From the Principal's desk

This year really seems to be flying by. As I write this for our school newsletter, we have only three weeks left of the second term and it is somewhat unsettling knowing that we have only nine weeks in the third term. For our seniors, this means that they only have 15 school weeks left before their end of year examinations!

As a school, we have been focusing a great deal on our master plan for the rebuild. The start date for the rebuild is also coming around very quickly and we have been working hard on making sure that the transition period between deconstruction and construction runs smoothly and has as little impact on our students and staff as possible. We will soon see containers being set up around the school that will allow us to store our resources once S-block is demolished. Fortunately for our school, we have a very talented Level 2 Building class and they are working on two key projects for our rebuild. Our cultural learning centre will be needed for two classes next year and, additional to this, they have built a relocatable office for us to use during this time. Well done to Pete Graham and the building boys and girls.

The buildings are going to provide us with a beautiful environment to teach and learn in, but at the end of the day it is what happens inside those buildings that really matters. I thought I would take some time to discuss what a modern learning approach to teaching and learning means to us at Kaiapoi High School. Many of our parents have experience of modern learning environments with their children in their primary schools, however this, like everywhere in New Zealand, can be a very varied experience. Some of our primary schools are working in a single classroom with one teacher and some have completely open spaces with up to four teachers teaching over one hundred students. Each of these schools are on their own personal journey and trying to provide the best possible outcomes for the students and community.

High schools have been placed under some pressure to align themselves with the modern learning shift that our primary colleagues are experiencing. If I am to be honest, I would have to say that I was originally resistant to this philosophy. I did not completely believe that what works for primary necessarily will work for secondary, however I did believe that we were not aligned in our approaches and this caused some issues when transitioning our students into high school. Fortunately our school has a strong relationship with the primary principals in our area and this led to positive and robust discussions around the approach to teaching and learning (otherwise known as our pedagogy). We realised that we needed to evaluate our pedagogy, but not necessarily completely align with one particular approach. This was for two reasons, the first was that high schools and primary schools are different beasts that require different environments and approaches. The second was that we could not possibly align with a certain approach to our schools, as they all have varied approaches themselves.

We decided that at the end of the day, it does not matter if you have a single cell classroom or an open classroom. What matters is the relationships we form and the way that we allow teaching and learning to take place. Having this in mind, over the last three years we have been focusing as a school on the following key concepts of teaching and learning:

· 2014: Recognising that each student has an individual need and that teaching in a synchronous approach of the same thing at the same time does not take into account where a student’s personal learning should be.

· 2015: When working with students in groups, it is important to make sure that we spend time away from the front of the class and more time amongst the students.

· 2016: A consistent approach to teaching and learning is needed. We all need to be on the same waka, going in the same direction.

These three simple concepts have been the foundation of shifting our pedagogy for the future. As I am sure you will agree, none of them relate to how the buildings work, but rather how our teaching must meet the needs of our students.

As a school, we have decided that four classrooms in one is not the pathway that we wish to take. Our master plan has the two new buildings being made of a variety of classrooms. In Science, there is a full-sized lab and two half classrooms. In the generic spaces there are double classrooms. Then there are single cell classrooms for computer suites and for the times that we need to play movies and have testing. Finally, in both blocks there are triple classrooms that have been set up in one block as a performing arts space, and in the other block as a senior library/study.

We have decided that the flexibility of space should enable the teaching and learning to happen as needed, rather than driving our teaching and learning by the spaces we have been given.

Exciting times ahead, and I certainly can’t wait for the rebuild!

Ma te huruhuru ka rere te mana, We give the bird its wings so it can fly.

Bruce Kearney

Principal