Kia Ora Koutou Katoa, Talofa Lava, Malo e Lelei, Ni Hao, Anyoung Haseyo, Konichi Wa, Gruetzi, Guten Tag, Bon Jour, Ola, Hello.

                 Learning happens when you are five or older!

Over the last week I have been thrilled to see our five year old students in the Wee Sprouts become excited about learning in Science. They enjoyed making “hypothesis” or “guessing” what would happen when a solution was added to some lollies. They had a range of wonderful hypothesis about why a rainbow formed and leaned in close to learn… being as close to lollies as they could certainly seemed to help them be engaged in learning!

Last week our new staff spent their first Induction day with Lisa and I, Lynda Palfrey and our education consultant from Clarity Education learning about teaching and learning at Tauriko School. My thanks to Lisa, Lynda Palfrey and Andrea Ford for their input into this day. Lynda supported these staff to learn about accelerating student achievement at Tauriko School and Andrea clarified for staff our thinking around Assessment For Learning and supporting students to articulate their learning.

Engaged 21st Century Learners:

From five years old …to those of us who are more mature… learning happens and is life-long. This is a key message at Tauriko School and one that teachers and parents/whanau model for students every day. Staff work hard to create learning experiences that will engage students in learning.

In the 21st Century this means teaching differently than when many of us were at school in order that students imaginations are captured, they are curious and learning is meaningful and relevant to them now. This is challenging work and staff professional learning supports them to teach at the cutting edge of education.

Students who are engaged in learning do not just turn up and passively sit to be filled with wonderful knowledge. In fact, more than facts are needed these days – facts change and thinking evolves so rapidly. In the 21st Century we need students who are creative, innovative, can problem solve, are flexible thinkers, can transfer their understanding from one context to another, can collaborate, can think critically and communicate their ideas confidently.

Students develop these skills through a learning culture that supports students to be engaged and actively involved in their own learning. Students sometimes work individually but more often than not are learning in collaboration with others, taking on different roles to learn. Groups of students can be learning different things based on what they need to learn or the whole class can be learning together.

Students talk about what they are trying to learn or achieve, why they are learning this, how successful they are, what they need to do to improve. They learn from traditional things (like books) or they use a range of technology/devices – whatever supports the learning. They are challenged just enough and learn just as much from the things that go wrong as the things that go right first time. They develop the ability to be comfortable with this – knowing that through struggle and perseverance comes success and that this feels great!

All of this can look very messy and at times it is a little more noisy (we call it a learning hum!) – but it is cleverly structured by teachers to hook students into learning and to enable them to feel the thrill of success after the challenge through the process of learning.

Students Achievement and progress:

Students at Tauriko School have achieved well in relation to National Standards with steady improvement over the six years this has been reported to the Ministry of Education (MOE). Our reporting has always been aligned with the New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) and so for us not much will change with the removal of reporting National Standards to the MOE.

Students achievement at Tauriko School continues to be above the national average and above the Bay of Plenty average.

(See graphic file below for Tauriko School student achievement)

We expect that improvement over time will continue to happen. The Board will continue to receive good assessment data and set sound targets for school improvement.

School buses:

Recently we have had queries about bus fees, eligibility to travel on the bus and travelling casually. The school is part of the Tauranga Transport Network Group (TTNG). Greig Neilson, is employed by the TTNG as a consultant to manage the transport network according to MOE guidelines and TTNG policies and procedures. He has put together information in relation to queries we have had recently and this is loaded on our school website. Any further questions around bus routes, eligibility for travel, bus fees, bus stops etc are best directed to him as he can answer them in more detail than we can.

Phone: 07 8080249 Email: greig@schooladmin.co.nz