In the past we had the opportunity to nominate children from our school, who have had great attendance (above 80-85% and are working above the expected curriculum for their level) to attend MindPlus one day a week in Ashburton.

As a school we would send a few students to this every year at a cost of $50 per session, paid for by parents. This cost meant only some families could afford to send their children and others would miss out.

Last year I did a lot of research into how we could do things differently at our school which would even the playing field so all eligible tamariki could have access to an extension programme. We planned on running a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) programme and applied to our school farm for funding. We were successful in applying for funding and started the process of putting the programme together. Then in mid January we were informed that MindPlus had lost funding and would no longer be operating.

Because we had students attend this programme, MindPlus contacted us to ask if we would be keen to run an in school programme called ‘MindPlus Your School’. We looked into it some more and myself and Alana McConnell attended an online zoom meeting with Madelaine, head of the MindPlus Programme. We found out that we would have full access to their curriculum and would be supported in running a similar programme so we opted to join it. This programme follows a STEAM approach so we will still be providing this but under the name MindPlus Your School.

Next week we plan on starting the first session of MindPlus YourSchool here at Mayfield.

We are offering the extension programme MindPlus Your School to students we have identified with being gifted or having exceptional talents in Year 4-8.

Today we are emailing the families of these children seeking parental permission to have these children take part. 

The programme will run in the Westerfield class and be taught by Miss McConnelll every Friday and will cater for 2 different groups.