peered writing works and learn about what we shared at the hui by watching the following short videos.
There are still a few videos of the learners in action to upload.

                                           Year 4/5 learners in action thanks Miss O'Malley

    Junior Peered Writing Yr 1-3

Yr 4-5

 Yr 6

Seniors Yr 7 & 8 Pause, Prompt, Praise

Parents learn how they can participate

Parents get tutored by their children

Parent Mel Davison shares her writing

As my time in NZ draws to a close...NZCPPA meet ACPPA

As principals of Catholic schools in New Zealand and Australia, we are united by our faith, our belief in a loving God who has plans for each and every one of us and the school communities we are responsible for.

This is my first active reflection for two months. A couple of months ago, life as I knew it changed unexpectedly for me.  I realised that it was time to return to my roots, my birthplace in Melbourne, a city I left over thirty years ago. After ten years at St Joseph's Catholic school in Oamaru, God has a new mission for me. I hope to be able to share my passion for life and learning with a new educational community in Melbourne. I am grateful for the love, support and understanding from my network of family, friends and community here in New Zealand and I know that the next principal at St Joseph's will be truly blessed. 

Being part of the NZ Catholic Primary Principals (NZCPPA) Exec for the past eighteen months has been a rewarding learning experience. I was fortunate to be able to finish my time on the exec by sharing a two day get together with the Australian Catholic Primary Principal's (ACPPA) Exec before the start of the Trans-Tasman conference in Auckland.

We started our first day by visiting two large Catholic schools - St Joseph's Catholic School in Takapuna and Sancta Maria Catholic Primary School in Flatbush. Here are some videos from the visits. Our Australian and New Zealand colleagues were fortunate to have informative student tour guides in Takapuna. The principals were genuinely moved by the traditional New Zealand powhiri (welcome) from the students at Sancta Maria, including a haka and a mihi in Maori, Samoan and Filipino.

The second day will begin with a combined ACPPA and NZCPPA Exec meeting at the Sky City Convention Centre. During that time, members will share information from their countries based around the following themes: Managing our patch, Indigenous Education, Spiritual and Faith Formation for Staff and Positives and Negatives of the Curriculum. This will also include information around how each system works - funding, external reviews, strategic planning, lines of hierarchy, percentage of Catholic students, role of the Parish and Priest and how each exec interact with other bodies. The AGM meetings will follow these discussions.

I will share some further reflections around the themes of the second day via some live blogging tomorrow.

3 winners for junior learners: Self - management goals, shorter sessions & visual prompts

Continually inquiring into our pedagogy and reflecting on best practice for engagement and learning success is something we are serious about at St Joseph's. As a passionate New Entrant teacher from my pre principal days, I had the pleasure of spending quality time in Jo O'Sullivan's class at the Paeroroa Campus of South Timaru School with our Junior Hub One teachers. Special thanks to Jo and her learners for welcoming us into her class.
Jo has been teaching the juniors for thirty-eight years. She has the energy of a beginning teacher with the skills and expertise of an expert practitioner. We want to ensure our juniors get off to the best ever start and Jo has a reputation for doing just that with her learners.
Here are the three winners that stood out and some further reflections from our visit.

Jo in action in front of the literacy wall

1. Learning and self - management goals.

The children have writing goals and self-management goals. They shared them with the class. The children were asked to read them in a big voice. Jo said, “Everyone needs to know what you are working on”.

They read them before they started work for the day and then before writing.

Some examples were:

I am learning to form my letters correctly...

I am learning to not hurt others, use a nice voice...

I am learning to give things a go...

I will listen to the teacher and look at her when she is talking...

Classroom management strategies? What does she find most effective ? Jo continually refers to the children managing themselves.”Manage your body, manage your book”. Jo never sits. Jo roams and checks and supports, she sits on the floor to work with the children, roams again and ensures everyone is on task.

Jo addressed a boy off task...“You have one chance or I will make the choice for you..” “When and then….” Jo gives them a choice, goes away and gives them time to make the right choice and then checks in again and gives praise. At another time Jo said, “I don’t mind if you work together as long as you work sensibly.” Jo uses a self-management mat. If someone is off task they work on the mat. 

We loved the Jump Jam video break and the yoga mindfulness stretches.

The learners read their goals before they start.

