Children choosing learning partners for 2024

Kia Ora Koutou,

The time has come around to start to plan classes for 2024. The leaders and teachers spend a long time juggling ages, learning needs, numbers and combinations of children. Inclusiveness is at the forefront of our planning. One factor we also consider is friendships or what we call ‘learning partners.’ A learning partner is someone who you learn well with. All children complete a hand organiser where they put the names of five people they think could be good classmates for next year. We encourage children to choose from their cohort and maybe 1 or 2 children from the others if they like. We aim to put children in a class with at least one of these children. You may want to chat with your child about who they would like to put on their ‘hand’ for placements next year. At MNS we do our utmost best to ensure that all classes are well-balanced and that children have at least one ‘learning partner’ with them in their new class. Other than having happy children, our goal is to create the conditions for optimal learning and emotional safety in each class.