Kia ora koutou,

Week 4 already! Where is the time going?

Welcome to our RHS Student Interns

This week we've welcomed Student Interns from Rototuna High School (RHS). The RHS students will be working in Rooms 2, 6, 9, 15 and 17 each Wednesday for the remainder of Term 3 as part of their Projects learning. These types of school-community projects are a great way for older students to gain leadership experience and to get a taste of what teaching might be like as a career.  We benefit because we get a bit of extra help in our classrooms. We look forward to seeing Mackenzie, Keizha, Ashleigh, Keira and Kristina each week. They absolutely loved their first day with us. 

Cross Country

The children have been training for our upcoming School Cross Country event, next week on Tuesday (postponement day on Thursday). See the article below for the details about this event. We look forward to a great day of fun and for everyone to try their best. We will finish the day with a full-school colour run. We hope to see lots of spectators on the day. 

Student Feedback

Earlier this week we had the absolute pleasure of meeting with 4-5 students from each class (years 3-6) to survey and interview them about Woodstock School. We asked them what they love about Woodstock, what we do that helps them learn, and asked for any ideas they have for making our school even better.  

Here were their responses about what they love at Woodstock:

The activities they get to do (chess, art club, road patrol, librarian)
Everyone is nice at school.
That we have cool values, lots of celebrations, lots of things to do at lunch time, lots of jobs at lunch time like paper bins and worm bins.
People are always kind and helpful. 
Having great teachers. 
I love the different possibilities for leadership roles.
Sports. It makes me more fitter for cross country.
Kindness, standing up for each other and friends.
It is a cool and fun place to be. 
I really like Maths because it is a cool way to learn - working with a buddy.
Tuakana Teina.
Pool, Secret Garden, Values and Playgrounds.
Playboxes - I think it was a good idea for the school to get those.
Learning is easier to understand than my old school. Nicer people here, students and teachers.
The teachers are really nice. There are lots of kind kids at school. 
Playing sports at the weekend. 
Singing assembly. 
Sports days and events. 
Maths club
Mindfulness in class time because you can lie down and relax.
There are lots of nice grown ups at this school. There is a lot of cool stuff to learn and I like that. 

Suggestions for improving Woodstock:

Have daily games in class and get more chill activities like chess club.
Have speed bumps outside of Woodstock. It would be great to have a cafeteria for people who do not have lunch money or morning tea. We could have some more sports gear. 
Have one big playground for year 0-6 so they could all play together. 
Always smile and bring your lunch box. The be person you want to be. 
Rebuild or repaint the PE shed so the people working in the PE shed have a better time in there because at the moment it is kind of sad (and please fix the lights). Spelling; I believe there should be a separate group for the people who find spelling easier. 
An arcade room.
Tennis courts. One more value - kaitiakitanga. Have nicknames for students. 
A canteen and a place for seniors to be away from juniors.
Less people being mean.
Full court basketball court. Bigger football goals. More student vs. teachers football games. 
More and better sports gear. 
People focusing and learning more/better. 
More girls because there are a lot of boys here. 
A bike/scooter track around the field. 
For people to let others join in. 
People get silly and sometimes swear so maybe we should speak nicely to others. 
Grow more plans and have nature stuff. 
More free time and singing assemblies. 
Make school longer so we can learn more. More learning to help us learn more. 
None. It is already too perfect!

From our interviews we were able to dig a little deeper to find out what helps our Woodstockers learn. Things like 'using my name in problems' and having the classroom quieter were examples of things that came up. Some students also talked about how they find it helpful when they get the Spelling or Maths at their level, not too hard but also not too easy. Across the board the most common feedback was how much they love their teachers! We agree, that it is great teachers and support staff who make make all the difference for our learners. 

Have a great week everyone. 

Ngā mihi, Paula