Pencil grip - Jo reinforces this. They all write with pens and the correct way to hold the pen is shared with parents at the 4 year old transition to school sessions.

Pre school visits - how are these organised ?

Friday afternoon transition sessions. Jo focuses on social skills - dependent on the needs of the children at the time. Below is the Y chart of skills they are working on with parents at present.

What phonics teaching methods does she use?

Kiwi Phonics by Heather Deighton-O’Flynn

Y chart of social skills to focus on.

2. Shorter learning sessions

Reading and Mathematics routine activities. What are her activities ? How often does she change them?
Half hour slots for everything, repeated throughout the day. Literacy and numeracy end up being done twice a day - shorter, succinct session with total engagement.

Jo finds the PM readers are better than Ready to Read for the foundation reading, vocabulary and punctuation skills.

Learners don't have individual browsing boxes. They have some books in their reading folders and have access to a few large shared browsing boxes. All learners are targeted and monitored, not only the below learners. Repetition of the basic skills, sounds, blends, high frequency words.

3.Visual prompts Jo uses many visual prompts to direct the children to what they need to do. There are numerous posters for : how to sit when listening on the floor, how to get on with their learning at the tables, healthy brain food in their lunch boxes...as well as the WITS way and their Class Treaty. The literacy wall has everything the learners need to support them to write independently. Everything displayed has a learning purpose. "We work hard to make it easy to learn" is the class motto.

WITS way display

Visual Class Treaty

School Entry Assessment. What does Jo use and when ? Jo assesses them as soon as they start. Very detailed student profiles are kept from enrolment. These compliment the pre school profiles.
What follow up learning do they do at home ?

Home reading - the learners have an enlarged and laminated essential word list and alphabet chart for sound practice with tracking graph on the back. Jo ticks these off and records progress.

I took three videos of Jo in action and will share these once we have approval.

After discussion and reflection, as a result of our visit, some of the ideas Junior Hub 1 will be incorporating into their hub are:

Giant literacy wall between the rooms, reorganisation of browsing boxes & trays, school entry assessment on arrival, tracking graphs, writing and self- management goals, half hour literacy and numeracy session (twice a day) fit well with out focus on engagement, shorter wait times on the mat (6-8 minutes max) and a new plan for Terrific Thursdays.

Here are some videos of Jo in action from the visit. Unfortunately the video quality isn't the best/

Junior reading 

Junior literacy

                                                                                   Junior maths

To hub or not to hub: Engaging parents & Empowering learners

I recall how excited my colleagues and I were when we spotted the giant 'hub' sign in the domestic terminal at Christchurch Airport. We were on our way to attend the Catholic Education Convention in Wellington and were transferring to another flight. The giant, illuminated sign generated a rich discussion around the benefits of our new learning spaces. 

Hub at Christchurch Airport, New Zealand

At the start of 2015, we welcomed families into our Engaging Learning Spaces (ELS). Our traditional classrooms were creatively transformed into collaborative, engaging learning spaces.
To help children, staff and parents understand the collaborative nature of these ELS, we introduced the word 'hub' to replace the word 'classroom'. Most dictionaries define a 'hub' as 'a centre of activity'. Different schools have adopted different names such as pods, caves, hubs and hives. We settled for hubs: Junior Hub 1 ( NE, Yr 1), Junior Hub 2 ( Yr 2, Yr 3), Senior Hub 1 ( Yr 4, Yr 5), Senior Hub 2 ( Yr 6, Yr 7, Yr 8)
It's important to understand the word hub refers to the physical location of the classes. Classes are not mixed together in the hubs like the traditional composite model. Year groups still maintain their unique identity with a dedicated year group teacher.

The word 'hub' does not define the way we plan or teach. It is a way to locate year groups across the school, just like the convenience store at the airport. The way we plan and teach can be more readily described by the word 'collaborative'. 

I am fortunate to have experienced teaching in a range of settings and countries for thirty-five years. During that time, I have been part of traditional, open plan, montessori and jena plan classrooms and schools. Each worked in its own way and addressed the learning needs for the learners at the time. The one constant that made all of these learning environments successful, was enthusiastic and passionate educators, focussed on achievement and success for all. 

