Last Friday, I took the opportunity to wander through classrooms during Discovery Time . . .

. . . Discovery Time takes place over one teaching block on each Friday. Children have the opportunity to take part in a range of activities to meet their current interests and strengths. I published this post on the Redwood Facebook page last week which gives a snap shot of what was on offer during the day and across each teaching team. Our children are so engaged and motivated at this time and really enjoy the choice and agency that they are offered. Discovery Time is also a great opportunity to build on our Reddie Values, practice and develop prosocial skills and for children to interact with the teaching team on a less formal basis (as above with Mrs Grant joining a group with a card game).

Thank You to the parents who continue to support the school by donating paper, card and craft materials. These are always put to good use and we appreciate you thinking of us!

You can see some of these materials being put to creative use during Whakatipu Discovery Time last week!

Life Education Trust Lessons

Yesterday the Life Education Trailer arrived on site. The Trailer is here for one week (along with a teacher from the Trust) and each class will have two lessons in this mobile classroom.

Topics range from keeping our bodies happy and healthy (Whakatipu), how our feelings may influence our actions (Poutama) and the impact of our decisions (Paerangi). If your child comes home talking about a talking giraffe named Harold, it probably means that they had a lesson in the mobile classroom that day! Be sure to ask them what they learned!

School Garden and Orchard

Mrs Lynda Selwood has been working with Mary Tingey from Orchards in Schools. The Trust has been supporting us to extend the orchard area and on Tuesday five new trees were planted behind Room 4. 

A big thanks to Mary and Lynda - our school gardens are an awesome feature of our school and provide many rich learning opportunities for our tamariki.

Learning Conferences (Parent | Teacher Interviews)

These are scheduled for Monday 20th and Tuesday 21st of September. School will close at 12:30pm on the Monday to accomodate this event.

In response to feedback around previous conferences, we have extended the time to15 minutes. Ten minutes wasn't long enough for many families.

There will be more information coming very soon around how you can book your conference with your child's teacher.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Ngā mihi nui

Nick