Tena koutou nga whānau, nga mihi nui ki a koutou katoa,

We have had another couple of busy weeks at school. All the learning spaces are hives of activity and extracurricular activities have included Music, Robotics and Future Problem Solving.

Teachers have been undergoing professional learning and development in the teaching of Science. The New Zealand Science Curriculum recognises science is more than knowledge. Even more important that knowing the order of the planets, or being able to remember the periodic table, is the development of what is called the Science Capabilities. These help young people to be responsible citizens who are able to make informed choices, and include elements such as gathering and interpreting data, using and critiquing evidence, interpreting representations such as graphs and text and engaging with science in real life contexts. These capabilities are increasingly important in this era of ‘fake news’ if we want our young people to make decisions based on reliable evidence. In the last week of the term we invite everyone to our Science Fair and Science Fun Night to find out more.

In Mathematics, teachers are working with Massey University on a project called DMIC (Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities). This is a focus among all the schools in the Kahui Ako or Community of Learning that Diamond Harbour School is part of. In this we are working with Cashmere High School and a number of other schools that are also feeder schools for Cashmere High. DMIC involves students in a problem solving approach where they use their mathematical knowledge in real world contexts that have relevance to them. This Ted Talk, while not specifically related to DMIC does enable us to critically look at some aspects of mathematics.

In both of these curriculum areas, and in fact right across the curriculum, there is a focus on more than just accumulation of the body of knowledge for the curriculum area. Rather, knowledge areas are the context for the development of a range of skills and dispositions that are transferable across all curriculum areas, and will enable children to be successful life-long learners.

Our year 8 students are nearly at their final term of their time at Diamond Harbour School. It is often mentioned what are lovely group of students they are. This week, the Performing Arts leaders have auditioned students for the final of the Talent Show. The caring way in which they ran these auditions, supporting each and every person who auditioned, was a perfect example of how these students demonstrate our school values. They were kind, supportive, inclusive, encouraged students who were reticent to take a risk and helped all the students do their best - not a Simon Cowell amongst them. Tomorrow, at 1:30pm, the finals of the auditions will be held in Te Kete. Good luck to all the finalists and well done to everyone who auditioned.

Students this week also demonstrated kaitiakitanga as they looked after the bike track environment. It had a few alterations made by over eager bikers which made it a bit unsafe for our younger riders. These have now been repaired.

At the Diamond Harbour School Board Meeting this month the members voted on a new chair to replace Denissa Hora. Congratulations and thank you to John Craw, who has now taken on this position. I would also like to acknowledge Davinia Hitchings who has been Acting Chair since Denissa’s resignation. Thank you Davinia for all your work and support of both myself and the school during this time.

Coming up next week we have the Cultural Festival, the year 8s have their testing at Cashmere High School and we have two teams travelling to the National Robocup competition at the end of the week. Then in week 9 we have the ever popular Book Week with the book character parade on Thursday.

Please also remember we have our end of term Celebration of Learning, this term in the form of a Science Fair and Family Fun Science Night on 26 September. This is an opportunity for adults to be involved in some Science experiments led by the students so please come along and join in this fun event.

Have a fabulous couple of weeks,

Ngā mihi, Jill