Our curriculum goal for several years has been: To engage our learners in deep learning for success. During this time, we dedicated time to inquiring into our teaching practice, talking with our learners and studying research around engagement. This theme was the focus of my sabbatical study in 2014. We are a team of professionals. When we come together as a collaborative team and genuinely discuss how to make a positive difference for the children we teach, we bring together our combined experience and expertise. For example, if we combine the teaching experience of all of our teachers, we share 200 years of experience. Imagine the rich, educational discussions we have when we come together. Similarly, when two teachers combine their knowledge and expertise, they enrich the teaching and learning opportunities for the learners in the ELS.

Quote from @gcouros George Couros. You can read more here.

Five simple ways parents can support teachers
As parents and first educators for children, teachers need parent's support.
1.Take time to explore the Teaching and Learning site with your children. Our teachers have willingly shared their planning.
2. Be purposeful and positive about actioning the ways you can support your children and ask your child or their teacher if you can't understand anything.
3. Help your children to get to school well before 9 o'clock so they can settle and prepare for the day ahead.
4. Smile and show you appreciate the efforts your child's teachers make. Children can sense negativity and thrive in a positive, loving environment. Our teachers are all passionate about teaching and we want them to share their love for learning with your children.
5. Make time to have a chat with your child's teacher if you have any worries. It's better to arrange a dedicated time when the teacher is free. We like our teachers to be in hubs, mingling with the children, relationship building between 8:30-9:00.

To hub or not to hub. It's time for parents to move the focus from the 'hub' and to genuinely engage with the authentic learning opportunities available for children in the ELS. In 2016, we are already moving from engagement to empowerment for our learners. Let's all be empowered as we work together to help our children succeed to be the best they can be in all they do.

Are you ready for the 2016 school year ? 5 key reminders

In 2014, we began to share our learning, news and events digitally. In 2015, we transformed our learning spaces (Engaging Learning Spaces ELS learn more here) to reflect our school wide goal: To engage every student in deep learning for success. We continued to share our learning via blogs and a dedicated Teaching and Learning Site.

Our popular weekly school newsblog has had over 45,000 views from learners, families and interested visitors across the world.

We also welcomed over one hundred visitors to our school in 2015. You can learn more at this link. Principals and teachers from across the South Island described our students as "...engaged and connected learners who could speak confidently about their learning". You can learn more about 2015 and next steps for 2016 at this link.

     Here is a video taken during one of the visits.

We received a glowing Catholic review report. You can learn more at this link. We are committed to continuing to keep Christ at the heart of all we do at St Joseph's as we strive to honour the reason for the existence of our Catholic schools.

Here are 5 key reminders for the 2016 new school year:

1. School starts back on Monday 1st February. The uniform shop will be open on Wednesday 27th January and Friday 29th January from 9:15-12:30pm. It will also be open on Monday 1st February from 8:30-9:00. Thanks Adele for being available. 

2. Our 2016 stationery lists can be found at this link. You can order them online through Office Max or take the list to our local Paper Plus or Warehouse store and collect what you need. 

3. The Home & School with funding support from the board and the Otago Community Trust are generously upgrading the hall kitchen. There will be no school canteen in Term 1. Lunch options will be shared with you next week. Children will need to bring their own lunches during the first week of term.

4. On Thursday 4th February at 9:15am there will be a welcome back school mass followed by the presentation of badges to our Year 8 leaders in St Patrick's Basilica. All parents and friends are welcome to join us.

5. Our dedicated  'Teaching and Learning Site' will be updated and ready to go for 2016 before the new school year begins. You can check what's happening in the first week of the term by going to the section for your child's year group at 5pm on Sunday 31st January. Take some time to help prepare your child for school by discussing the learning together.

You can access the site by going to this link.

Thanks to our board who have funded the installation of three air conditioning units for the upstairs ELS. These will help to provide some much needed cool air for our Senior Hub 2 learners and staff.

At the request of the School Council, the board have also funded a new water fountain where drink bottles can be easily filled up. A new uniform shop is also under construction and we are waiting for the new basketball hoops to arrive.

Thanks to all of our staff including cleaners, caretakers and office staff who have spent time preparing our school to officially welcome you back on Monday.

Please contact us if you have any questions, worries or concerns by emailing office@stjoseph.school.nz or jjackson@stjoseph.school.nz or by ringing 03 4348856. Like us on our school Facebook page St Joseph's Oamaru or follow us on Twitter and Instagram by typing in #Stjoesoamaru. You can also check up on any information on our newsblog or school website and download the PTC calendar app on your phone.

