Kia ora koutou e nga matua, e nga whānau, Talofa lava, Malo e lelei, Konichiwa!

I hope you enjoyed the Easter Break. It was perfect family time with great weather chucked in!

Various people have been doing some research as to why schools get Tuesday off as part of Easter. Apparently in 1954, Easter Tuesday was put into legislation (Education Act) and it has never been changed. It only happens on average once every 4 years as this day mainly falls in the holidays and it is not noticed. It could also be as the result of the previous school year being three terms of approximately 14 weeks.

On Thursday staff attended a full day of professional development on ‘Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities’ (DMIC). DMIC is an initiative that is founded by Dr Bobbie Hunter from Massey University. This approach promotes a group-based approach to problem solving. Ākonga are introduced to word problems, which contain relevant cultural aspects and real life situations, then encouraged to share their different ways of solving them with each other. At the end of each lesson, the teacher reinforces the ‘big idea’ that is being taught, along with any specific mathematical concepts that are being targeted through explicit teaching in the ‘Connect’ part of the session. It was a great day with lots of rich discussion.

On the Mathematical theme, we had our final workshop for whānau last night. Two of our DMIC facilitators presented alongside Jeanette and Mandy, sharing the DMIC pedagogy and what mathematics looks like at West Melton School. Thank you to the 6 families for attending. There was plenty of positive feedback and new learnings.

Here is a problem from Toetoe you might want to work through.

3/7 + 2/7 = 5/7

True or False?

6/14 + 4/14 = 5/7

True or False? Prove it.

Show 3 other ways to make 5/7 using addition or subtraction not using sevenths in solutions. Feel free to email Mandy Newcombe (Toetoe Leader of Learning) with your thoughts.

Thank you the teachers for planning, organising and facilitating the three recent workshops. Due to low numbers we will be looking at how and when we facilitate workshops in the future. Look out early next term, for your chance to complete a survey that will enable you to share some feedback on how it would best fit your needs.

A big congratulations and thank you to our Fete committee. What an amazing event! What an amazing outcome raising $45,000!  We are so lucky to have such an organised and dedicated group of people who are prepared to give up copious amounts of effort and time to help contribute to the development of our school environment.

I recently learnt that the first Fete (2017) was initially set up with the purpose of bringing the community and school together. They certainly met that objective, with approximately 7000 people walking through the gates. It was also nice to catch up with many ex pupils and families.

As this is the last school newsletter for the term (one more week to go), I would like to wish you all a happy and safe break.

Ngā mihi nui

Tracey Riley

Principal / Tumuaki