Our top photo today is of Room 12 (Years 1 and 2) being Taniwha, as part of their Te Reo language learning with Tracye Eriksen this morning. The children learned about family relationships and what to call younger and older siblings as well as enjoying this fun action and vocabulary game called Kupu. It was a pleasure to spend the morning block with Room 12 today, I especially enjoyed their confidence and questioning. However, I know it’s time for a relaxing weekend when one of the children estimated my age at 70 in our discussion around birthdays! Thank goodness the next estimate was 18.

I was pleased this week to attend the first collaborative session of the Local Histories think tank group, organised by Across School Leads Charlotte Barrance and Paula Snowball from our Pupuke Kahui Ako (our Community of Learning). This group of teaching professionals from across our CoL are going to be delving into the new draft Maori curriculum document, and exploring our local histories with a view to collaborating in the area of Aotearoa New Zealand Histories. It is exciting to be working with teachers from the early childhood sector up to the Westlake High Schools, and to know that students can be collaborating across the year groups in the future, and that we will all have a clear pathway to Te Reo and cultural development.

It has been Maths Week this week, with many students involved in fun maths activities and learning. There have been maths problems of the day in the student notices and many children have enjoyed working on these as a class or as individuals. It has also been Peace Week and many students especially enjoyed using chalk to write and draw messages of peace all over our courts.

Would you like to know more about the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP)? Please see the attachment for a brief overview of the components of the PYP and how we use them at Milford School. PYP empowers our students to become agents of their own learning, meaning that they are becoming skilled in knowing what to do or how to find out what to do, in many different contexts and situations.

Otakau Road - we know there are residents’ cars parked in the drop-off parks in Otakau Road each morning. This does impede the flow of traffic and can cause frustration. Please feel free to give feedback to Auckland Transport Unfortunately our duty teachers cannot do anything about this situation, as their role is to look after student safety at the gate, however we are aware and value parents placing feedback with AT. Thank you!

Our other photos this week are of the Teacher Olympics held at  the Year 5 sharing assembly last Friday! The students were very excited to cheer on their favourite teacher in the multi-sport race, and to see the exciting finish!  Congratulations to Mr Polkinghorne, Miss Campbell and Miss Leng! You are all champions.

Have a safe and happy weekend.

Kia pai tō rā whakatā,

Sara Baker