We look forward to welcoming you all back to St Joseph's for the 2016 school year as we continue to Reach for the Stars as Lifelong Learners in the Catholic Faith.

reaCh into the future - 8 positives and 5 developments

Reach for the Stars as Lifelong Learners in the Catholic Faith

This is our vision statement developed as a result of community consultation just after I became principal in 2007. We are preparing to relaunch our vision as we reaCh into the future in readiness for 2016.

 

reaCh

At the start of our final school term for 2015, we recorded the key skills and attitudes our learners develop as they progress from Junior Hub 1 to the end of Senior Hub 2 (Year 1 to 8). Our collaborative teaching methods and the resources we use (including but not limited to digital ones) are the tools to support our learners to be the best versions of themselves by the time they transition to high school. 

Our Deputy Principal, Paul Cartlidge creatively collated these progressions onto a weebly site to help make them explicit and tangible. Our next step is to develop an informative brochure to visually share these skills and attitudes with our community.

Our Assistant Principal, Siobhan Burke reminded us about the brochure and be theme captured our attention at the Catholic Convention.

This got me thinking...

DRAFT ideas at this stage

Here are my active reflections around the potential of using the word reaCh.

Our vision to Reach for the Stars as Lifelong Learners in the Catholic Faith can be captured in the single word reaCh.

respectfully engage & achieve with and through Christ
r represents our 4'R's - respect, reverence, resilience and good relationships
engage links to our school wide goal:To engage in deep learning for success
a is the way we aim to actively achieve in all that we do
Ch reminds us how we do everything, in, with and through Christ. Ch also reminds us of the church and the importance of being active in our Catholic faith.

Other variations could include:

What will this look like in 2016 ? I will look forward to sharing this with you when we develop it further with input from students, board, staff and whanau.

Positives from 2015 and next steps going forward for 2016
Across the school all of the children are benefitting from:
1. A dedicated class teacher who is a point of contact for children and parents. 
2. Having the expertise of a team of two to three teachers who plan, review and action the teaching and learning for all children across hubs.
3. A dedicated teaching and learning site updated weekly. Parents can keep up with their children's learning and initiate learning conversations at home.
4. Hub and class blogs, regularly updated with photos and snippets of information pertinent to each class or hub.
5. The senior hub learners work towards competent independence by the end of Year 8. Thirty-two days total during Year 7 and 8 are spent at St Kevin's high school for Tech classes. Our Year 8's feel throughly prepared for high school. Listen to Siva and Trish share their views.

6. Staff email class groups on a weekly basis. Communication is better than ever before with the newsblog the school website and our Facebook page updated regularly. 
7. Specialist teachers and teacher aides add depth of learning and provide further support and extension for our children.
8. Individual student blogs support engagement and achievement in the Senior Hub. Student blogs gives students a global audience, a purpose for writing beyond the eyes of the class teacher.
Further developments for 2016 include: 
1. Consolidation of independent learning strategies at the start of Senior Hub 2 (Yr 6) and at the end of Senior Hub 2 (Yr 8) as the learners transition into the hub and off to high school.
2. A review and focus on hub expectations across the school in relation to our school values - the 4R's.
3. The potential opportunity to use student blogs in Senior Hub 2 (Years 6 to 8) as formative assessment portfolios.
4. The use of Linewise in relation to digital devices and access to acceptable learning resources.

5.Further development of the reaChmodel and an informative brochure as explained above for parents and the community to be shared at the first Family Learning Hui.

In 2015 we actively created learning spaces for deeper engagement in learning. We developed our Engaging Learning Spaces (ELS's) based on our schoolwide goal: To engage in deep learning for success. We have the flexibility to utilise our spaces to best suit the needs of our learners across the school. We will continue to review and refine our ELS's based on feedback and continued active reflection as we enthusiastically move forward into 2016. 

I have improved my time management skills; students share their learning

Student feedback
In my previous post I spoke about a culture of self-belief and optimism underlying success for all learners (our students and ourselves). I shared feedback from our school parents around learning for their students in relation to our schoolwide goal: Engage every student in deep learning for success. I emphasized the holistic nature of the education we provide at St Joseph's. 
Our community want our students to connect with their learning, to be able to achieve success in their learning at a deep level. We use the SOLO taxonomy as one of the tools across the school to help students understand and articulate how they can go deeper with their learning. They learn to move beyond simply knowing knowledge, to learning how to use and apply their knowledge. You can see examples in the SOLO diagrams on our Teaching and Learning Site.

