Reporting to Whānau...

Over the last two weeks, we have had our Whānau Learning Conferences. These are part of how we report progress to our whānau in conjunction with the Progression Goals and Learning Posts. These conferences are the opportunity for you and your child's teacher to connect, with a focus on the progress over time and what the future goals are. 

By now, all whānau should now have transitioned over to HERO (the old Linc-Ed). You should now be able to access your child's attendance, progressions and learning posts. In addition to this, you should also be able to access the financial account. Behind these dials sit the Progression Goals that have been written using the New Zealand Curriculum and other Ministry of Education supporting documents. If you are still having difficulties with this transition, please feel free to contact me and I will help (chris@mtpleasant.school.nz).

Goals are set by the teacher, and as students achieve these goals, teachers will mark these as achieved and others will be set. You can see these by using the dials, as well as seeing the goals already achieved and yet to be set. One of the main advantages of having this style of reporting is that at any one time, a parent can see how their child is progressing, where they should be in relation to the school expectations, and their future goals. You will be able to see progressions for Reading, Writing and Mathematics.

We have also looked to the future, encompassing how we continue to involve our students in their progress in all aspects of their daily lives at MPS. We want our students to have agency in their learning. This means having ownership for themselves and taking the action to support their achievements. With this in mind, students can begin to contribute to the goals set and post evidence of their learning toward achieving these goals… which will eventually lead to them working in collaboration with their class teacher to set these goals together.

As well as the progressions, we also publish learning posts. These are examples of learning across different subject areas (transdisciplinary learning). The posts show their understanding of the Central Idea (an enduring understanding that helps develop a conceptual understanding, supported by the identified PYP key and related concepts). These posts will also come with a descriptor of what the task was, accompanied by a comment from the teacher regarding your child's ability to show their understanding. These are examples of learning that will be collected over time and students will develop a portfolio as they move through the school. As your child gets older, they will also have increasing independence of what they share and will have the ability to self-reflect on what they have learnt.

Class Placements... 

We are getting started on class placements earlier than usual this year. As you will understand, this is a complicated process with many factors needing to be taken into account.

We are beginning to develop the structure of the teams. This process involves looking at the number of students within each year-level and how many classes will be within each team. We then gather the information to determine the placement of each child into their 2021 class. Age, achievement information, emotional intelligence, friendships and gender are all factors that are considered when placing each child into a class to try to get a balance. 

Parents and caregivers are given the opportunity to provide any relevant information they feel should be considered during the placement process. These may include:

• Family spacing and relationships

• Social, emotional and academic needs

It is important to note that we consult the students regarding friendships they would like to maintain as they move to their new class. Where possible, we try to meet at least one of their requests. Please do not write friendship requests or specific teachers on this form.

While all information will be carefully considered and we value your input into this decision for your child, it is important to note that the final decision on placement rests with the professional judgment of staff. This is not a task we take lightly and much discussion and re-thinking go on before the classes are eventually published.

We use an online form to make it easier for parents to contribute to this process and the information provided is confidential to you and the school. All returns must be made on the google form provided and must be completed no later than 3:00 pm on Monday 7th September. This is also the time for you to indicate if your child will not be attending Te Kura o Paeraki | Mt Pleasant School in 2021 (it is critical that if you know this information now, you let us know as this will prevent us having to make significant changes after this process has been completed). Requests received after this time can not be considered, as we will have already started the process of class placements and once this has been started, making changes is problematic.

Please follow this link to fill out the form: CLASS PLACEMENTS 2021

If your child is moving from Mt Pleasant next year, please use this form to let us know (Year 8 students do not need to do this). This will ensure we can accurately staff the school for 2020. If you have, or know of any, new entrants or other children who will be attending, please let us know.

Class placements go home on Friday 11th December.

Alert Level 2...

We continue to be vigilant around being at Alert Level 2. Over the coming days, the review of the levels will be announced. We are expecting to perhaps remain at Alert Level 2. This will make very little difference to us apart from participating in larger gatherings. 

Have a wonderful weekend. 

Chris Nord

chris@mtpleasant.school.nz

PH: (03) 384 3994
Cell: 021 384 393