This week I spent time in our Year 4-8 hubs and asked our students to share something positive about their learning this year. Here are their responses according to year groups (the numbers represent repeated responses):
Yr 4
I have improved my reading (12) Maths (8) I can understand most of my learning (2) People supporting us helps us to learn (2) We get to learn at a higher level and have harder work. BYOD (devices) are helping me learn. I am learning more than in any other year. All the different strategies. Writing. Learning is fun.
Yr 5
Maths (9) Reading (8)Writing (7) The teachers help me to improve. Religious Education. Art. Devices are great for learning. Workshops.
Yr 6
Using devices for learning (10) Different inquiry topics and heaps of projects each term (5) The hubs (3) All the workshops (3) Working with older kids because I have to step up (3) Our teachers make learning fun (3) Working with three different teachers in different rooms (2) I am more engaged with my learning with more people to work with (2) Working in pairs.  Spelling.  Being able to work where we feel we work well. Confidence building. We have licenses so we can have more freedom to learn. Writing. Maths is fun and cool because you learn so much.
Yr 7
Improving in my maths (2) I am pretty positive with my maths progress. I am getting better at everything especially maths. I have learnt more in my maths and that is helping me in tests. The maths/reading /writing workshops really help (3) I have been reading more books and learning harder words. I have made it to Level 7 for maths (2) My fluency in reading (2) I have gone up a step in my writing. Weekly goals that we work towards - must do's and can do's (3) Licenses have helped to make more more responsible. The workshops have helped me understand more about the topic at hand. We have learnt more strategies. More teachers in the room give me more help with my learning. Everyone is encouraged. The hubs give you an opportunity to learn with more people at your level. I have improved my time management skills. Independence in working with a wide range of people.  The devices make the learning easier for me. I have been finishing my work to a high standard. Opportunities for extended learning and self-management make us work harder and think about what we are doing. Going out into the environment for a trip to places in Oamaru for inquiry. I have learnt so much from having more teachers, science and history. We have more projects to do and it's more fun. We get to work wherever we want to and can discuss things with others better than if the teacher chose for us. I am not falling behind.
Yr 8
Learning on devices - we can share our work with our teachers and for group learning (3) Must do's and can do's (2) The learning hub has brought different people closer. I have really improved with maths and got really great with reading and writing. When I need help the person next to me always helps me to learn new things. I feel less stressed and rushed at this school. I like how we are prepared for high school. I am excited to be a leader and motivated to learn. I was extended in maths. You develop better relationships with other teachers so you can learn from them. Maths workshops and being able to go to two or three of them. I have learnt more about fractions and that has helped me in my maths. The steampunk trip and camp prep learning projects. Maths - it is fun and I love it. Religious Education and learning about the old testament - it is interesting we should do more of it. We do more interactive things which help me engage instead of just being told. The way we are getting challenging work which is improving our learning. Reading. The encouraging learning environment and atmosphere. Receiving the Pasifika award for outstanding leadership and academic learning. Working in groups and learning with friends.

It is worth noting that the feedback from our students reflects a combination of multistructural, relational learning and some extended abstract learning (SOLO taxonomy ). Our students are going deeper with their learning and moving beyond the simple acquisition of knowledge for knowledge's sake. Our students are beginning to articulate and understand the conditions that are supporting them to learn for success. This becomes more evident in the student responses as they progress from Year 4 to Year 8.

Workshops, hubs, several teachers, devices, opportunities to learn alongside friends and weekly goals are some of the key factors introduced in 2015 as part of our Engaging Learning Spaces that our students have shared with us. 

As we move forward and prepare for 2016, we can reflect further on these positive responses and include them in our planning. We can feel motivated and inspired by all of these responses as we continue to Reach for the Stars as lifelong Learner in the Catholic Faith.

A genuine culture of optimism, hope and self-belief underlies success for all

Response post
It has been a month since my last post. Clarity around this response to parent feedback after three terms of Engaging Learning Spaces (ELS) became apparent after attending a recent "Catholic Essentials" seminar. Receiving a very positive external Catholic review report reinforced this response. Let me explain. 

At St Joseph's, we provide a holistic education. We focus on developing the whole child - spiritually, physically, academically, socially and emotionally. As a staff, we recently reflected on the specific skills our children develop as a result of our ability to openly express our Catholic faith. We listed them alongside the skills that contribute to developing the emotional intelligence of our children and their ability to "learn to learn". It is our unique ability to provide authentic opportunities for developing the whole child that lay the foundation for their success at high school and beyond. 

As Katrina van de Water articulated during the Catholic Essentials seminar, our Catholic culture is one of optimism and hope. If you have been brought up in a Catholic faith filled environment, you are naturally a positive and optimistic person. You pro actively seek solutions and look for ways to make things work. It is part of our Catholic culture. We are positive people who thrive in an environment that supports us to grow our talents and skills and reach out to others. We thrive in an inclusive community where everyone is treated equally and has something of value to bring to that community.

The positive parent feedback connected to our learning environments expresses the very nature of our Catholic culture. Here are some of those positive comments:

We are reaping the benefits of blogging, communication and planning, which is so much easier with technology.  (I love the weekly blog!) I feel much more confident that she is going to be prepared for going further in an educational world that has seamless blended learning and also the self direction required.  We are thrilled she is learning the responsibilities that go along with technology, (such as balance, tech-free activities, safety etc).

This is the first time in seven years that I have a real insight into my son's learning. We check the Teaching and Learning site on a Sunday night and come prepared for the week. He knows what his learning goals are and we talk about them together. Our whole family and extended family can read his stories and projects online. Most importantly, he wants to learn and is engaged in his learning. He has made so much progress this year.

We have Sunday planning sessions which we use with the Teaching and Learning site and it works really well for us, we feel involved and we have better conversations throughout the week. The communication from the teacher is excellent and feels very natural.

I believe her days are full, robust learning is taking place and we have an engaged, happy learner.  As a parent, picking her up each day, she is getting in the car full of good stories. Any niggles, she knows how she is going to fix them, and that is all part of life, so we reinforce that.

I can't think of what doesn't work for us (and I normally can find something proactive to say, so I do apologise).We are strong advocates for the school and are extremely happy with our experience, thank you.

He has benefited enormously from the skiing programme. Is it the combination of treating the body in its entirety? Body, spirit, mind. He has never been more engaged with his learning, he talks about school work, across most of his subjects in a manner that he has never done before. 

My children have benefitted from the ELS style of learning. All three of them regularly come home and share their learning. This has been especially noticeable with my Year 5 child, who always enjoyed school but never wanted to discuss anything she had learned or encountered through the day.Technology is a big draw card for her.

The common concerns that came through from a small group of parents (8 out of potentially 144 families) were in relation to noise, furniture, screen time, the monitoring of devices and expectations around "learning to learn". It's important to address any concerns. We have met with some parents and are always willing to meet with others. We have already instigated positive change in Term 4: the move from three classes to two in Senior Hub 2, extra furniture and a commitment to a new cybersafety programme. Our staff have also begun to prepare explicit visual charts and diagrams about "learning to learn" expectations across the school. These are complimented by the natural learning and leadership opportunities that begin in the junior school and culminate in Year 7 and 8. The ability to outreach into the community with Early Childhood and Young Vinnie programmes further encapsulate our Catholic culture.

Our children are thriving as learners because parents are making every effort to support learning in a positive manner. It is this positive, optimistic attitude, inherent in our Catholic culture that enables our children to Reach for the Stars as Lifelong Learners in the Catholic faith and shine.

Here are a few snippets from our external Catholic review September 2015:

• St Joseph’s is an inclusive and welcoming school. The students are happy and responsive. They understand the expectations and embrace them. 
• The school culture is genuine. It nurtures and promotes self belief and a sense of worth for each individual.
• There is a sense that the children have contributed to the development of the culture and embrace it willingly.
• All around the school there are examples of the integration of the curriculum and the fusion of faith and life. 
• Students understand why they are asked to live the school values. It is quite common to hear and see students leading others and reminding them of what the community values.
• St Joseph’s Oamaru is a highly successful Catholic school. The Proprietor can be assured that Special Character is at the heart of the success of this school. 

We will continue to integrate our genuine culture of optimism, hope and self-belief into our Engaging Learning Spaces across our Catholic school as we move forward towards 2016 and beyond.